January 08, 2007
What should Mrs. Gregoire cut?
Mrs. Gregoire is angrily defending her fiscally reckless budget, Austin Jenkins reports:
If you want to see [Mrs.] Gregoire get angry - just suggest that her 30-billion dollar budget spends too much and saves too little. And then get out of the way.
Gregoire: "So for those who think we should spend less. I say great, tell me where you want to cut, my door is open, let's talk about it. But don't take it out of education."
For starters she could cut pay raises for state workers,
industrial boondoggles,
public campaign subsidies and her
European tours; She could also
privatize liquor stores. And is every dollar spent on "education", truly well-spent? See:
Evergreen State College Terrorist Training Camp and "
outdoor education". Suggestions, please: What should Mrs. Gregoire cut?
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at January 08, 2007
10:50 AM | Email This
1. So Evergreen has a small scholarship named after a student there who died. All schools have these, most are funded by friends and family of the deceased.
2. We had outdoor Ed. When I was a student in Washington's public schools, it served as a great way to tie together science, lit. PE and math. Plus, I learned to love the outdoors, which has done me more good than trigonometry ever did.
3. And is every dollar spent on "education", truly well-spent?
Uh, no. How about cutting in-state tuition for children of illegals?
4. For that matter how about cut all spending on illegals period.
5. Bus service on every route that fails to have 20% of capacity.
Not 'wipe the route out', just 'skip one bus'. Unless, of course, you still don't reach 20%.
6. What, a Democrat's actions don't agree with their promises? Does it matter if people don't hold them accountable for their lies and hypocrisy?
Don't worry Gregoire supporters, the Times and PI will do their best to portray her tax and spend policies and responsible and the tough choices just in case anyone is actually paying attention.
7. Speaking of llegals I'm still trying to figure out a company with 1,282 of them working for it can avoid having a single current or former manager face charges.
Maybe it's all the cash the meat packers throw to the Republican Party?
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/01/05/ap/national/mainD8MFAK700.shtml
8. "Me": stay on topic.
9. Ok - how about making your Car licenses renewable every two years instead of once a year. The cost should be $60.00 instead of $30.00. That would save on on overhead.
10. Gregoire should cut transportation funding for mass transit boondoggles that serve very few of WA citizens yet cost billions.
11. Hey "me", you wonder how come no manager is facing charges? Did you bother to read the
news about them being part of a federal program to verify social security numbers?
"Last week's raid on Swift & Co. could have been prevented -- at least esoterically. After all, the company did check identification based on the federal I-9 forms, which allow employees to present two of a possible 27 different documents to prove their identity. The only requirement on employers' part is to check off the forms presented.
Since 1999, however, Swift & Co. went a little further by participating in the Basic Pilot program, which was created in 1997. Basic Pilot cross-checks employees' Social Security numbers with their birth dates and other personal information, delivering results of those checks in minutes.
The Basic Pilot program, however, was not designed with today's criminals in mind. It was designed to target document fraud, and in that, it works quite well. But officials seem to have paid little attention to the Basic Pilot program, giving would-be criminals enough time to figure out how to dupe it. It's easy: Just steal someone's identity and all the information in the world should check through the system just fine. The program as designed cannot detect when there are multiple uses of Social Security numbers."
Or how about this article or this one?
12. She could start by cutting her staff. Then eliminate all those increases, oops, investments.
I agree with Ron Judd about Queen Chrissie, she's a doo-er.
13. ItTakesAVillageToConveneAGrandJury: please stop feeding the off-topic trolls. thanks
14. Perhaps Queen Christine could actually walk to work instead of driving the block to work like she does now.
15. Hey Sillyguy #9, Knock it off with the common sense. This is The Soviet Of Washington, and we don't need any of that here.
I have heard that the State donates so much to, the Mariners, WSU ect. from each vanity plate, that they actually lose money on each one. If anyone knows the facts, please pass on the information
16. Gregoire could maybe start with the millions Sam Reed wants to spend for a "home" for the Washington State Constitution on the Capitol Campus. Oh, and for new offices for him and his staff.
Then Chris could start asking herself whether spending more money on education--and rewarding her friends in the teachers' unions--is really the answer to improving learning. Lots of studies show that there's no real correlation between outcomes and per-student spending. But Chris ignored that by hijacking the Washington Learns Taskforce and turning it into a vehicle for her "seamless education" porkbarrel scheme.
My suggestion to Chris and policymakers in this state: Get the Legislature out of the business of propping up failed school districts. Go back to the days when districts had to go to the voters with their hats in their hands and justify the spending choices they made. As it now stands, no one knows who's accountable. Districts have local control over curriculum while the state foots the bill--and the unions control it it all from behind the scenes.
No, Chris, the very first thing we must do is slash state spending on public education.
17. I agree - cut all benefits to illegal aliens (except for [truely] emergency medical). Require proof of citizenship or legal residency before school registration (I'll bet seattle would be able to close at least 1 additional school). Same for welfare or (again non-emergency) medical.
And someone already mentioned in-state tuition for illegal aliens.
18. How about we get the DOT projects all entered into one computer system, which can be easily checked by counties and cities before they start new road work? In the Bothell/Lynnwood area there were several state highways which were all re-paved just last summer, even though they weren't in bad shape. And now, to add insult to injury, the state is coming through and tearing the same roads up to add a center turn lane...so all the millions spent last year were totally wasted. If I were cynical, I would think that the transportation budget was a nice way to repay top campaign contributors and keep jobs coming for state workers!
19. The best value I ever got out of a car, was when I bought it new, and ran it until the wheels fell off (so to speak). The state has a motor pool for maintaining their cars. So, why do they dump them after a few years? I know it's not sexy, but we could save millions each year.
20. Privatizing liquor stores, however worthy an idea, doesn't save much General Fund money, because it's mostly an enterprise activity, meaning that it is supported almost entirely by the money generated by its commercial activities. Less than 2% of total funds for the Liquor Control Board in this biennium comes from the General Fund; the rest is from a revolving account. While there may be good reasons to get the state out of the retail liquor business, cutting the budget is not one of them, because the savings you get are slight.
21. cut all benefits to illegals. start phasing out Tribal tax perks. dump the B&O tax. no more intl. or excessive state travel--use sattelite links for meetings, etc. performance audits & implement findings or you are fired.
when did spending morph into "investments?" then--what's saving, on-budget or prudent spending now called in pc doublespeak? "hoarding?" "or (the state) having 'excess profits?'"
22. stu: Does that cost analysis cover the ongoing public pension liabilities for Liquor Control Board employees?
23.
DJ,
Exellent idea. Reed is nothing but a chair warmer anyway, and since when did the State Constitution become so important to Democrats?
NWD
24. Truesoldier, Queen Christine has a Washington State Highway Patrolman drive her the 50 yards to work each morning. Figuring the cost of the patrol car, the patrolman's time and the overall distance covered, the cost per mile for her commute is astonishing.
25. While I agerr with most everyone at Evergreen "gaining a better understanding of the Middle East," let's just say I am sceptical that this really is the purpose here.
26. The Queen is setting the stage and context so that anyone who opposes the out of control spending is accused of taking money away from education. Sound familiar? But then, it's all for the children, isn't it? My sister is coordinating a seminar for Olympia on Wednesday to discuss the problems Fetal Alcohol Syndrome kids face within the educational system, suggestions on how to better deal with them, etc. Invited all legislators. Received a reply back from ONE STATE LEGISLATOR, whose only words were, "Will any of my constituents be there?" Kind of says a lot about their mantra "it's for the children", doesn't it?
27. For starters, the state could just maintain ALL state budgets at the current level. If state employees (including education) want a salary increase, then they would have to find cuts in other areas of their budget or request it directly from taxpayers. It's a well-known fact among state budget analyests that the budget for almost every conceivable department is bloated by about 15%.
Secondly, I support cuts in the pseudo-governor's budget for every category, including security. Since when does a governor of a small state like Washington need the security that surrounds a President or Vice-President? I think security advisors have gone overboard & because the governors like the perks such as drivers, go-fers on trips, etc. it's never questioned.
Put out to competitive bid any job that can be done by private industry, such as janitorial service, printing, transportation, liquor sales, insurance, licensing, park maintenance,etc. Why should state employees with their bloated salaries, perks & pensions be involved in any of those activities?
That's just for starters!
28. Lots of great suggestions, especially those that would cut handouts to illegals. Maybe someone can summarize them and forward them on to Mrs. Gregoire.
29. Cut- printed newsletters for the legislature to send out.
As suggested earlier, Optimize the car tab duration to two years (like Oregon).
Cut- printed mailings from all agencies by 25%.
Cut/Add- If they cut 10% of non class room personel from schools and spent the additional cash on vouchers for private schools- I'd consider it a step in the right direction.
Cut- Rainy Day fund- this should be going directly back to the pension short fall.
Cut- Union payback on apprentice program which drove our high way costs through the roof.
Cut- All non volume traffic flow projects until the promised congestion projects promised on the gas tax get completed.
Cut- WASL spending until they waive the requirement for kids who perform well enough on the SATs to go on to secondary education
ADD- tracking of SAT performance as a key metric for school performance....why this hasn't been done, I don't know.
CUT- Bioscience boondoggle from tobacco money- infuse that cash into sports programs/parks.
30. Cutting WAY back on the # of pr consultants, "spokespeople," etc. that the Washington state government employs would be helpful.
These people are being employed as lobbyists on behalf of the state and paid for with our tax dollars.
31. CUT- free health insurance for children- when the family's income is higher than 50k.
Don't make me pay for your choice to let your kid go w/out insurance when you can afford it.
32. For starters, when she asks for increases in state employee, teacher pay raises as COLAs, the state constantly uses the wrong numbers. They always fail to back out the amount of inflation that is due to health care increases. Why is this important, it's because they already pay for the health care increases. Some years that amount can be a full 30% of the total increases.
33. All state employees should have a pay cut. If you want a pay raise, get a real job in the private sector that contributes to the economy. Private sector companies that are successful generate wealth that can fund pay raises, profits, dividends, etc. State employees are simply a burden on us all. We need to create an environment where being employed by the state is known to be a career dead end with low pay compared to the private sector.
34. very simple...85% of DSHS's budget goes to administrative costs...Why not cut half the department?
35. 22. stu: Does that cost analysis cover the ongoing public pension liabilities for Liquor Control Board employees?
Yes. Pension funding costs are allotted to the individual agencies. In this case almost all the charge is to the Liquor Control Revolving Account, which supports almost all LCB staff. (Case in point: The governor's budget assumes $279K in pension savings in LCB from her proposal to eliminate gain-sharing and make certain other changes in benefits. Only $4K of those savings are to the General Fund.)
36. Cut all aid to illegals (including in-state tuition rates) except for bonofide will-die-in-the-next-5-minutes medical emergencies.
Kick all able-bodied competent single adults with no dependents off welfare.
For other welfare recipients, limit total aid to three years lifetime. After that the recipients must show they are working at least 20 hours per week at a W-2 job to continue getting assistance for any minor children in the household. Must prove eligibility every year.
Only allow people who are not eligible for medical insurance through their place of employment on the state basic health plan. This would take care of the "Wal-Mart problem".
Any major state contracts (ex. roads) must show real cost analysis not "we think it might cost this". Also, all revenue sources must be confirmed so that any contract is fully funded before implementation.
Get rid of the prevailing wage stipulation.
No more funding of sports stadiums. If owners can pay their players millions in annual salaries, they can come up with the money for a stadium.
Have each major state department cut staff by 10% and have a wage freeze for the next biennium.
Stop buying Lincoln Navigators.
Cut the state education budget 10% for each year that 90% of the state's students do not pass the WASL with 70% or better.
37. Gregoire reportedly said, "tell me where you want to cut."
This is a typical dodge from people who have no intention to do anything other than increase spending.
They have the authority, information and responsibility to produce a reasonable budget; but they claim to want someone else to come in and tell them how to do the job.
Someone else, of course, has neither the authority, information nor responsibility to do the job.
Duly elected or not, Gregoire has the job. She needs to do it.
38. Burdabee wrote,"Cut all aid to illegals (including in-state tuition rates) except for bonofide will-die-in-the-next-5-minutes medical emergencies."
You forgot to add and then report them to ICE as soon as they are stable.
39. Please remember folks...this is Queen Gregforhire proposed Budget... wait until the truly left wack- jobs like Prentice get a hold of the Budget. We may get a budget that makes a $4 billion increase seem reasonable!!!
40. Peter-
For every dollar DSHS spends on "adminstrative overhead" for collecting child support they get 30 cents (could be larger, but this is the magnitude).
That's why they are so eager to have each and every child support dollar paid- go through their system. With 40% of all kids being born out of wedlock- this is a bananza industry for them.
41. - the 30 cents comes from the fed- thanks to the 94 welfare reform act...
This is a layer of evil that most of us barely fathom (except those who experience it first hand) and is deeply rooted in family courts.
42. Her wrists
43. She should cut the $50,000 a year job she gave her husband!!!!!!
44. What should Gregoire cut?
Her annual salary.
45. ..and stop paying WA state troopers to watch her dog.
She could also walk to work.
46. No benefits to illegals. No new programs until the state pension fund is 100% funded.
47. I like Sam Reed's idea of a shrine to the Washington Constitution.
I would rather have a state supreme court and court of appeals that actually ENFORCES the Washington Constitution.
That would solve the child support problem!
Parents who never did anything wrong could not be denied at least shared parenting, which would eliminate the need for a child support order!
Most of the statutory scheme would disappear because it is either created by multi-subject bills, constitutes bills of attainder against divorced fathers, including already divorced fathers, suspending licenses for child support violates the already well settled law (except for six justices or our state supreme court and the rest of our bigoted judiciary who don't believe in any rule of precedent that gets in the way of destroying the noncustodial fathers) that a license shall not be suspended for matters that have nothing to do with the activities licensed, and the imprisonment for debt provision would be respected by judges who believe that what the state constitution says is and what it says not is not.
Now if we had judges like that, we would have a much smaller state budget, as the state would not be allowed to do so many of the things it does.
With fathers who do not voluntarily abandon their families not being kicked out of their families, the welfare and public assistance budget could be much smaller.
Oh and by the way, I seriously doubt that the gentlemen who framed the Washington Constitution in 1889 thought that the word "emergency" would include a BASEBALL team threatening to leave town!
48. Disband the Legislature and turn lawmaking duties over to the WEA and the other state-employee unions. They're running the state anyway, so we might as well make it official.
49. How about the 1% of public works projects going to art. We need $250K worth of salmon mounted on the new I-90 bus ramp like we need a whole in the head. Please don't offer up the starving artist defense! You spend on luxury only after basic needs are met.
How about dropping the notion that schools should pay state sales tax on everything they buy or build. Get that money out of the budget cycle completely
50. Cap non-police State Employment at ten years for any one stint with a two year waiting period to be rehired. This would turn out the entrenched state employee unions and bring in private expertise every few years into bloated departments...
51. Cardio, we need that art to play our travel game, Colossal Waste Of Money. My kids are already trained to seek out and identify such art projects.
52. I don't see an problem with those expenditures that Stefan is complaining about. I see them as a good investment. Especially the bio-diesel plant.