true that

There is one legislative candidate willing to support tax reform: http://www.electgregorygadow.com

I'm going to need another Special Session to have revenue part of the negotiations.
Rob McKenna will understand, we need to get the budget right befor he is allowed to start fundraising again.
It's want is best for Washington State, and he must want what is best for the state.

State workers are the popular demon with the republican mouthpiece, the Seattle Times--the Fox news of print.

The implication is that all state employees benefit from the pension program. This isn't the case. Higher ed teaching, administrative and exempt employees are under TIAA-CREF which is a more controlled 401K type plan.

I don't know if in general government everyone has a pension or not. This is clearly not a path to savings so much as it is a political weapon of convenience. Pick on people who did nothing more than apply for a job with a specific salary and specific benefits. They had no choice about union representation. They had no choice about the retirement plan offered. But boy, do they make a handy symbol for people who want to portray these same people as dicks.

The conservative argument, whether it comes from the wimpy Democrats or the Republicans, is that "we can't afford it" and so over the years, every public employee (save coaches and the like) has taken pay cuts, whether they earn $25,000 a year, $50,000 a year and perhaps if they have earned $100,000 a year.

Public universities and colleges aren't even public any more. The democratically controlled legislature has stripped the shit out of each. Higher education isn't the cash cow for the legislature that it used to be. But they still can't look past their short noses for any sort of long range overall reform for the state.

They obviously cannot do the math, they refuse to see the math, and will deny there is math to be done.

The bread and butter of a fat retirement is the number of years worked, if you dedicate 40% of your life to a place, you can get a fat pension, which kind of seems like a decent trade. There are a number of positions that have a maximum monthly wage cap, mine is around $3,700 (I can't find the table right now):

Calculating Your PERS 2 Retirement Benefits
Monthly retirement income = 2% x service credit years x average monthly final compensation

Example
Suppose you retire at age 65 with 32 years of service credit and a monthly average final compensation of $2,000. Your retirement benefit would be $1,280 each month, calculated as follows:
2% x 32 x $2,000 = $1,280

This calculation results in the standard single life benefit. It will be different if you choose to continue benefits to a survivor upon your death.
http://www.washington.edu/admin/hr/benef…

Have you done even one post on HB-2100, a tax on financial assets yet?

No?

Then...stop the hypocrisy.

@8: Actually, you don't know what the fuck you're talking. The metric that most closely tracks growth in demand for public services is growth in the economy. I've explained it before, and I'm working on a more thorough explanation for future publication, but that is a fact.

Even population plus inflation doesn't grow revenues fast enough to provide services at constant level. I know it is simplistically appealing to assume that does. But it doesn't.

@5, not only were you wrong about the 2/3rds requirement to pass a revenue measure, but you assumed that Brad Owens would be more willing than Gregoire to help that kind of legislation. Owens is a DINO.

You know, you're making too much sense.