After a couple years of perpetual budget crisis, things are only getting worse.
Last week the state announced that reduced revenues would force painful, across-the-board spending cuts, on top of the billions in cuts already endured, and with even more looming in the coming session. And yesterday, both Seattle and King County announced downright gloomy budget proposals, also piling cuts upon cuts with no relief in sight.
Republicans and their surrogates on the editorial boards will tell you that this is a consequence of Democratic spending gone wild… state and local governments that expanded irresponsibly during the fat years, with little thought or planning for the lean; the Seattle Times has even attempted to brand its call for dramatically smaller government “Reset 2010.” But while lean times do dictate leaner state and local government, the truth is that our persistent budget deficits are more the result of a collapse in revenue than profligate spending.
Indeed, by nearly any meaningful measure, Washington’s state and local governments have been steadily shrinking over most of the past two decades, through both boom times and bust. You wouldn’t know it from reading the papers, but state tax revenue as a percentage of the total economy has fallen from 6.6% in 1995 to about 5.5% today, while per capita state spending in IPD-adjusted dollars fell by 10% over the same period.
And those aren’t numbers you can easily dismiss as mere liberal claptrap. Even the conservative Tax Foundation — the same think tank frequently cited by Tim Eyman — reports that our state and local tax burden plunged from 10.4% in 1994 to 8.9% in 2008, dropping Washington from 17th to 35th place nationally in only fifteen short years.
You know… Dems gone wild.
And all that is before the effects of the Great Recession have been fully calculated. Sales tax revenues, on which Washington over-relies for the bulk of its operating budget, plummeted in advance of the economic downturn as anxious consumers slashed spending. And even though this recession officially ended in June of 2009, and the economy has been growing, if modestly, ever since, tax revenues continue to decline.
How is all this possible? Simple math. No state relies on the sales tax as much as we do, and yet in our post-industrial, service/information economy, the sale of taxable goods represents an ever shrinking portion of our state economy… and with it, so does the government.
In other words, what we have is a long term structural revenue deficit that virtually assures that Republicans will achieve by default the “small government” agenda they’ve consistently failed to sell at the polls. You know, if we continue to do nothing to fix our tax system.
I’ve long argued that there is a legitimate public debate to be had over the proper size and scope of government, and it’s a debate I don’t fear, because I firmly believe that a majority of the arguments and the voters are on my side. But it’s a debate that we’ll never have unless and until our mainstream media puts aside its simplistic coverage of budgetary issues and starts educating itself, let alone the public.
Otherwise, as these recent budget announcements have shown, we’re going to gradually get that small government dystopia, whether we want it or not.
I know!
Let’s save money by building a tunnel we don’t need and can’t afford and make sure it has half the freight capacity of the other two alternatives!
Right?
our local mainstream media consists of 1 paper, and its editorial policy is controlled by 1 man. he has no wish to educate himself further because, as a republican, he has no need for facts that are not about keeping his money.
channels 4, 5, 7, & 13 have probably not uttered the word ‘budget’ in a live broadcast in 20 years. they’ll never have that debate.
Welcome to Mississippi.
If Will was able to read he would have noticed that the whole point of this article is that the crisis isn’t spending-related. Will is really just a louder Tim Eyman in disguise.
The no-tax crowd is winning, whatever happens to Eyman’s initiatives, and our city and county and state are falling apart as a result. I really think monopoly media interests get along just fine in states like Mississippi.
Goldy, you fuckin’ Cassandra. Thanks for posting this.
I grew up in the States, lived in Washington State 2004 – 2008, and now I’ve immigrated to Australia. Australians pay A LOT of tax, nearly 50% of our income. And you know what, IT”S OK.
The government provides all kinds of services, and manages them rather well (health care, public transport, welfare, corporate regulation, a high-production value public broadcasting system, and many more things).
Services cost money, therefore if you want services you must pay for them. The US Democrats, unfortunately, are absolutely lousy at explaining that services cost money so spending money on services is OK, and that the Democrats will do the best job at getting value for money.
I think that the people of the USA will continue to pay low taxes (relative to other wealthy Western nations), continue to receive reduced services (because the government has insufficient funds), and the government will cease to function from the top, down. Local groups of people will learn to take care of themselves. And a few hundred years from now your decedents will look around at the crumbled infrastructure and wonder what the fuck happened.
@2 is correct, and @3 just hates paying for Red Light tickets and other user fees for his car-based lifestyle choices.
@5 is the most insightful though. Canada’s economy is doing great while we continue our downward slide, arguing over how much more in tax cuts we’re going to give the ultra-rich to export our jobs overseas.
@5, you didn’t need to put “hundred” in there. Our infrastructure is already falling apart.
“29% of Washington’s bridges are structurally deficient or functionally obsolete […] there are 145 high hazard dams in Washington […] 33% of Washington’s major roads are in poor or mediocre condition […] Washington’s drinking water infrastructure needs an investment of $6.67 billion […] has $3.75 billion in wastewater infrastructure needs”.
It’s called “starving the beast,” and honest Republicans have acknowledged this strategy for years. It’s part of Management By Crisis, where leaders deliberately precipitate crises and then claim their hands are tied as they proceed to do what they wanted to do all along. Of course the urgency of the situation means there is no time for debate; action must be taken at once!
This is how we’re edging towards our status as a third world country, one easily foreseeable crisis at a time.
In order to get fair taxation, you have to change the state constitution’s restrictions on property taxes.
Income taxes only tax the productive up and comer.
Property taxes tax the true user of Government services.
LOL. Good one @10.
Sadly @9, I think there may be a disturbingly large number of “Murkins out there who would actually be quite happy if the U.S. devolved into a “third world nation”. If the infrastructure and command-and-control mechanisms of modern society were to crumble into uselessness tomorrow, that would just mean less chance some gubbamint do-gooder will be coming around their little fiefdom to impose all those socialistical civil rights, workplace safety regulations, consumer protections, et al.
My greatest fear is simply that there are a lot of people in this country who wouldn’t mind in the least if we slid back into being a continent full of small, isolated pre-industrial agrarian hegemonies, like something out of “Things To Come”, wherein they envision themselves as the “big boss” over a bunch of semi-literate serfs whom they can intimidate into submission.
Seriously, I honestly believe that, in the minds of many of our fellow citizens THIS scenario constitutes “the American Dream”.
#11 seems to forget the definition of “Producer.”
Can #11 please tell me what the upper 10% actually produce? What do they create? What product do they craft, build, or manufacture?