Governor Chris Gregoire’s lips were certainly moving during her annual State of the State speech on January 11, but the words coming out of her mouth sounded exactly like those of right-wing initiative peddler Tim Eyman.
“Voters are out ahead in understanding the need for change,” Gregoire told a joint session of the state legislature. She was praising the public for voting Eyman’s way this past fall on a slew of initiatives that have put the state in a fiscal straitjacket as it tries to deal with a $4.6 billion budget shortfall.
Gregoire, keep in mind, is a Democrat with political capital to burn in what is widely expected to be her last term in office. So why is she responding to this budget crisis by calling for the end of state programs like Basic Health and Disability Lifeline (to the delight of conservatives) and standing before Democratic majorities in the legislature and regurgitating (also to the delight of conservatives) the talking points of a conservative folk hero?
After all, recent history shows that Eyman is plainly her political nemesis. Last year, Eyman and Gregoire clashed over a two-cents-a-can tax on soda that Gregoire helped push through the state legislature. It would have brought the state $34 million this year, except that an Eyman-friendly initiative repealed Gregoire’s soda tax in November with 60 percent voter support. Gregoire also supported Bill Gates Sr.’s Initiative 1098 last year. It would have laid an income tax on Washington’s wealthiest citizens and could have erased much—if not all—of that $4.6 billion shortfall that Gregoire is now struggling to deal with. Except that Eyman opposed the income tax measure, and 64 percent of voters went with him at the polls.
That’s not all: Gregoire also fought against Eyman’s Initiative 1053, which sought to reinstitute a two-thirds-majority requirement in the state legislature for any revenue increases. She lost that battle, too.
Tough year, but no one said politics is easy. What’s bizarre is Gregoire’s current response: abandon political beliefs that she held quite strongly just a few months ago, and instead push forward this year with an “immoral” budget proposal (her word) that’s virtually all cuts.
“She’s recognizing what the majority of Washingtonians told her,” says Gregoire spokesperson Karina Shagren, explaining Gregoire’s embrace of Eyman economics. “And that is: Do this with no new revenue. We’re taxed out.”
We’re taxed out. Again: Who does that sound like? (Eyman didn’t respond to a request for an interview about his influence on Gregoire’s budget proposals.)
“Reality,” Shagren continues, “is that while she could certainly come out and push the legislature to come up with new sources of revenue, I think some would say: ‘This is just a big waste of time because this is never going to happen.'”
Of course, what helps to guarantee that it’s absolutely, positively, never ever going to happen is Gregoire’s declaration that the idea of raising new revenue is dead on arrival. She could have stood up there during her State of the State speech and pushed for the kind of “bold reform” she really believes in—even if only to draw fire (instead of applause) from conservatives, and thereby give Democratic lawmakers cover to propose somewhat less bold, but still helpful, reforms. And reforms are, in fact, still possible. A respected Washington pollster recently found that 58 percent of Washington voters would now support a high-earners income tax, provided it came with a constitutional guarantee that it wouldn’t be extended to people at lower incomes. Instead, Gregoire said an all-cuts budget is the only way to go.
Another odd thing about Gregoire’s State of the State speech: her fixation on the year 1935 as an object lesson in how this year’s budget should be handled.
Gregoire told lawmakers:
If the legislature in 1935—in the midst of the Great Depression—could enact landmark change that has lasted for 80 years, then we, today, can also transform Washington State government to better serve our people for the next 80 years. Now is the time to challenge the status quo.
Problem is, Gregoire isn’t attempting to “challenge the status quo” one bit. Instead, she’s bowing before it.
By contrast, in 1935, lawmakers and then-governor Clarence Martin overhauled the state’s entire tax system in response to a money crisis that was inarguably more severe than this one. Their overhaul was far from perfect. It gave us our regressive overreliance on a statewide sales tax that now, 80 years later, needs serious reform. But the point is this: What happened in 1935 was inarguably “bold reform” and “landmark change,” and what Gregoire is proposing this year is neither.
Why?
“You have to accept reality,” said Gregoire spokesperson Shagren.
Reality, according to Gregoire: Eyman’s in charge now. 
She could always make a point and veto every tax exemption that doesn’t have a 2/3 majority.
But that would take guts.
Eyman is a cancer.
Eli, you guys should force everyone’s posting avatar to change into Eyman’s face for a day in honor of him.
Wonder why you couldn’t get a single quote from any legislator asking her to provide cover?
Maybe it’s because this IS her providing cover. They ask for hands off, they got it. Now look to them.
I get that you don’t like her for your tunnel and whatnot, but just because it’s less expensive for you to cover only her doesn’t mean it’s right. Spend some time with the legislature, son.
good point, gg – but that involves them dealing with hundreds of people and staff. The Governor is always around, even when the Leg isn’t in session.
The question isn’t Should we balance the budget – it’s Why are subsidizing the people (corporations and Eastern Washington) that we are with the limited resources we have.
Will @1: You are aware, aren’t you, that existing tax exemptions don’t re-cross the governor’s desk every year? It’s not like she can say: “You know that Boeing tax exemption that became law 5 years ago? I now retroactively veto it.” I am not aware of any new tax exemptions progressing toward her desk this year.
Well, I have a new image to think of when I’m trying not to ejaculate.
The problem with “new” sources of revenue is that it is snake oil to the working middle class. This type of government growing can not go on while those fortunate to still have a job continue to have wages reduced, working time reduced and the governments health care law add costs to their health care expenses.
What is needed is smaller, less intrusive government that doesn’t lose its budget by funding illegal immigration. What is happening to Washington is a voter mandated Tea Party and our current Governor, whether she likes it or not, is a bon-a-fide Tea Partier.
Go Queen Christine, cut that budget!
Maybe she’s become a cynic, but she is doing what the majority of voters have directed. She has not become Eyman; the voters have. So let’s see how the voters like living under the Eyman regimen.
Hey you hotshots who think the legislature is a body that will bring innovative sollutions to budget problems, they won’t. I just came back from a lobby day in Oly and the mood is ugly. My Senator told me almost exactly what the gov did, “I’m not the one”. Nobody is going to be the hero who puts tax restructuring on the table because they will be ritualy cut down and used as an example of the tax-n-spend beurocrat.
We will be the next example of that small,less intrusive government that doubles class sizes, relies on vollunteer firefighters and vigilantes to patroll the streets for illegal immagrants. Az here we come.
@10, you’re right, and you are one in a million for going to visit your legislator. On the whole we sit on our asses and deliver our opinions only to each other, then wonder why the legislature’s not sticking its neck out and complain about the governor because at least we know her face and those damn rednecks who voted some Eyman thing or another, because it’s not our fault.
I’m glad you made the effort but sorry for what you learned.
There are people hurting – I still choose to give my time and money voluntarily right here where I live through various organizations that do good works rather regardless of whether or not Olympia forces me to help through their program in the form of ‘taxes’. I challenge those of you who think Mrs. Gregoire is wrong to make cuts to join me and open up your wallet and volunteer your time to help those very people you are concerned about – the truth is that we can do so much more with our personal actions than we could ever accomplish with a bureaucracy.
DAMN, s/he looks GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!
They got’s MY Vote!
@12 I give time and a disproportionately high part of my income to charities that I hope will do some good in easing the pain for those who are hurting, but this isn’t an either/or proposition, and I dispute your claim that private citizens can or will do more than the government can to help. That’s the thing about government of, by, and for the people… It’s the way that we as a society can come together and pool our resources to accomplish things in the public interest that individuals and private organizations just can’t. Instead of thinking of it as something foreign invading the private sector, try thinking of government as a nonprofit organization that we all have a stake and a say in. It’s not free, though. Taxes are how we pick up the tab. I think charities are great things and that they can do a lot of good, but the billions of dollars the state lost in tax revenues because of Eyman initiatives aren’t going to charities, and they’re not going into our economy either. They were stolen from our state’s coffers by people who think their own material possessions are more important than the welfare of the people of our state and it doesn’t help to pretend that that doesn’t matter and that everything will be hunky-dory if we just start giving more to charity.
@7 no shit. I was hoping that image would go away after a few days but now it’s on the top of the page. Grrrrross.
So many levels of issues that contribute to our revenue shortfall. Consider the elephant in the room: the stranglehold the unions have on government (e.g. WEA) and the governors wanton ingratiating of the Indian tribes. Consider that we are all paying more for our health care. That is a matter of life today. Yet, government employees enjoy rich benefits at the expense of our taxes and the programs that are getting cut. Consider: The fat at all level of government should be cut. Poorly managed depts like the DOT must be overhauled, completely. Lawsuit driven layers of middle managers, like diversity directors, need to go away. Cross-sectional dept efficiencies should be explored and implemented if synergies can exist. Pay to play programs to keep facilities open and operating for the public. Parks should charge for use. Toll roads for expensive, over-the-top projects. Audits of government programs that have teeth to change unacceptable programs or even cancel them. We wallow in this political cauldron no one has the courage to climb out of.
Love the photo! And thank goodness SOMEONE is willing to stand up for taxpayers in Olympia. Because the majority party (Democrats) sure aren’t. They are simply interested in making the citizens feel like we work for them and their special interests who fill their campaign coffers. It should be the other way around! Go, Governor Eyman!
THAT image makes guys EJACULATE?!!??!?!
Willful celibacy here I come (no pun intended!), and no, I’m NOT Catholic!
Monterey, are you NUTS?!!!!?
Did you hit your head on a TV monitor while watching FOX “News”?
Those earrings look very familiar, my mom lost a pair that look identical to those modeled by Timmy. I think maybe Timmy has sticky fingers, keep an eye on that guy.
The teabagging will continue until people experience the consequences of their idiotic and immoral actions and desperately turn to their 2nd Amendment Final Solution.
The Idiocracy is now.
I wish I had something nicer to say.
He said teabagging.