Public radio conducted a poll that discovered Washington voters are angry—downright irate—that the legislature wants to raise taxes instead of "cutting the fat" from the state budget. From the NPR story:
A new poll by Portland-based DHM Research shows a near two-thirds of respondents - 64-percent - do not agree with the decision by majority Democrats in Olympia to suspend the two-thirds obstacle to raising taxes. ...Roy Goninan participated in the survey. He's a stay-at-home dad in Spanaway, Washington who makes four-wheel bicycles out of PVC pipe for kids with seizure disorders. He's furious at lawmakers and the governor for undoing the voter-approved two-thirds requirement.
If you'd asked him a few years ago about Washington state government, he would have said they're "trying" down in Olympia. Not anymore. He thinks Democrats are defaulting to taxes too quickly and haven't done enough to cut the fat out of state government.
The poll found that the funding priority of people in Washington is, in this order, "public education, public safety, employment and training programs, health and mental health, children's services and state highways." So you gotta wonder—the same question Olympia lawmakers are asking themselves—what "fat" from these priorities should the state cut? We're not in a budget crisis because we're spending more. Lawmakers cut $9 billion last year. This year, the governor wants to fill only one-quarter of the budget gap with new taxes and cut another billion dollars. The state is on a diet, it's emaciated—it's practically on life support—not fat.
