2006 COMMENTARY

February 17, 2006

“Deficit” spending is not fiscal discipline

You've probably heard that the Senate's supplemental budget leaves approximately $950 million in various reserve accounts. Epitome of fiscal discipline, right?

Not even close.

Let's pretend the state's budget is your own personal family budget. Just like you, the state has a salary (revenue forecast) and savings accounts for various purposes. When building your own personal budget, if you're prudent, you base your ongoing expenses on your salary, not all the possible money you can raid from your savings account. Then you prioritize all those things you need and want within your salary. You may even allocate a portion of it to save for a rainy day.

Now let's compare this with the state.

The state's "salary" for this biennium is just over $26.4 billion. The Senate's supplemental budget, however, spends more than $26.5 billion (not counting $700 million of deposits into other state accounts). Don't know about you, but if my family budget was unbalanced by more than $100 million, I wouldn't be patting myself on the back.

In fact, if you had to borrow money from your savings account to make up for the difference between your salary and your expenses, you would probably say you were deficit spending. The same can be said for the state.

Just because the Senate supplemental shows a positive number in the state's "savings" accounts doesn't mean it's fiscally responsible or even sustainable for that matter. If the Senate really wanted the accolades of taxpayers, it should have limited spending to the state's revenue forecast and grow the state's reserves to the recommended five percent. That would create an emergency reserve of more than $1.3 billion to address the next earthquake or volcanic eruption.

Another thing to keep in mind concerning the Senate's supplemental budget is its complete disregard for the people's I-601 spending limit. Including last session's I-601 shenanigans, the Senate budget artificially increases the spending limit by more than $2 billion from the biennium's original limit.

It's past time for lawmakers to stop playing budget games and refrain from deficit spending. Living within both the state's revenue forecast and the people's spending limit would be real fiscal discipline. It would also be worthy of taxpayer praise for a job well done. It's now up to the House to right the state's fiscal course.

Additional Information
EFF Balance Sheet for Senate Supplemental Budget
EFF Statement regarding the budget passed today by the State Senate

Senate Supplemental Spending Priorities (as of 2/15)?

  • $50,498,000 for WorkFirst funding shortfall (a task force made recommendations to close this shortfall without additional spending but they were not implemented);

  • $10,000,000 for minor league baseball stadium renovations;

  • $6,722,000 for children of illegal aliens' health care costs;

  • $3,980,000 to help students set goals;

  • $3,390,000 for high school math remediation;

  • $1,600,000 for Boeing employee training center;

  • $250,000 for Pacific Science Center Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition;

  • $250,000 to provide comprehensive cultural competence and anti-bias education;

  • $200,000 to inventory and categorize greenhouse gas emissions;

  • $157,000 for implementing the requirements of the state's Boeing contract;

  • $150,000 for Enumclaw loggers monument;

  • $100,000 for marketing of United States figure skating championships in Spokane;

  • $96,000 for a state birding trail;

  • $90,000 for grizzly bear education project;

  • $25,000 for Korean Cultural Festival in Federal Way;

  • $25,000 for survey of Filipino-American WWII veterans residing in the state; and

  • $5,000 for Tacoma's International Music Festival.

+ Send EFF your comments

  Send this Article to a Friend