Gov. Chris Gregoire will not call a special session of the Legislature despite a budget deficit likely to exceed $2 billion after Thursday's state revenue forecast. Republican Sen. Joe Zarelli, ranking member on the Senate Ways and Means Committee, has been calling for a special session for months.
Zarelli issued this statement in a press release last week: "The Legislature doesn’t have to sit back and wait for the governor to bring out her budget proposal next month. We can call ourselves into special session in early December, when we’re already scheduled to be at the Capitol. The budget writers already know where they can reduce spending; the sooner we act, the more can be saved to preserve important programs which otherwise would be subject to slashing later."
Zarelli continued, "The alternative to spending reductions is tax hikes. The majority party won’t come out and say it is planning to fill the budget gap through higher taxes, but if the taxpayers don’t see quick action in Olympia to lower spending, they will see something else: the writing on the wall that tax increases are coming in 2010, even though people can’t afford higher taxes.”
According to a Tuesday story The Olympian , the governor has no plans to call a special session and instead will wait to take action next year:
"Gov. Chris Gregoire rejected new Republican calls for a special legislative session in early December to deal with the growing budget shortfall, despite her prediction it might hit $2.5 billion after Thursday's revenue forecast."
"This is not something you do overnight," she told The Olympian. "It’s something you do thoughtfully." Gregoire argued, the paper said, that special sessions would cost money and that budget-writers in the Legislature haven't reviewed the budget in depth and don’t want to do anything piecemeal.
State law prohibits a cash deficit from occurring by requiring the Governor to take action. Here is what RCW 43.88.110(7) says:
"If at any time during the fiscal period the governor projects a cash deficit in a particular fund or account as defined by RCW 43.88.050, the governor shall make across-the-board reductions in allotments for that particular fund or account so as to prevent a cash deficit, unless the legislature has directed the liquidation of the cash deficit over one or more fiscal periods . . ."
Since the governor has not ordered across-the-board reductions as required by law and will not call a special session to address the $2 billion plus deficit, she should veto any bills passed by the Legislature until the budget deficit is resolved.
Delay only exacerbates the budget problem and makes the needed corrections more difficult. If there isn't the will to fix the problem now, the governor and lawmakers must commit to fix the problem at the beginning of the session versus waiting until the waning days.
Tax increases, however, should be removed from the table as an option to help remove any distractions from making the necessary budget reductions.
As noted by these economists , the worst time to raise taxes is during a recession or fledgling recovery.
It appears that at least one Democrat member of the House Ways and Means Committee recognizes this. From The Everett Herald :
Rep. Mark Ericks, D-Bothell, who is vice chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said the Legislature tried to “spread the pain” last year by paring a little from everywhere. Now they must look at mothballing entire programs.
“From my perspective, that is what we have to do,” he said. “That won’t make some people happy but that is what is ahead for us.”
No one’s talked to Ericks about hiking taxes. Nor does he think it’s a panacea.
“Where’s that tax that people would raise that would temporarily increase our revenue to get us over the hump? I don’t see it,” he said. “The whole issue about the tax is a red herring.”
Jason Mercier is the director of the Center for Government Reform at the Washington Policy Center. He serves on the Executive Committee of the American Legislative Exchange Council's Tax and Fiscal Policy Task Force and is a contributing editor of the Heartland Institute's Budget & Tax News. Mercier also serves as treasurer on the board of the Washington Coalition for Open Government and was an adviser to the 2002 Washington State Tax Structure Committee.
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