Reforming State Government ... Much Too Slowly

Yesterday, the Columbian editorial board objected to the Legislature's "two legged stool" approach to budgeting.

The governor and legislators are moving toward further infuriating both camps as they ponder both tax increases and service cuts. They see this two-legged stool as the only way to close a $2.8 billion budget gap, oblivious to every stool’s requirement of a minimum three legs.

Why do they keep focusing on two legs while paying virtually no attention to the third strategy: reforming state government overall?

The Olympian today tackles the reform question in  an extended editorial.

Paring back the size of government is proving to be more challenging than imagined.

... It’s clear that there is no political will to pursue substantive government reform efforts.

They applaud Sen. Jim Kastama's plan

The Puyallup Democrat says a panel of elder statesmen should be convened to make recommendations for government reform that lawmakers must either vote up or down — without changes. Kastama’s proposal is modeled after the Pentagon’s base-closing commission which has taken the politics out of difficult base-closing decisions across the country.

I'm not sure about it, but it's clear things aren't working now.

AWB president Don Brunell reflects on the Olympian editorial here.

Government must innovate, change and cost less.  The rest of the world makes that clear to us each and every day when they, for example,  build factories faster and with less expense to provide newer, cheaper and better products that American use every day. Change is painful, as businesses on Main Street, corporations like Boeing, and working families are learning.