Editorials Call on Legislators to Control Spending, Limit Taxes

There's no shortage of budget advice for legislative leaders in Olympia.

The News Tribune editorial Sunday outlines a possible path lawmakers can take to get out of town on time. I like this bit describing the governor's approach to taxes.

Gregoire stepped off the curb first, but she wasn’t about to throw herself under the bus. Her $605 million package of targeted tax hikes might have been a screamer last year. In 2010, it’s what passes for restrained.

...Whatever type of tax, lawmakers have yet to prove that they need near what they’re asking. The burden is on the House and Senate to show why they need more.

The Seattle Times thinks the Democrats erred by scrapping the supermajority requirement.

Some of the revenue proposals would have received Republican votes. Putting together a budget would have been a struggle, but the Legislature could have followed the two-thirds rule on taxes.

Now, though, they're looking for a billion dollars in taxes without, as the Times routinely editorializes, without doing some necessary trimming of the state payroll.

In what is supposedly the greatest crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s, the House plan would cut state employment — 97,853 full-time equivalent workers — by 0.2 percent. The Senate plan would cut it by 1.2 percent. Neither proposed budget takes away "step" increases — automatic pay raises for state employees not at the top of the pay scale.

...If the Democratic majority was willing to take on these issues, it would not be putting so many human services on the block in an attempt to raise nearly $1 billion in taxes.

The Yakima Herald-Republic takes a wry view of the mixed messages on tax policy coming from Olympia.

First, the governor wants to slap the hands of those reaching out for a can of sugary soda pop by laying on a sales tax of 5 cents for a 12-ounce can. But, instead of encouraging consumers to quaff something healthful like water, the governor does the opposite and saddles water sippers with an even higher tax -- amounting to 17 cents for a typical bottle.

The Herald-Republic does get it when it comes to "temporary" taxes.

And we should all take note of how lawmakers have linked together the words "temporary" and "taxes." With a simple majority now in force, don't expect this linkage to last for long. Somehow taxes remain in place. It's the temporary part that gets dropped by the wayside.

So does the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin.

The Wenatchee World calls foul on the hidden gas tax.

And in Friday's Puget Sound Business Journal, I wrote that the final days of the session would be a search for the Least Bad Alternative.