STATE BUDGET PROBLEM

researched by Karl Spees, Pres CAPR 13

Interesting and Distirbing

Johnathan Bechtle is the President of the Freedom Foundation previously called the Evergreen Freedom Foundation. It is a very worthwhile group that you should consider joining and supporting. They are the adults in the room that analyze the Washington State Budgets and make prudent recommendations.

The Washington State Dept. of Ecology (DoE) is the unelected State-agency/surrogate of the Democrat party that is a huge overreaching parasitic drain of our precious public resources and threatenting our rights and economic beneficial use of private property. An annual budget of $10,000,000 should be more than enough to allow us to remember how poorly they represent the State's citizens best interests. Can anyone objectively define a State benefit of this Dept./Agency?

Our state’s “budget problem” DOE's budget = ONE BILLIION of YOUR TAX DOLLARS ~ for what?

by Johnathan Bechtle - president of the Freedom Foundation

It seems pretty clear that going from a $60.5 billion budget for 2005-2007 to a $72.3 billion budget for 2011-2012 does not equal a $10 billion cut. But the Governor seems to think it does, citing the figure as proof that government had cut enough already, necessitating a tax increase.

It seems equally clear that when you need to make spending cuts, you don’t start with the most valuable services first. So why did the Governor suggest cutting school days and releasing sex offenders unless voters agree to raise taxes while allowing non-essential agencies like the Department of Ecology to keep a ten percent budget increase? Even the Seattle Times called that blackmail and backwards thinking..

It’s easy to get confused when all the complex numbers start flying around. But, I like to remember what the famous economist Art Laffer once said: “If an economic idea doesn’t work on a small scale, then it won’t work on a large scale.” If there are only two people on earth, and one gets welfare checks, guess where that money comes from?

Government doesn’t have its own money! Too few people remember that. Government money is taken from someone who earned it, and who probably could have used it more efficiently. The solution to our government’s budget problem comes down to decreasing the number of folks government is supporting, either through salaries or handouts, and increasing the number of people who can support themselves (and help pay for the government).

The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money ~ Margaret Thatcher