Renton’s city leaders have figured out that local government is going to look much different in the years to come – much leaner and more efficient. Our state’s leaders need to realize the winds of change are buffeting them, too.
Gov. Chris Gregoire gets the message. Her budget proposal for the next biennium released Wednesday is breathtaking in the scope for what she wants to do to reorganize state government and to slash part of the social safety net.
Next up, it’s the state lawmakers sitting in the Capitol who need to understand that times have changed and they need to tell their preferred constituencies that times have changed.
Already, one of those key constituencies – labor – is working with Gregoire on state pay cuts she’ll propose to the Legislature. It’s also important to point out that state employees are also taking unpaid furlough days to help balance their departmental budgets.
But labor is balking at Gregoire’s call for reform of pension benefits for about 100,000 state employees and retirees and their families in Plan 1 state retirement programs. That reticence needs to stop.
Gregoire estimates her pension proposals would save $11 BILLION dollars over 25 years. One proposal would end automatic increases in pension benefits for Plan 1 enrollees, including 10s of thousands of retired teachers.
Gregoire wants to do away with a loophole that seems just wrong even in flush times – allowing college employees to double-dip by receiving pension benefits and then going back to work.
And she wants to limit increases in state health-care costs to 5 percent a year at most.
Gone are the days when government workers could expect pay and benefits that someone in the private sector would envy and deserve just as well. This is common-sense equality; it’s not intended to punish state workers.
Then, on Tuesday Gregoire spoke out about efficiency in state government by proposing the consolidation of 21 state agencies and elimination of another three dozen boards and commissions. Over time that would save millions of dollars.
“To help offset the shortfall, we must put forward to the Legislature transformative ideas,” Gregoire said in announcing her efficiency plans. “It can’t just be about cutting, it has to be about changing.”
On Wednesday the full breadth of how Gregoire wants to reshape state government was revealed. Among a long list, she’s proposing to eliminate the Basic Health Plan insurance for the poor, raise college tuition and eliminate funds that reduce the size of classes in kindergarten through fourth grades.
There simply is not enough money to operate a vision of state government that perhaps was always unsustainable. And then there’s that $900 million hole in the state’s current two-year budget the Legislature came close to filling last weekend. Up next is a $4.6 billion shortfall in the state budget running through June 2013.
Recently the Renton Reporter’s Question of the Week was whether you had felt the impact of local and state budget cuts. The result: 47 percent said yes and 52 percent said no.
If we ask the question in June 2013, the only honest answer will be yes.
