Seattle Times | Frustrated Gregoire says 'status quo does not work'

Last week, Governor Christine Gregiore opened the Washington State Legislative Session for 2011 with her state of the State address. The speech included challenges to the legislature to be prepared to make fundamental changes to state government.

The governor has been giving interviews and proposals to prepare people for change as the state struggles with a $4.6 billion dollar hole in its 2011 - 2013 biennium, as well as almost a billion dollars in the current budget that ends June 30th.

When times were much better the state poured money into a variety of programs, as well as tax breaks to grow certain industries.

Gregoire says she doesn't have any choice given the budget gap and the reality that no more bailouts will be coming from Congress.

Surprisingly, though, Gregoire also seems unsure that the money she poured into education improved student achievement as much as she'd hoped.

"I came in here determined to make the system work better. To invest more money. I put a lot more money into K-12. But then you sit there and say, 'Why have I not been able to get the result I set out to achieve?' " she said.

Local News | Frustrated Gregoire says "status quo does not work" | Seattle Times Newspaper

Let's be clear about this, K-12 education support is a mandate in the Washington State Constitution (see here, ARTICLE IX EDUCATION). Gregiore's question has more to do with the system the state pumped money into than the amount of money. To be sure, if they state's educational system was in a position to produce a population of superior students but all it needed was money, then we would have seen a surge in standard test scores over the past few years. We didn't.
That is a fine example, and it is not the only one. Tax breaks are also investments in systems that made claims of being ready to produce exciting economic benefits and jobs, all we needed to do was either give a tax break, or increase taxes on somebody else, then we would see a surge in our economy over the past few years that were above standard. The unemployment rate in Washington State is remarkably similar to the rest of the nation.

Everything the state does in the public sector should be closely examined to ensure that our investments are beneficial.
Everything the state does for the private sector should be closely examined to ensure that our investments are beneficial.

As a result of these examinations and changes we will see county and city governments have to pick up some things that the state drops. The question is if the state will pass the means to stay in the business of health, safety, education, economic infrastructure investment.

The state has until April to figure it out.
Good luck.

Dow Constantine had the Best Year of Any Local Politician

There have been a few "Year in Review", or "2011 Predictions" made in the local media that curiously show Dow Constantine's picture and then their story runs off to the Seattle mayor and other local issues (yes, the mayor is treated as an issue).

I suppose it is implied that the King County Executive had a good year while some of the stories rehash the City of Seattle Executive's public conflicts. I know that it is not an exciting story, having to ask all of your county employees to give up pay to help balance the county budget.
It isn't as exciting as, say, having the new mayor grilled by the city council (so, no follow-up meeting?)

Well, the list of accomplishments is worth repeating linked here, listed below.

Full funding for the long-awaited replacement of the South Park Bridge, in collaboration with federal, state and local leaders.
Federal funding for long-term interim repair of the ailing Howard Hanson Dam to reduce the flood risk in the Green River Valley, in collaboration with federal, state and local leaders.
A regional partnership with cities on a new model for animal services.
A regional partnership with cities on jail planning, to avoid unnecessary construction of new city jails.
A consensus with regional leaders on reforms in theprovision of Metro bus service.
The purchase of 250 acres of Maury Island, including a mile of shoreline, that completes the Executive's 12-year effort to preserve the longest remaining undeveloped Puget Sound shoreline in King County.
Completion and adoption of the first-ever countywide strategic plan.
Completion of the first phase of an upgrade to the County's human resources business processes, replacing manual practices from the 1970's with more efficient automated workflows that provide critical access to real-time data.
Creation of a new County energy policy to achieve even greater energy efficiency, reduce operational costs, and curtail greenhouse gas emissions.
Reform of DDES permitting to a fixed fee model rather than hourly rates, and creation of a customer service unit for rural owners.
Adoption of a new King County budget, one week ahead of schedule, achieved several of the Executive's goals by:
Consolidating his effort to put County government back on sound financial footing by creating annual efficiencies of three percent, leading to budgets that will be sustainable over time,
Sticking to his principle of maintaining reserves without resorting to one-time gimmicks,
Working with more than 90-percent of the County's employees to preserve services to the public by forgoing a cost-of-living adjustment for next year, and
Preserving the principle of restoring services, to the extent possible, in those areas where employees have sacrificed their COLA.

The county is bleeding money, fact.
Without major changes in local tax structure the county, including Metro bus service, will see major cuts in every budget going foreword, fact.
The state legislature has resisted action to help the county because of the many budget problems the county has failed to begin to address in the past, fact.
This year the county pulled together to seriously begin to address major budget issues, including demonstrating leadership by example (except the King County Sheriff Deputies, and their shameless County Council weasel Reagan Dunn), fact.

So, with that I will state, Dow Constantine had the Best Year of Any Local Politician