Article by Erik Smith. Published on Monday, March 08, 2010 EST.

The Best Speeches From the Senate Floor

Sen. Don Benton, R-Vancouver, battles Sen. Tracy Eide, D-Des Moines, over a procedural motion on the floor of the Senate Sunday.

Edited by Erik Smith

Staff writer/ Washington State Wire

OLYMPIA, March 7.—For a little over an hour Sunday afternoon, the Senate debated a tax increase of nearly a billion dollars. And then the bill passed 25-23.

            Not that the outcome was ever in doubt. Democrats had the votes from the start.

            But here’s a little secret that few people outside the little world of the Legislature understand. The votes are never in doubt. The speeches never convince anyone to change their minds. And yet – sometimes the debates really are interesting.

            Sunday’s tax debate told a story that really doesn’t get reported, because it doesn’t fit in a few column-inches, and it doesn’t make a good rousing noontime speech at the Rotary Club. It’s a story about the decisions that led up to the state’s current budget crisis. It’s also about the fact that Washington’s 6.6 million citizens will have to pay the price.

            The remarks turned the spotlight on the Legislature’s failure this year to consider major changes to state government, and the budget disaster that looms next year. But they also demonstrated the way in which the current recession has affected even lawmakers themselves, and showed why Democratic leaders felt reluctant to cut further.

            None of it is any secret at the Capitol. Lawmakers have been talking about the matter for months. Perhaps the only real political surprise of the debate was the way in which Sen. Rodney Tom of Bellevue chastised his own Democratic caucus for its tax plan, and accused members of using their hearts instead of their heads. That’s because Tom is vice chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee. At least at the start of the session, Tom was in charge of the tax plan.
            After Tom spoke, the Republican point-man on the budget and taxes, Sen. Joseph Zarelli, R-Ridgefield, congratulated him for his stand.
            Also noteworthy was the the fact that six Democrats split off from their ranks and voted with the Republicans. That left the majority caucus with exactly enough votes to pass the bill. Several of the crossover Democrats come from “swing” districts where a tax vote could cost them — Steve Hobbs of Lake Stevens, Claudia Kauffman of Kent, Derek Kilmer of Gig Harbor, Chris Marr of Spokane and Tom. Also voting no was Tim Sheldon of Hoodsport, who frequently sides with Republicans on budget matters.
            The tax bill now moves on to the House.

            Words Normally Lost

             When legislators make speeches, reporters manage to scribble down a sentence or two, and the rest of the words are lost forever. It’s been that way since statehood. The Legislature’s debates have been tape-recorded since the ’60s, televised since the ’90s. But unlike in Congress, the debates in the Washington State Legislature are never transcribed. And who ever goes back and watches an old debate? The whole story — the way lawmakers see it and tell it here — normally never gets told fully.

            So here’s something new – a look at the most interesting remarks from the Senate floor, on the most momentous bill of the 2010 Legislature, with a nod to the TVW broadcast that made it possible to construct the transcription.

            Remarks have been edited in some cases for readability or to eliminate duplication, but the words all come straight from the horses’ mouths.

Government Isn’t the Big, Bad Wolf

State Sen. Tracy Eide, D-Des Moines: “I would like to say this is one of the toughest votes I have taken in my political career. I have been here for 14 years as a member of the Legislature, and these are truly unprecedented times, Mr. President, not only in the state of Washington, but throughout the nation, every single state in the nation, and throughout the world. And we’re in this situation because of, I believe, greed and of lack of personal responsibility. As a senator today is my job to clean up this mess.

“You know, I’ve heard nothing but terrible things about the government. It’s the big, bad wolf out there. Government’s a big, bad wolf. Well, ladies and gentlemen, do you know what government does for you?

“We do prisons, we have prison guards, we have community colleges, we have universities, we’ve got professors, we do livestock inspections, we do food inspections, we do agriculture, we do nursing homes, adult family homes, hospitals, nurses, psychiatric wards, public safety, Washington State Patrol, our police, our firefighters, healthcare, our unemployment department – which by the way, many of our constituents are using right now because they are receiving unemployment, including my brother, my son, my son’s girlfriend. Every member in every family, I’m sure has been touched by someone who’s on unemployment.

“Labor and Industries is there to help you if you get hurt on the job, and of course K-12 education and our teachers, which is the largest part of our budget, as it should be, because it is Washington state’s paramount duty to make sure that we educate every single child in the state of Washington.

“Now I’ve just mentioned a few. I’m not even touching on transportation.

“These are people that are helping you and me. They’re not the big, bad wolf. They’re individuals out there working their tails off for you and me and our families and our constituents.

“Do I want to raise taxes? I say no. Hell, no. I don’t want to raise taxes. Who does? I don’t think anyone in this room wants to. Who does? But I have a constitutional duty to balance this budget.

“I don’t want our state to be like California, sending out I.O.U. checks. I don’t want that to happen to this beautiful, wonderful state. Our state treasurer is telling us that we are going to be broke, I think it’s in September of this year.

“I think we forget about this – last year we had a $9 billion deficit. Don’t forget that, ladies and gentlemen. $9 billion, and we did not raise taxes, and here we are at $2.8 billion this year.”

Not the Big, Bad Wolf?
 

Senate Minority Leader Mike Hewitt, R-Walla Walla: “Well, I don’t think anybody in this chamber calls the government a big, bad wolf. I think we all understand the services that are delivered to individuals in the state. I think we respect the state employees. I think it was almost inferred that we don’t. That’s not the case.

             [Takes card from wallet.] “This card has been in my pocket for three years now. Three years. ‘The budget hole is estimated to be at $2.4 billion for the ’09 budget. It will grow to an estimated $5.1 billion after that, even if the state economy remains healthy.’

“We have been saying down here for four or five years that there is a crash coming. I will concede part of this is globally driven, but I will also tell you, the Republicans have offered over 55 solutions to make this budget sustainable moving forward.

            “When this place was controlled by one party, we sold off our future tobacco securitization money that was supposed to go for health care and cessation in this state. We sold that money for 27 cents on the dollar. Twenty-seven cents on the dollar. We’ve been saying down here for four or five years that we have to have a sustainable budget moving forward. We don’t think government is a big, bad wolf.

             “Last year we took $3 billion in federal stimulus money. What does that do? Keeps the carrot out there so you don’t have to reform government to have a sustainable budget moving forward. 
             “What else did we do? We took $187 million out of the Public Works Trust Fund. We took $770 million out of the capital budget and put it in the general fund. We took $450 million out of the rainy day fund. We took $100 million of general obligation bonding out of the capital budget and put it in transportation. That’s not even talking about our pension system. We’re upside down on our pension system as well.
             “We are not the big, bad wolf here. All we ask for are some solutions, to have a budget that would be sustainable moving forward.”

Public Jobs Important, Too

State Sen. Jim Hargrove, D-Hoquiam: “[It] has been said many times is that this budget is going to cost jobs. And I agree, this budget and this tax package is going to cost jobs in the private sector, but also in the public sector. The number I have is that there are something over 10,000 full-time jobs between education and state employees that are going to be out of work as a result of this two years of cutting our budget. So again I say jobs are important, but state jobs – jobs of people that are doing the services that ours citizens ask us for – are also legitimate jobs and also part of our economy.”

Our Bloated State Government

State Sen. Curtis King, R-Yakima: “Well, yesterday in our discussions [regarding amendments to the tax bill] it was implied that the Legislature has been making government accountable, and now, with this bill, we are making those who have received exemptions and preferences accountable. While I have not seen where we have been making state government accountable for anything, the state has outspent its revenues for the last several years. But we don’t want to recognize the fact that what we want to do is to hold our citizens and our employers accountable for what we have done.

“Overspending is in my belief what has brought us to this point. Since February of 2008, here is how this recession has affected state government. Higher ed has lost 1,900 jobs, and the rest of the state government, 500. Those are not my figures. Those are from Employment Security. The private sector, on the other hand, has lost 181,200 jobs. In other words, the private sector has seen a reduction in employees of 7 ½ percent, and other than higher ed the state has seen a reduction of 7/10 of a percent. That does not seem like the state has stepped up, not to me.

“Some industries in our state, like construction, have seen a reduction of employees as high as 29 percent.

“Now, let’s look at how our citizens pay for their health insurance in the private sector. The employee pays somewhere between 20 to 24 percent, depending on how it’s calculated. The state employees are set at 12 percent. Does that seem like the state has stepped up? Not to me.

“So here we are today to pass the tax package, one that should be voted on for each individual tax increase, but no, we don’t want to do that. The public might have a better understanding of what we are doing here today if we did.

“Instead we are going to increase taxes on every citizen and if not every business, just about every business. In some instances we are saying to our employers, as we’ve been saying, in my opinion all session, we don’t care if you survive, and we don’t care if you do business in the state of Washington. We just want your money.

“To our citizens we are saying we don’t care how much you are hurting or how much you have had to cut back, but we don’t want state governments to have to do it.

“When we address the issue of our bloated state government, then we can have a conversation about tax increases. Until then I am fervently against this bill.”

Government Doing its Job, Not Overspending

State Sen. Karen Keiser, D-Kent: “We’ve heard, not only from our colleagues here on the floor but from others, that the reason we’re having this problem is because state spending is out of control, that state spending keeps going up and up and up. We all know last year we cut more than $3 billion from our budget, but what we have forgotten to think about is that over the last decade we now have 1 million more people in our state, and we are actually spending less per capita as a state than we did 10 years ago.

“Here’s what’s happened. We spent a lot of dollars on public education, as we should – it’s our paramount duty. Does it mean that we’re overeducated? I don’t think so. But it does mean that we have 20,000 more kids showing up at our public schools now than we had just a few years ago in 2004-2005, just three years ago. Twenty thousand more kids, and for each one of those kids, we spend with tax dollars from our state over $5700 per child for our public schools.

“Well, we also have more health expenditures. Now, does that mean Washington state is too healthy? I don’t think so. But we do have more than 121,000 more people depending on state medical care then we had just a few years ago, in 2004. Three hundred and fifty thousand more people have become uninsured in our state. Every disabled child who we help either in our RHCs or in the community setting costs us from $350 to $500 a day, and they’re worth every penny.

“It is expensive. The work we do is a lot of money, but the services we provide mean the difference between life and death. We’re not overspending. We are doing our job.”

Deficits as Far as the Eye Can See

Sen. Mike Carrell, R-Lakewood: “Well, today we are raising taxes on the people of this state, and I know that the majority party believes that they have done everything they can to lower expenses, and that this is the only option that they have. Well, let’s remember how much spending has risen over the last few years. Thirty-three percent. Thirty-three percent during a period when inflation barely had a pulse.

“Population, yes, it’s gone up a little bit, but nothing commensurate with 33 percent, not even close. So what are we doing today? Well, actually, spending is unabated. It has not gone down. If you look at the total of federal and state money it is up, up, up. Well, why is it up, up, up? Well, even in this budget, the budget that we had in Ways and Means here in the Senate, we added $75 million in new pork projects that people wanted.

“Also, we haven’t really gone to get the money which the taxpayers have given to various organizations. For instance, the WEA has a slush fund of $106 million to maybe $150 million, and yet we’re going to raise taxes on people to make up for a deficit.

“We also have construction still going on, and you know, that’s probably okay, but every one of those construction projects has an art project attached to it, and just recently we passed a bill here saying all know it’s okay for those artists to even be out-of-state artists, so we aren’t even employing artists in our own state for these millions of dollars of art projects.

“So what have we got? We’ve got budget deficits as far as the eye can see. There have been no systemic reforms in our budget that we have here in the state of Washington. In fact we’ve even fled in order to get some money from some of the sacred cows of some people in this body, which would be the green projects – wind power, solar power, biodiesel. When it really got down to push and shove, well, we didn’t really care about these things as much as we did the money.

“Well, I would urge this body to stop just talking the talk and start walking the walk, because it isn’t just this year. It’s as far as the eye can see. And if we continue as we have been doing, the only answer that I see from the folks across the aisle is next year we’ll have to raise even more taxes.”

Government Continues to Grow and Grow
 

State Sen. Don Benton, R-Vancouver: “I rise to oppose this bill. This is exactly the wrong direction. This bill includes 21 separate tax increases, which would affect every segment of our population and business community. It will put people out of work. It’s not only the largest tax increase in the history of the state of Washington, it’s the largest job-killing piece of legislation that I’ve witnessed in my time here.

“Let’s talk about facts, not a lot of rhetoric. Anybody that would take the time to go back and actually look at the facts and figures can see very clearly that [under] the definition of [Initiative] 601, passed by the people, which allowed government to grow at a reasonable rate of population growth plus inflation, this budget today would be increased over 10 years about 40 percent to accommodate inflation and population. But now, during that same period of time since the majority-party Democrats have controlled the Legislature and did away with Initiative 601, chipped away and finally repealed it completely, and then just two weeks ago repealed the Taxpayer Protection Act – that has allowed state government to grow 77 percent over that same time frame.

 “And they are not the cuts we hear about, these deep cuts and what a terrible crisis we’re in, and how bad it is. Well, if it was that bad, this budget would not be spending $2 billion more than last year’s budget, which spent $6 billion more than the previous biennium.

“We continue to grow and grow and grow government on the backs of the citizens of this state. This will cost jobs and make our situation even worse next year. I would strongly encourage the members of this body to vote no on this bill. This is not reform. We are going backwards with this measure here today.”

How Can the Legislature Sleep at Night?

State Sen. Val Stevens, R-Arlington: “May I have permission to read from the Declaration of Independence, Mr. President? ‘He has erected a multitude of new offices and sent hither swarms of officers to arrest our people and eat out their sustenance.’ At that time, that was written about King George, and the people rebelled. They declared their independence as a result of the policies that had been put upon them by a king.
            “The citizens of the state of Washington can revolt, but their revolt will be to leave the state. There is one tax that we have forgotten to put into this bill, and that would be an exit tax as the businesses are forced to leave.

“The one real harm in this is that the farmers and the folks who produce our food and live off the land cannot pick up their land and leave. They can quit farming, and many of them will as a result.

            “We cannot give to one group of people any amount of money that we have not taken from another, and that’s what this is really all about, Mr. President. I would submit that this is a very sad day for many employers. They are sitting at home watching us, and many of them are in tears, because they realize that they are going to be laying off people.

“The small business employer knows the families that he employs. It’s not like the giant companies that have been vilified here sometimes on the floor. It is the little guy or small businesses. They know the families. They have intimate relationships with them, and it really hurts to imagine they’re going to be responsible for that person’s unemployment. But in fact they are not responsible.

“We here have the responsibility to make certain that the citizens, particularly the employers are not forced to make those decisions. So ladies and gentlemen, I don’t know how you sleep at night. I know, having to vote on this, I didn’t sleep well last night, and I’m voting no.”

Public Demanded Big Spending

State Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, D-Seattle: “It seems it’s fine to say it’s okay to cut jobs if they are state employees. It’s not okay if jobs in the private sector are cut. It seems that it’s okay to have people paid more highly in the private sector, but not okay for people to make good wages in the public sector.

“I don’t know if many of you remember all the times that we have heard over the years from many of our members [that] it doesn’t matter how much it costs, we’re going to spend whatever it takes to ‘lock those people up.’ It’s no coincidence that out corrections budget has gone up over the years – ‘hard time for armed crime,’ ‘three strikes, you’re out,’ and increasing penalty after increasing penalty.

            “We also have bemoaned over the years that we hear from constituents that they don’t like that their kids can’t get into the University of Washington, and isn’t that horrible? …But when we do have funds in our state budget when times are good, and we want to have an investment made in our higher education system so that more qualified students can get in and contribute to our economy, then we do that, and then we listen to all of this about how horrible it is that we haven’t made more cuts in our institutions of higher education.

“And I don’t love this revenue bill. I would rather not have a general sales tax increase.”

Sacred Cows Graze on Capitol Lawn

State Sen. Mark Schoesler, R-Ritzville: “The truth of it is, in broad daylight, we’re raising the tax in the 2011-13 biennium by $150 for every man, woman, and child in the state of Washington. But those little kids aren’t going to pay $150 per person over the next biennium. Their parents will, or the places where their parents work, or the employers that employ mom and dad.

“Now there have been references to what we’re going to buy, and how horrible the cuts are – and there are some cuts. You know, there are the cuts that I make on my farm or my family budget, and then there are ‘Olympia cuts.’ You know, if you don’t get your full COLA and if you don’t get to grow your program and grow government – my God, I’ve been cut.

“Now there are ‘Olympia cuts’ that are very clear here, and there are jobs that are gone. Well a lot of those are vacancies that have never been filled. Now, isn’t that tough, not filling a vacant position? They’re not laying anybody off.

“You know, the gentleman from the 16th District [Hewitt] talked about how much it cost us selling off the tobacco bonds. We would have $100 million a year more revenue if we hadn’t sold those tobacco bonds over the last recession. A hundred million a year would look pretty good right now, wouldn’t it, folks?

“And then we look at the cost of inaction. On the 7th of July, one week into this biennium, everyone from OFM to the governor to the legislative leadership knew we had a budget deficit. What action was taken? Well, not much not very much at all, until in the last couple of weeks a real flurry of action takes place. And so we have experienced the cost of inaction over the last eight months, when something could have been done in a special session or early in the session.

“But now, as far as we can see, the sacred cows are still going to graze on the Capitol lawn, and people’s taxes will be going up by $150 next biennium, for every man woman and child, due to the cost of inaction.”

Small Price to Pay

State Sen. Randy Gordon, D-Bellevue: “I’m reminded of that scene in Apollo 13 where the engineers piled a lot of ductwork and said, ‘Try to fix the problem with this.’

“That’s what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to fix this problem any way that we can. And we fulfilled our promise. We said, first of all, we’re going to start with cuts. The very first vote I took here was to freeze government wages and furlough workers.

“And I went back to my legislative assistant who had worked for me for, what? Two days? And I said, ‘You have 10 days of furloughs you haven’t taken yet, and now you’ve got 12 more.’ These are real cuts affecting real people.

“Now, let’s talk about what we did next. We contracted this budget for the first time since 1951. For the first time in generations this biennial budget is $1 billion less, $31.39 billion rather than $32.4. It’s smaller. We’re contracting even as the cost of taking care of the extra children entering our public schools from private schools, even as that amount is increasing

             [Holds up a quarter and a nickel.] “This is the amount for every hundred dollars that we’re asking as an additional [sales] tax. After having closed of hundreds of millions of dollars of tax preferences for the few, we’re saying to close the gap, this amount, a quarter and a nickel, 30 cents on $100. And that amount will go to fulfill our promises to our seniors, to our students who are going to community college, to our university students. This will help us fulfill the initiatives that our people asked us to fulfill…

           “Government is for the people. Thirty cents to preserve these things is a small price to pay, and the average price to a Washingtonian is actually $29.33 for this tax.”

And Now for Something Really Bad

State Sen. Dale Brandland, R-Bellingham: “As unhappy as I am about this whole thing, I think we need to think about what’s going to happen in January of next year. If you think this is bad, you better get ready for what’s going to happen in 2011-13.

“You’ve gone through and picked out every little thing you can, to try and gather money. I get that you are trying to make some cuts. I get that. But what are you going to do in 2011-13? Because basically it seems like what you are saying is that we have run out of options. We don’t know what we’re going to do.

“Well, I’m telling you we are projected to have a $2 billion deficit in 2011-13, and there is nothing in this budget that is going to stop that growth. Nothing.

            “So as bad as it is, if you’re coming back here in January of next year, you better be ready for something really bad, because it’s going to be unprecedented compared to what this is.”

A Gaping $12 Billion Hole

Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane: “Mr. President, I think you know we are in the most serious economic downturn since the Great Depression. All of our families are feeling it, and I’m sure your community is as well as mine.

“And in my own family, my own mother who is 73 years old works at Wal-Mart so that she can buy her own prescriptions. I have a brother who has lost two jobs in last year, and a sister in this state who is struggling with a small business.

“And so, as we put forward our budget today and the revenue that supports it, I think we all do this with a sense of responsibility to do the best we can for the people that live in our districts and people who live in our state. I’m happy to say that we have managed to balance our budget by passing this bill today. That serious economic recession that we’re undergoing opened up a gaping $12 billion hole in our two-year budget.

 “And we have addressed that problem with a number of reforms. …We’ve done reductions in every functional area of state government that is not constitutionally protected or part of some kind of federal match that we can’t cut. We have done temporary layoffs in this budget. Less than 10 percent of our solution is revenue, and most of that is in the bill that we’re about to pass.

“But let me say a little bit about that bill. It does close tax loopholes. It does respond to court cases reinforcing legislative intent that would keep us from losing money from out-of-state companies, and the vast majority of it is temporary increases of tax revenue. It embodies some very significant tax reform. We’ve all seen the big books of tax loopholes.

“Well, guess what? Today we are creating a tax credit for working families in all of our districts. The lowest-income folks in our districts will get a rebate from state government. How about that for a change?

“And the smallest service businesses will get double the amount of income they can earn before they start paying B & O tax. So I believe that this is a fair and responsible approach

“I’ve heard a curious suggestion about how we should measure our success – that perhaps we should measure our success if we lay off as many people as the private sector did. Or perhaps we should measure our success if government shrinks instead of grows, and not taking into account inflation or population growth, no matter how many kids are in the schools. I think that’s the wrong way to measure success, Mr. President.

“I believe we should measure success, number one, [by] have we balanced the budget? And we have. And states across the country are doing it the same way we are, whether they are headed by Democratic or Republican governors or Democratic or Republican legislatures.”

These Aren’t Washington Values

State Sen. Jim Honeyford, R-Sunnyside: “Some people will say that these new taxes will support Washington values, but I submit to you, Mr. President, it’s not a Washington value to raise taxes on people who are out of work at the same time we are funding pay raises for people who work for the state. I submit that it’s not a Washington value to take health care away from people who need it, and to further increase the funding for health benefits for state employees, and I submit it’s not a Washington value to start new programs such as funding public races for the Supreme Court while we cut the elder care of our senior citizens. These are not Washington values, and I have to vote no.”

State Fails to Set Priorities

State Sen. Tim Sheldon, D-Hoodsport: “Let me rise from this side of the aisle and oppose this tax package. I don’t think it will be unanimous on this side of the aisle, because we all have different opinions.

            “An individual friend of mine came to me last weekend. He called me on my cell phone. I was out in the woods working, and he said he had to see me. I said, ‘Can I talk to you on the phone?’ and he said no, I have to see you. He drove 40 miles to see me, and his issue was he’s losing his job. Well, he hasn’t worked in almost a year. He is a surveyor, and he’s losing his home.

“It’s a personal face on what’s happening, and Mr. President, raising taxes in this massive tax-increase bill is not going to help our job situation. It is going to put more people on the unemployment rolls. It’s going to put more people in our caseload to work with.

“A couple things, Mr. President. I didn’t vote for that furlough bill that we had earlier in our session because I didn’t think it was fair to the front-line people that worked so hard for the state of Washington. It wasn’t fair to increase their caseload and increase their job responsibilities when what we have, I believe, in state government is a pyramid that is inverted. We’ve got too much at the top. We’ve got to carve that off the top and provide services more directly, better, faster and cheaper.

 “Let me give you an example, Mr. President. We’ve talked about reform and privatization of our liquor business. I had an e-mail from an individual who has worked as a consultant for the state and for the private sector in warehousing and distribution, and he told me that our state liquor warehouse on East Marginal Way [in Seattle] can put out 15,000 cases a day. Another private warehouse in our state in the Seattle area can put out 60,000 cases a day with less employees. Why is that? Because we have a system that uses carousels, not direct lines of distribution. We are not using the technology we need. We’ve got too many jobs.

           “What we need to do is to take a look at what we’re doing, prioritize our services, direct our state services towards those areas that need our attention, to the places that we want to prioritize our government services. We can do that. It’s hard to do sometimes, but we’ve got to take make tough decisions, and raising taxes is only going to increase our unemployment and also increase our pain and our suffering.”

Citizens Have Better Understanding of Bottom Line

State Sen. Cheryl Pflug, R-Maple Valley: “You know, I was listening to some of the previous speakers and I was thinking, well what do I enjoy about serving here? And I guess that the physical beauty of this building always reminds me of the heart of the people that we represent. Other than that, right now it’s pretty difficult.

“I’m almost a little embarrassed as I think of our taxpayers at home, and understand how quickly they get to the bottom line, and how creative and courageous they are in the face of adversity, and I feel that might be missing from us.

“Our citizens understand the bottom line really easily. I think they understand that they have a certain amount of money and they don’t have the ability to just say, ‘well, give me some more, because I really wanted more things this year,’ so they figure out how to get through that with what they’ve got.  And that’s what we should be doing as well. Just like the people at home, we should tighten our belts…

  “Like our citizens, maybe we could postpone new things. Maybe this wasn’t the year to promise new rebates. Maybe this wasn’t the year to create an entitlement in childcare and in early learning. Maybe this wasn’t the year for new things, and yet somehow the body thinks that it was okay to pass a budget of billions of dollars over projected revenue, and then decide to go and ask the people who have been making real cuts to make some more, so we can make more promises.

            “We don’t have a plan for next year. We know that the budget hole is worse next year, and that we are procrastinating with this budget in making the kinds of cuts that the people have already made, and will make again, and that they will have to make even more next year, because we won’t now.

“I do have confidence in the people. Like I said, I’m amazed at how quickly they get to the bottom line, and I wish we were better at listening to them. I think their voices are going to be louder. I’m pretty sure we’re going to hear them whether we like it or not.”

What the Real World is Thinking

State Sen. Linda Evans Parlette, R-Wenatchee: “Well, I had the joy yesterday at 4 o’clock of driving home, because in my head I had to get out of here. So I got home last night at 8 o’clock, up at the ranch there in Wenatchee. I left this morning at 8 o’clock. It was a short stay, but what a beautiful drive both ways.

“In my mail at home was a letter, and I’d like to read from part of that, if that’s okay, Mr. President, a letter from somebody in the state of Washington. And part of what it says:

” ‘In the past two years I’ve had to let over 200 employees go. I’ve been forced to furlough every remaining manager and employee for at least one month, some for two or more. I personally have not taken a salary since June of 2009. I have given back over 10 years of hard earned income. We have made the hard choices to keep our company viable, and we hope to survive for another year. After being successful for over 38 years, I find this to be an appalling situation, but one that I have no choice but to endure and do my best to survive.’

 “And then he got to the bottom line, the most important part of this message:

 ” ‘I have to ask why this Legislature isn’t reopening current state employee contracts and doing what all small businesses have had to do – reduce wages across the board. Wages in government and in business are the one variable that can be reduced, and doing it across the board is the fair to everyone.’

“You heard the previous speaker from the 15th District [Honeyford] talking about values. I honestly believe that Washingtonians would value state government doing two things right now. Just two. Focusing on jobs and the economy and getting government spending under control.

“I urge you to vote no on increasing all of these taxes. At this time it is absolutely the wrong direction to go.”

Legislature Ought to Use its Head

State Sen. Rodney Tom, D-Bellevue: “As I listen to this debate, I’d almost think the end of civilization is here, but I think that’s an overstatement. But as one who has argued against a lot of the amendments that have been introduced, I did want to explain why I will be voting no on this revenue package.

“I believe it’s too large, and more importantly, I think the inclusion of the sales tax is very harmful on an economy that is struggling to recover.

“I don’t think we have fully recognized exactly where our economy is, that it is very tenuous, it is very fragile. If you look at the economic numbers in Washington state, our unemployment is 9.2 percent. Nationwide, it’s 9.5 percent. If you look at underemployment, underemployment is at 17.4 percent. This is the first time since 1948 that the duration of unemployment is greater than 6 percent. If you look at families, 44 percent of families have a member who is unemployed, has reduced hours, or has reduced pay.

“If you look at our housing crisis, one in seven homes in this country is in foreclosure. Twenty-five percent are underwater, and I don’t mean that they’re flooded. I mean that the equity, the value of that property, the loan is greater than the value. So I think we really do need to step back and look at what is the big picture, and how does this budget address it?

“You know, why are we in the retail business? Why are we in the state liquor store business? We don’t sell shoes. Why are we in the liquor business?

“I have a printer bill. Why is it stuck in committee right now? I don’t consider printing a core element of government. Why are we in the landscaping business? Is that a core element of government. I don’t think so.

“I think what we need to do is to step back and really focus on the core elements of government. There is a place for government, but I think the mistake we make is that we try to be mediocre at everything instead of being an excellent in a couple of core elements where government really does have a function.

“If you look at corporate America, they’re making those tough choices they’re slashing payrolls 20 to 30 percent. They are slashing their expenses 10 to 30 percent. What are we doing?

            “When I look at this budget, I will say this. I think this is a budget with a big heart, but when it comes to making decisions there are two elements of a great decision. You have to use your heart, but you also have to use your head, and when it comes to making those choices I think we have a great group of people in here. We have a lot of talented, smart, capable people. I think we can do better.”

Employers Will be Packing

State Sen. Jenea Holmquist, R-Moses Lake: “In the decade I’ve been serving the citizens of the 13th District, I can’t think of a day that’s been more important for me to stand up on the part of the citizens, their rights and their wallets.

“I think about one of the core principles upon which our founding fathers based the constitution, and that was the premise that government cannot be trusted, especially with your money. And boy, isn’t that true here today?

“We’ve got before us Substitute Senate Bill 6143. It’s 113 pages long and includes 21 taxes we are about ready to put on each citizen of the state of Washington in a horrible recession.

“And I’m also frustrated, Mr. President, because it was just a couple of years ago that we had a historical budget surplus. A historical budget surplus. And we have proven that we have a ravenous appetite for spending that we can’t even control ourselves in good times, and to the point where we increase our spending in good times by a whopping 34 percent.

“This last year we balanced the budget by using one-time money and $3 billion of federal bailout money for one-time expenditures. Anyone that does a budget at home or in their business knows you can’t use one-time money for ongoing expenditures, so it really frustrates me that we’ve already proven to the citizens that even in good times we can’t get our act together.

“And now, here today we’re in an economic recession, and I ask myself what does any Washington family facing tough times do? They know they must tighten their belts and live within their means, and what do we expect of our state government? I think we should expect the same darn thing, but what do we do?

“The first thing we do is we gut the Taxpayer Protection Act to make it easier to raise their taxes. And today we’re going to do that.

“I think that when we meet tough economic times, government should do what every family has to do. It has to tighten its belt, live within its means, and learn from history that you cannot tax and spend your way out of recession. We should have learned that lesson over and over already.

“I don’t think it’s finding new ways to take more of the citizens’ hard-earned money. What I’m saying to my folks back home is hang onto your wallets. And employers, I’m so sorry, because I know that in our state government, every service we provide depends on the employers in the private sector creating jobs, and all this is going to do is send them to Idaho, send them packing to Oregon. They’re going to head right out of town.”

Budget Contains $400 Million in New Spending

State Sen. Joseph Zarelli, R-Ridgefield: “What I want to say is that I really appreciate the remarks of the senator from the 48^th [Tom]. It’s exactly the message that I think between us we’ve been trying to have, and collectively I know that on this side of the aisle, we’ve been trying to push towards.

“It’s unfortunate that we’re four days before our constitutional end of this session. Whether we go into a special one remains to be seen, but certainly if the budget that we passed earlier and has now come back from the other body is totally relying upon this bill today, I would say it’s worthy of a special session to avoid this particular bill today, for a couple of reasons.

“The supplemental budget that this body passed and has now been passed over from the other body spends almost $400 million in new policy. Forget about the deficit discussion we’ve been having. Mr. President, that budget includes $400 million of new spending.

 “This tax package for this biennium is around $900 million. If we just said to ourselves, let’s not spend any more, we could cut this tax package in half.

“What this demonstrates to me is just like in 2007-2009, when we had historical surpluses that were spoken of earlier, and we grew government fanatically, we still spent when we had those surpluses two-and-a-half times more money than we had in surplus available to support that budget.

“And we wonder why the big cut, that $12 billion in reduction? It’s from where we were, up here, our money was always down here, and what we got caught up in is we were overspending even our revenue at that time.

“And so billions of dollars of spending that we expected to be caught up to by continued growth in revenue disappeared, and so we didn’t cut really from where we were. Where we had revenue coming in, to where we have revenue coming in now, that difference from last biennium to now is only $1.7 billion. That’s the mere difference in general fund dollars. The rest of it was the blue sky we were hoping revenue would support down the road.

“So that’s what we’re paying for today, and we continue to do it in this budget. If you’re going to vote for this tax, know that you’re asking taxpayers who are struggling to keep themselves afloat to support further growth in government spending and a supplemental budget to the tune of almost $400 million. How can we live with that?

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