The 'do not buy' list for the upcoming state budget
With the state's looming $4 billion budget deficit in mind, the Office of Financial Management has finally issued its list of financial priorities for 2009-11. The goal: keep state spending to a minimum. The result: cuts. Lots.
While Gov. Chris Gregoire will unveil her own budget recommendations sometime next month, items in the OFM report categorized as "do not buy" are likely to be tossed when the budget is finalized by state lawmakers.
Rich Roesler at the Spokeman-Review took a close look at the "do not buy" items. Among them are:
- The state subsidy to the University of Washington Medical Center: $32 million.
- Pay hikes to encourage child care teachers to increase their education in early learning: $50 million.
- The state's "Family Policy Council," which "is responsible for developing community-based comprehensive plans for the prevention of selected problem behaviors, based on data, community input, and the risk and protective factor analysis." (That seems to mean that they try to head of juvenile crime.) Price: $7.7 million.
- The Family Medical Leave program, a proposal to give new parents a weekly $250 stipend for up to 5 weeks if they take unpaid time off to bond with a new child. Price: $13.5 million.
- Promotion of horse racing by the state Horse Racing Commission: $3.6 million.
- A state campaign to "increase awareness of underage drinking and motivate parents to talk to their children about drinking." Price: $5.2 million.
- A new $3,500-a-year professional certification bonus to new teachers when they're issued their certificates: $55 million.
- The Legislative Committee on Economic Development and International Relations, a group chaired by Lt. Gov. Brad Owen (who appoints the committee members, too), with the goal of "providing responsive and consistent involvement by the Legislature in economic development." Price: $523,000.
- The state Productivity Board, which encourages state workers to come up with good ideas to save money. Price: $648,000.
- Performance audits of government agencies, to see how efficiently and effectively they're doing their jobs. Price: $27 million.
- The state auditor's telephone hotline program "to report waste, inefficiency or abuse." Price: $1 million.
- Opening 5 new liquor stores by 2011. Price: $1.6 million.
Topics:
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Washington,
Washington Agencies,
Washington Governor,
Washington Legislature,
Politics Society
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Comments:
Posted Fri, Nov 14, 3:41 p.m. inappropriate
No Performance Audits of Government Agencies? How about making it mandatory to impliment their cost savings findings or give a written response to the auditors why they do not impliment.
Open 5 new liquor stores by 2011? Why not if they are Money Makers? If the State doesn't make money by having an exclusive distribution franchise for package liqour then they should not be in the buisness. Why not just open all sales outlets to Sunday Sales?
Posted Fri, Nov 14, 4:53 p.m. inappropriate
This doesn't bode well for the FLPPP... http://crosscut.com/2008/11/14/econ-finance/18633/?pagejump=1
Posted Fri, Nov 14, 9:40 p.m. inappropriate
Is this even 5% of the $4+billion shortfall? I heard today from an Olympia insider that the Governor has sent a memo to her cabinet and department heads to think more on the order of 25% cuts and the consolidation of departments.
Perhaps this isn't a rainy day we're facing but rather a 'once in a century' event. . . or let's hope so.
Posted Sat, Nov 15, 7:18 a.m. inappropriate
You forgot to add the upgrade to Husky Stadium-hundreds of millions down the drain.
Posted Sat, Nov 15, 12:05 p.m. inappropriate
I thought performance audits had a specific source of funding.
It seems like State Productivity Board and the citizens hotline should be looked at as investments with a relatively short payback time, probably within the budget cycle. So hard to tell if this would actually make the budget worse.
Posted Mon, Nov 17, 5:52 p.m. inappropriate
Axing the Productivity Board would do more harm than good. Since its inception in 1982, the Productivity Board has saved the state nearly $57 million thanks to the common-sense and innovative ideas offered by state workers through the Employee Suggestion Program. If any group knows where and how to save tax dollars, it is our state employees.
The Employee Suggestion Program and Teamwork Incentive Program encourage employees to create, innovate and apply good ideas that help make government more efficient and save tax money.
This is the only independent, neutral program of its kind in the state. In fact, it allows employees to submit cash-saving ideas directly to the board, without going through agency management. These money-saving ideas don’t need to be popular, just cost effective.
This concept was very critical in 2003, the last time our state budget faced a huge deficit. In fact, the Productivity Board saves $11 for every dollar spent. It just doesn’t make sense to cut a program that helps the state save so much money, especially at a time when the state is rumored to face a budget deficit approaching $4 billion. Instead, we should promote it.
There are many examples of money-saving ideas that helped put real money back in the state’s coffers. The savings are substantial and cover a wide range of agencies. Here are just two examples:
? A tax service representative for the Seattle North District Tax Office of the Employment Security Department suggested that the agency stop printing duplicate information on the end-of-quarter reports for tax specialists because the information was already available on the daily tax report. This suggestion is leading to nearly $13,000 in savings for the agency.
? To save on postage, a Department of Transportation employee suggested that DOT use 11x13 envelopes instead of 15.5x12 envelopes that it had used when the mail weighs less than one pound. This suggestion will bring the total first-year savings to $91,412 for the agency.
Just as is the case now, Washington was faced with a serious budget deficit when the Productivity Board was created. The Productivity Board is the kind of program we should want to save, not eliminate, when budget times are tough.
- Brian Zylstra, Deputy Communications Director, Office of Secretary of State