The following editorial appeared in the Friday, June 18, 2004 edition of the Seattle Times.
One of the lasting achievements of Gov. Gary Locke should be to make permanent the budget process he used two years ago. The state is using it again, and it needs to keep using it after he is gone.
In the last budget cycle, the gap between revenues and spending was $2.7 billion. It was a financial Grand Canyon, and bridging it with tax increases was not acceptable. Neither was an indiscriminate cut of 15 percent.
Locke hired a consultant, the Public Strategies Group, with a plan called "priorities of government." The idea was to treat government like a family. It would have a fixed budget. It would take its shopping cart down the aisles, deciding what to buy and what to leave on the shelf based on what its goals were and how much money it had.
It was a simple idea done in a smart way. Instead of focusing people's attention exclusively on cuts, it focused them on "keeps." The whole psychology of budgeting was changed, and the Grand Canyon closed.
The good news is that the state is going through the "priorities" system again, and is starting it earlier this time.
"This time we have lots better buy-in from the agencies," says Budget Director Marty Brown, "and we have lots better data."
Planning teams are looking deeper, and for the first time they are making a list of tax exemptions. They will have a balanced budget to offer to the new Legislature and governor in January.
Brown has briefed all three main candidates for governor on the new budgeting system in the hope that the winner keeps it going.
The answer to that should be obvious. Aaron Reardon, who was a key supporter of Locke's reforms among Senate Democrats, is now Snohomish County executive and has hired the same consultant to implement the same reforms there.
It is a good idea, and it spreads.
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