Well, I still wish I'd had an answer to my budget questions as to what his plan is, but it's a personal and thoughtful reply, and points out some things I didn't know, so kudos to my rep for responding:
Anne-Marie,
Thank you for your comments. I didn’t know that you worked for Pete. I worked for him briefly a number of years back on the King Co. council.
Regarding the budget – generally we (republicans) would offer our plan on how to balance the budget. However, this year we decided not to. It was apparent well before we began session that Republicans were not going to be a part of budget negotiations. (We are outnumbered 61-37 in the House and 35-17 in the Senate).
Our budget writer actually has a budget proposal that would balance our budget without raising taxes. He has decided not to reveal it however, because none of the ideas he has proposed over the last couple of years have been considered. So you have to ask yourself, “why put a budget out there, that does make some tough cuts, when it will not be considered?” You know politics – the media and special interests would get a hold of it and take the focus off the real problem of living within our means.
The Governor also offered a balanced budget at the beginning of the year, so we know it’s possible.
The thing that bothers me the most right now is that things are so out of balance. It happened on a national level when Bush and the Republicans ran the place, and it’s happening now on a state level with the Democrats running the place.
I am the ranking minority member on the transportation committee. Transportation has traditionally been a bi-partisan issues. Can you guess how many of my party’s ideas have been adopted over the last two years? Zero. I’m not complaining, I’m simply saying that things are completely out of balance.
Dan
No comments:
Post a Comment