We love to include quotes from recent forums in our twice-monthly Enews - but sometimes we get over excited, and our quotes get way too long! Today we're using the blog as an extended Enews, specifically for some quotes picked up from 2010's Legislative Preview.

In January, moderator Essex Porter posed a question for the Republicans on our panel: What are some specific programs you would eliminate or cut, or specific reforms you would enact to avoid raising taxes, if you were writing this budget?

Representative Doug Erickson responded:
"What I would cut are the regulations on business that are driving jobs out of Washington State. Let's start there. Let's cut our workers compensation program out of state government and let the private sector run it. Let's cut the portion of governments out that sell liquor to the state and let Safeway and Hagen and Albertson's sell liquor to the people of Washington State. Let's cut  those things that the government shouldn't be doing anyway so we can focus in on the things that people say are priorities - K-12 education… Where's the priority in state government that's been exercised during the past twelve years in Olympia by the majority party when they say education is their priority, and education has become a smaller percentage of our general fund budget than it was in 1998?... What things that aren't priorities did the Governor propose cutting? I didn't see those in her list."

We wanted to include Senator Lisa Brown's response about what she says is actually eligible for cuts:
"With due respect to my colleagues, neither of them proposed a way to balance the budget. And the record we have is to balance the budget on an annual basis - that's what state government does. And we're going to do it again in a 60 day session. The building that's being built in Olympia is with capital bonds, it's a separate budget. Workers compensation is also a separate program. Neither of those things address the general fund. The general fund comes from the taxes that we pay - mostly sales tax, we're a very sales tax dependent state - property taxes and B&O taxes. Those are the three major sources it comes from. In a downturn economy sales, taxes fall like a rock because obviously people are out of work and they're cutting back on their spending. And so the challenge for balancing the budget is those major sources of revenue as well as where the money goes - which education (as you heard 40%),  higher education, health and human services and then a  very small percent going to natural resources and other areas… that's where the $2.6 billion has to come from. And because of Federal match requirements, a very large percentage of those expenditures are off the books because we get Federal match for our health care programs and we have maintainence of effort requirements for the Federal dollars that we accepted. So we're talking about state-only programs that are on the chopping block. And that's why we have to draw the line realistically about what we're willing to do and what we're not willing to loose ground on. It's easy to talk. It's hard to get someone to show you a balance sheet that adds up to $2.6 billion."

Were you a bit surprised to find a ballot in your mailbox this past week? Many people I've spoken with describe their reaction: holding their ballot in their hand, staring at it, and thinking hard - and not being able to figure out what they were supposed to be voting on.

The February 9, 2010 special election is made up of almost entirely school levies - you can find a full list of measures on the ballot here. Seattle voters will have only two propositions on their ballot: a capital levy and an operations levy. Click on each linked levy to go directly to the King County Elections webpage describing the levy, as well as for and against statements for each.

Happy voting!

This morning, I'm glad CityBlog's archives are still pretty small - I spent the morning introducing tags into our lives. Now, you can sort CityBlog entries by topic (we've caught up with the rest of the blogging world!). Most interested in our Environment&Sustainability programming? Want to read all the blog entries addressing the Community Matters Campaign? Only like posts with pictures? No problem.

Here's a list of what's currently tagged in CityBlog:

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