Washington state's finances require long-term solutions

IN her budget message last week, Gov. Chris Gregoire said the state's finances for the next biennium "will be at least as challenging" as the disaster right now. She is right. The state faces a three-year problem at least.

That means it has to do more than to "look for money" — accounts that can be emptied and obligations postponed. An employee furlough — a mini-layoff — is a fix for the current budget only. So is a travel ban, a freeze on raises or deferring maintenance. They are temporary.

To kill a program entirely can save money permanently, and the state will have to do some of that. But it should also be looking for other ways to save money permanently. To that end, Gregoire is moving inmates from old prisons to new ones and making some state licenses available on line. And there are other things, bigger things, that she and the Legislature could do.

She mentioned one in her meeting with The Seattle Times: a reform of pensions. The private sector has been moving from defined-benefit pensions to defined-contribution plans, like 401(k)s. "We need a conversation about that," she said.

The idea will not be popular among state employees. It hasn't exactly been celebrated among private-sector employees either, but they have learned to live with it. It would reduce the long-term threat to state finances. That the governor, a Democrat, would volunteer this idea does open it for discussion.

Another long-term change is contracting out work done by some state employees, which in some cases may save 10 percent or 20 percent of the cost of work.

The state has the right to do this, but as the Washington Policy Center recently reported, the state routinely bargains these rights away in labor negotiations. These are rights it can and should have back.

Another long-term idea is to increase the management flexibility of the four-year universities, including the power, within limits, to set tuition.

Opponents will say that such suggestions don't produce that much money in this budget period, and they will be right. These are ideas for the long term — and now is a really good time to consider them.