Gov. Gregoire focused on core budget priorities

GOV. Christine Gregoire's proposed two-year state budget is as lean and unsettling as the times that dictate hard choices.

Her recommendations to the Legislature cut $3.58 billion. Her explanation is as tight as the finances: Revenues are down, costs are going up. Everything gets hit: health care and human services, natural resources, higher education, early learning, public safety and basic education.

The governor looks to ax 2,600 state jobs, defer pay raises and adjust pension formulas, all with an eye to balancing the books and sustaining basic services.

Gregoire steadfastly does not recommend or support increases in taxes to make up revenue shortfalls. She rightly surmises the Legislature will not muster the votes to impose higher taxes, and the public is in no mood even to be asked the question.

From political left to right, reaction to the release of the governor's budget Thursday ranged from moral indignation to begrudging respect.

Plans to expand health care for children were shelved. Class-size-reduction funds were cut but the bulk of funding approved by voters will still be sent to districts. Levy-equalization dollars to local districts would drop by a third. Higher education was cut, but Gregoire went easier on community colleges, noting these institutions will absorb the bulk of downsized employees returning for retraining.

Selected categories to help the disabled and unemployable were eliminated. Gregoire is banking on a sympathetic administration in Washington, D.C., assisting with health care for indigent populations.

After the predictable grousing about Olympia's past extravagance, reaction among key Republicans was supportive. Gregoire's decision to proceed without tax increases was especially well-received. State Sen. Joe Zarelli, R-Ridgefield, and state Rep. Gary Alexander, R-Olympia, senior Republicans on the budget and finance committees, gave her credit for tough choices well made.

The governor's template for managing the deficit reflects smart core priorities. Lawmakers in both parties need to spend time getting up to speed on the revenue numbers and the limited options before their language gets too bombastic. Pound on the facts as well as the table.

March revenue forecasts will further define the choices for the next two years and longer.

One suspects Gregoire will have more trouble with her own party than with Republicans, who are visibly relieved new taxes are not in play. Every recommendation to restore money has to be paired with an identified place to cut.

Times reporter Andrew Garber found two pockets of pessimism that are constructively realistic. Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, and House Speaker Frank Chopp, D-Seattle, wondered whether the governor relied too heavily on economic stimulus money from Washington, D.C.

Senate Ways and Means Chairwoman Margarita Prentice, D-Renton, thought Gregoire was too optimistic about the budget shortfall; she thinks it will grow.

If these agenda-setting lawmakers are revenue skeptics, then they can guide the Legislature to budget accordingly.

Gregoire took a magnifying glass into every nook and cranny of state activity, from state parks and ferry service to toll-free calling to the state Department of Revenue. Voter-approved performance audits will apparently survive and likely save taxpayers money.

The governor pledged changes in state spending language to help struggling counties stay afloat. Their dire economic conditions make the point the budget crisis reaches deep, where the taxes come from.

Gregoire is absorbing the first blows for a budget in which everyone — including her — finds something viscerally objectionable. State government cannot do more. Sustaining what it already promised to do has outstripped available resources.

The governor's smart, tough budget reflects that grim reality.