Guest columnists
Governors could use a hand promoting the common good

By Albert D. Rosellini, Booth Gardner and Mike Lowry
Special to The Times

Albert D. Rosellini

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When the nation's governors gather this weekend for the annual meeting of the National Governors Association, they will find that all of their states are experiencing similar challenges to their abilities to function effectively.

The stakes today are extremely high. With terrorism a clear and present danger, state governments play a crucial role in national defense.

Rising levels of education throughout the world make their responsibility for educating the next generation of citizens all the more important.

States must meet growing needs of the most vulnerable persons in our population. But the states are being squeezed on both sides, by local and municipal governments that are experiencing a decaying infrastructure; and by a federal government that has been shifting responsibilities to states while providing less federal support.

As former governors, we believe it is important to be clear about why government is essential to our way of life. We hope the governors will keep in mind that the principal role of any democratic government is to care for the common good, for present generations and those to come — "to promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity."

	Booth Gardner

To care adequately for the common good, government must be adequately funded, and at the present time, state governments are not adequately funded.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington, D.C., has documented how recent federal policies have added budgetary pressures to the states. Added costs and lost revenue total $175 billion over fiscal years 2002-2005, an average of 8.4 percent of state budgets. States have had to impose larger spending cuts and tax increases than should have been necessary.

Here in Washington state, our Legislature needed to cut hundreds of millions of dollars in state services in 2002 and 2003, including drastic reductions in the Basic Health Plan and cuts in anticipated spending for our public schools. That extra burden has fallen primarily on low- and middle-income families who not only rely most on the services being cut, but who pay the regressive rising sales and excise taxes.

The nation's governors must find a way to address this issue together. They need to let the nation know that the federal government cannot continue to press upon the states greater responsibilities and at the same time tell the wealthy that their taxes should be lowered. They need to counter the growing notion that we can have the public services that we need without adequate tax revenue that is fair and equitable.

	Mike Lowry

The pressures that the states are feeling now will only get worse unless the nation changes course. The inevitable effect of current policies will be massive cuts in domestic programs, especially those having to do with housing, health care, food and nutrition, environmental protection and transportation.

As laboratories of democracy, the states can be places to work out creative solutions to the continuing challenges of making our democratic system work. The governors coming to Seattle this weekend are in a vital position to articulate new strategies to keep both their states and our nation as a whole on a steady path.

As one example, the National Governors Association spoke out in unison in February about the mounting problem of Americans who do not have health insurance, now 43 million and growing daily. As the governors said, federal and state partnerships such as Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program have been helpful, but it is time for a comprehensive national approach to this national problem.

The American people need the federal and state governments to make an all-out effort to address this problem. The states need more flexibility to test approaches that will greatly expand health-care coverage in their states with the goal of universal coverage. To get there, the states need federal support and more authority to require savings in the health-care system in order to provide the significant resources to cover low-income workers and the unemployed, as well as teachers, government workers and children.

The governors should use their time together in Seattle to help move the nation onto a more just and sustainable path, especially in relation to federal and state shared responsibilities for health care. Their leadership and genuine collaboration with each other can help us all chart a new course.

Albert D. Rosellini was governor of Washington from 1957 to 1965. Booth Gardner was governor from 1985 to 1993. Mike Lowry was governor from 1993 to 1997.