PubliCola has put out a piece Thursday, “The End of Sustainability,” the gist of which is that cutting Washington state’s budget is not the answer. “When you are in a recession, the only way to sustain the budget is to bring in new revenue,” the author writes. “Luckily, the way economics work, when the government can spend more, it eases out a recession.”
The writer leaves out some relevant information. While it’s true the latest state projected revenue collections for the 2011-13 budget fell by $1.4 billion, it’s also true the state is still expecting more revenue during the current budget biennium than the last budget biennium (2009-11).
What does that mean? It means even though the state is expecting less money than they were projected to have at the last quarterly forecast in June, the state is still taking in $2.1 billion more during 2011-13 than it did in 2009-11—an increase of 7.5 percent!
Here’s the kicker: The state is still spending more than current revenue projections. So, yes, spending—overspending, rather—remains a problem.
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[photo credit: danielmoyle]
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