The typical American voter seems to be hearing two voices in their head. One voice loves state sponsored programs like Medicaid, social security, funding for education, and the police. The other voice doesn’t want to pay for it.
Fortunately for the average voter they have a political party who tells them they can have it both ways. They scream for tax cuts and then try to make the argument that we can pay for everything by cutting out programs that no one will miss. According to the conservatives all we need to do is make government more efficient and trim unnecessary parts without anyone feeing the pain.
Well, here in Washington State, the conservatives are finally getting their chance to prove their point.
In the November 2nd election Washington State voters voted on three initiatives which will lead to severe cuts in our services.
The first initiative rejected was an income tax on the wealthy in order to try and force them to pay their equal share of their taxes (Washington State is paid for almost entirely by a regressive sales taxes).
In addition the voters revoked a sales tax on candy, bottled water, and processed meat products which generated $520 million annually.
The third initiative passed requires either 2/3rd of the legislature or voter approval before any taxes can be raised.
All of these measures passed at a time when the state is facing a 4.5 billion dollar budget shortfall which must be balanced according to the state constitution.
Without any ability to raise taxes the only thing that can be done is to cut programs, and todays Seattle Times details what we can expect to cut:
gutting funding for the class-size reduction initiative, I-728, approved by voters in 2000, as well for I-732, which mandates annual raises for teachers, pegged to inflation.
70 percent of the budget, including K-12 education, certain Medicaid programs, debt service and the courts system, is largely off-limits to cuts because of constitutional and federal restrictions. Even so, the governor is looking for ways to get around some of those barriers.
hospice care, dental care and prescriptions — all for adults on Medicaid. Hospice provides end-of-life care for around 2,600 adults annually. Cutting it would save the state $4.6 million in the current fiscal year. The program is expected to stop accepting new clients on Jan. 1, based on cuts Gregoire ordered in September.
Washington states most vulnerable will soon face the will of the voters, because we say we like these services but we don’t want to pay for them.
These “painless” cuts are destined to hurt some very vulnerable people.
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