In which Senator Debbie Regala (D-27, Tacoma) takes a clear-eyed look at state taxes and spending over the long haul, and Amy Kinsel (Professor of History at Shoreline Community College) points out the short-sighted irony of cutting funding for the very community colleges people need to retrain for new jobs during a recession. Plus, EOI gets a little ink in a piece from Olympia Newswire.
Yes, state spending should match the revenues at hand | But when you hear that state spending has increased, please remember we didn’t spend any more money per person than we did 10 years ago. Our state’s population has increased by nearly a million people over the last 10 years. Despite that, state spending per capita, revenues per capita and state spending relative to the state economy have all declined during that same period. | Senator Debbie Regala
Two-Year Colleges Can’t Absorb Further Cuts Without Turning Students Away | The cruel irony of last year’s legislative session is that Washington State deeply cut funding to higher education just as enrollment skyrocketed. As unemployment grew last year, many Washingtonians decided to enter or return to college, only to find that they were being asked to pay more for less. With further budget cuts next year this problem will get worse. | More: Olympia Newswire
Liberal Revenue Agents: 115 Groups Unite to Promote New Taxes | The quality of life for tens of thousands of Washington’s most vulnerable residents depends on a group with a clunky name that most of them have not, and will never, hear of: the Rebuilding Our Economic Future Coalition. Nearing the midway point of the legislative session, it is unclear whether the Coalition will be able to achieve its ambitious goal — but the Coalition’s lobbyists are putting options before legislators, drawn from the work of liberal economists like the Economic Opportunity Institute’s Marilyn Watkins. | More: Olympia Newswire
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