The 2011 Budget Crisis

Thursday, the Governors office reported (via the Seattle Times) that the Legislature will face a $3 billion gap when they start writing the new 2011-2013 biennium budget this coming January.

The easy fixes are gone, the painless cuts long since past, and the tax payers growing cranky. The taxes passed in the last legislative session look to be up for repeal, and a reprise of Initiative 960 seems likely to appear if not this fall, certainly the next.

That will only leave legislators in 2011 with a choice of which oxen are to be gored - which programs will be cut or eliminated, and who will be the target of unwelcome new taxes. And if the Governors revenue projections have any merit as a barometer, neither cities or counties will be in any position to pick up the slack.

Not surprisingly, I'm not much of a fan of new taxes as a way to fix the situation - the secondary effects on employers, workers, and folks trying to survive on limited incomes are likely to be devastating to say the least.

Faced with the current range of choices (each and every single one of them bad, to a greater or lesser degree)...are the folks that got us here really the ones you want to trust come January?