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New Message

Politics, This Washington   February 25, 2010 at 11:46 am Josh Feit

When the state Senate and House budgets came out earlier this week, we quoted low-income advocate Jerry Reilly, chair of the Elder Care Alliance, saying he was taking off his “Revenue” pin—the buttons that liberal activists have been sporting in Olympia in their campaign to get the legislature to fund social services.

“I was so angry,” he said, explaining his seemingly counterproductive protest. “We had worked so hard to set the table for legislators to step up, and here they are with budgets that are not helping fund vital services.”

But now he’s back with a new pin. This one is real direct, avoiding the hemming and hawing political euphemisms that liberals often rely on.

He had 400 made initially, and just ordered 200 more as I was speaking to him in the cafeteria here on the state Capitol campus.

Low-income advocates point out that only 10 percent of the budget solution is new revenue (and most of that, at least on the Senate side, isn’t taxes, it’s cutting tax exemptions)—the rest is federal money, transfers from other accounts, and the biggest piece (44 percent in the House budget, for example) cuts like $149 million in K-12 funding, $202 million to the Department of Health and Human Services,  $80.7 million to higher education, $24 million to the Department of Corrections, and $22 million for environmental programs.




  • http://twitter.com/fattailed fattailed

    The second button does not appear to be union-printed. Odd choice for an Olympia establishment-progressive.

  • Jerry Reilly

    The buttons are made, for free, by a progressive volunteer in a union household.

  • http://twitter.com/fattailed fattailed

    Sounds cool to me.

    Personally, I think there's way too much concern about union bugs on printed materials given the lack of concern about working conditions in the rest of the economy. I was just curious about the political message of a bug-less button.

    Love the button itself, by the way!

  • Puget Sound Realist

    “Low-income advocates point out that only 10 percent of the budget solution is new revenue”

    Why is there any new revenue in this budget at all? 10%? Let's see, in my business this year, there isn't any new revenue approaching that number…but all of my other government related expenses that are a part of running my business are going up.

    Jerry represents non-profits (who aren't taxed by Olympia), and if he's taxed personally, what does he care….the tax increase guarantees that some of that new revenue will spill over to him and those he represents, so at least he's guaranteed a job.

    Meanwhile, my company will see exactly 'zero' of the new revenue.

    Here's my suggestion for a new button for Jerry, “Cut My Job, Don't Tax Others Just for Me.”

  • http://twitter.com/fattailed fattailed

    Glad to know that you, your employees, and your customers/clients/whatevers don't use any state services whatsoever. Children attend private schools, you commute via helipad on private property, no concern about land use in the area around you, you're not plugged into the sewer system or any other public utilities, wouldn't be caught dead in a public park, don'd drink because of the liquor regulation system, and who cares if people were sick on the streets cause health care is cut back and funding for housing reduced. (Just as long as they're not aggressively panhandling!)

    And hopefully your business isn't slogan-writing. Cuz if it is, I can tell you why your revenue isn't growing…

  • guest

    what is a low-income advocate?

  • Puget Sound Realist

    Fattailed – I haven't intimated that I'm unwilling to pay taxes. I'm simply unwilling to pay more taxes for services that aren't run efficiently. You can't honestly tell me that you've done even a simple review of the State, King County, and City budgets (I'm assuming you live in Seattle) and believe that there aren't significant efficiencies that can be achieved with a lot fewer people.

    Sixty percent of the state budget is tied to employees and their benefits, but any discussion around that is completely off the table.

    In the last 20 years, our state population has grown by 37% and our state budget has grown by 317%. The fact that we've all been able to support that is a credit to economic activity by entrepreneurs and hard-working individuals. But we're all telling you, we're honestly tapped out. Again, let's be clear, we don't mind paying taxes, but we're at the limit.

    As for the button, ok, I'll make it simpler and paraphrase one of my plain-talking heroes, James Carville, “It's About Taxes, Stupid.”