Less the two weeks remain before the candidates hit the finish line on Nov. 2 in the 2010 general election.
The Reporter is running a series of question and answers articles with candidatesa series of question and answers articles with candidates from the 47th and 5th legislative districts. Each candidates answers four questions posed by the editorial staff.
The candidates in this entry are Rep. Pat Sullivan, Democrat, and Rodrigo Yanez, Republican, running for the 47th District State Representative Position No. 2.
1. With the mounting deficit facing the state budget, what solutions, program cuts or tax increases do you propose for the upcoming Legislative session?
- Yanez: There are numerous ways to save money and generate revenues that are not being considered. The state auditor and responsible think tanks like the Evergreen Freedom Foundation have proposed ways to save or generate billions of dollars and have been ignored. We also cannot continue to allow the government to keep growing at the current rate. It needs to be scaled back but without damaging important programs. The bottom line is that the only way to meet these deficits is to grow the economy. We cannot improve business by increasing taxes on small business. That can only be done by supporting job creating businesses and increasing exports. These are two areas in which I am an experienced international expert.
- Sullivan: 1. The governor has already ordered across-the board cuts to all agencies and other actions are being implemented to achieve immediate savings. The reality is, however, that we will need to make difficult decisions and set priorities early during the next session.
Some reforms need to be done immediately and should produce significant savings. Reforming the state’s IT (information technology) system, for example, should produce significant savings in the next biennium. Other reforms need to be accomplished, but may actually cost money in the short run to produce long term savings. We need to look at both immediate and long term solutions to ensure we have a stable budget in the future as well.
We also need to focus on the priorities of government (POG) and fund the services that are essential to moving our state forward.
- Sullivan: As a member of the Basic Education Funding Task Force and the Quality Education Council, this has been a top priority for me. I sponsored legislation in 2009 (HB 2261) which re-defined basic education and set up a plan for moving our education system forward. Last session, I sponsored HB 2776 which established a new transparent funding formula that makes it easier to see where state funds for education are going. It also requires strategic investments in key areas of our education system that we know will improve student outcomes.
- Yanez: The problem goes far beyond simply funding. It goes to how efficiently those funds are used and the lack of accountability for results. There is no consistent correlation in our country between per pupil spending and performance on standardized tests and other metrics of success. Washington lost the “Race to the top” because teachers and legislators were not willing to be held accountable. Our entire educational system is in serious disarray and much of the blame unfortunately must be laid at the feet of my opponent and those who think that the political and financial support of the teacher’s unions is far more important than actually educating our children to be competitive in the future. Tie the funding to the students instead of the district and reduce the bloated school administration so funds can really go to the classroom, not to the administrators.
- Yanez: I say badly. Transparency is gone. Trust is gone, and obviously any semblance of accountability is gone. Committees voting on phantom “title-only” bills or some members casting votes on behalf of missing members in the House is no way to run a democracy. The only thing that really needs to be done is to insist that the legislature obeys the constitution, their own rules and commonly accepted accounting concepts. Moving funds from special dedicated accounts to the general fund to hide deficits is the legislative equivalent of what embezzlers do when they try to hide their thefts. We can do better. Much better. We need legislators who are able to work better with their colleagues in the other party to reach bipartisan solutions rather than let one party dictate the legislation. The citizens deserve cooperation, not political combat.
- Sullivan: There are a number of processes in Olympia that work well. For a bill to become law it must be passed through the House and Senate and through a number of steps in each chamber. Passing a bill is difficult and major policy issues usually take years to finally become law. That’s good.
But I believe we need to change to process for adopting our state budget. We need to utilize the priorities of government budget approach and get the House and Senate working together earlier in the session. We also need to work in a more bipartisan fashion, end the political grandstanding and game playing, and do what is best for the citizens of Washington.
We have been successful in our work in reforming our education system because we worked together and focused on what is best for our students. The same thing needs to happen with the budget process.
- Sullivan: There are a number of things that we can and need to do in order to improve the employment outlook in our state. First, we need to streamline the permitting and regulatory system at both the state and local level. Second, we need to make investments in our infrastructure so that goods and services and employees get to where they need to go more efficiently. Third, we need to make strategic tax incentives in new and expanding industries and reform our tax system so that it doesn’t hurt small and start-up businesses the way our current B&O (business and occupation tax) does. Finally, we need to invest in our community and technical colleges to make sure we have a pool of skilled workers to meet industry demand and lure businesses to our state.
This needs to be a top priority, to ensure Washington state comes out of this recession stronger than when we entered it.
- Yanez: The legislature needs to do a complete re-think of the way it perceives business. Right now they see the businessman as the proverbial “golden goose” of the ancient fable. They know there is gold inside, but instead of nurturing and feeding that goose to get an endless supply of golden eggs, they behave just like the short sighted villagers who want to kill it to extract the egg. Instead of a knife they use taxes.
They need to understand that business is a job creation engine that generates tax revenues through economic growth. They must support business of all types but in particular small businesses that create most of the jobs in Washington State. This can be accomplished by removing roadblocks for start-ups and changing the B&O (business and occupation) taxes to be incurred on profits instead of revenues.
2. What realistically can the Legislature do to meet the mandate of fully funding schools? Is enough being done now by the Legislature?
I look forward to continuing to work in a bipartisan effort to make sure education funding is our top priority and that the dollars we invest are strategically focused to improve student learning. This is our constitutional mandate and something we simply must make our top priority.
