We Have a Deficit, and Gregoire Will Raise Taxes

Despite what some local leftists say, and despite that Governor Gregoire won't let the "D" word cross her lips (although she is at least now admitting we will have a "shortfall" coming into next session), we do have a coming deficit.

Gregoire's own appointee to her Council of Economic Advisors, Jeff Chapman -- in writing the brief local leftists are basing their claims of "no deficit" on -- explicitly confirms we have a looming deficit of over $3 billion.

Deficit is when you don't have enough to pay your obligations. That's what we've got. Now, by the time the budget is completed and passed, we almost surely will have it balanced, no thanks to Gregoire. She has said on several occasions that "We spend when we have a surplus and we struggle to make painful cuts when the economy slumps. ... By treating our budget like a Washington family budget we will ensure stability and avoid tax increases or Draconian cuts tomorrow."

This is of course, precisely what faces us now, regardless of Gregoire's claims that we were "getting off that roller coaster."

So which is it? Cuts or tax increases?

Of course, being a Gregoire appointee, Chapman recommends tax increases, including an increase of the state sales tax by one penny per dollar (pushing the sales tax to 10 percent in some places, like in Seattle), rejecting new tax breaks, and a spending increase to offset the sales tax increase with greater payouts for poor families.

That's just in the short term. In the long term, of course, he recommends an income tax, and more handouts to poor families.

Of course, the best way we know that Gregoire will raise taxes is that she won't say she won't raise taxes. In 2004, she said she wanted to try to do everything without raising taxes. She, of course, raised taxes immediately. "Now is not the time to talk about taxes" is code for "I am going to raise your taxes, but I want you to vote for me, so I won't say it."

It's hard to imagine a more clear difference between two candidates. Gregoire thinks that our 33 percent budget increase during her years in office is appropriate and that we need all this spending by government in order to help people, and that we need to raise taxes to keep that spending. Rossi thinks that tax increases hurt families and businesses, and that the best way to help the most people is to not increase their taxes, and to reduce spending to avoid that.