(WA) Priorities of Government back on life support

Evergreen Freedom Foundation ^ | 5-23-05 | Jason Mercier

[truth49]

When adopting the record $26 billion tax-and-spend 2005-07 budget, the legislature and governor with each tax increase and spending addition signaled their intent to carve R.I.P. on the tombstone of Priorities of Government (POG) budgeting. POG, the highly successful and renowned budget process that requires state officials to prioritize all state spending within available revenue, was used in crafting a no-new-taxes 2003-05 budget under the direction of then Sen. Dino Rossi and former Governor Gary Locke.

In fact, current Governor Christine Gregoire, prior to signing the tax-and-spend $26 billion budget, highlighted the state’s nomination for Harvard’s Innovation in Government Award for the POG budget process used by Rossi and Locke.

Ironically but thankfully, despite abandoning POG budgeting for the 2005-07 budget, the governor recently signed a bill (HB 1242) that will require her office to use Priorities of Government budgeting for future budgets.

Among the provisions of HB 1242:

• “The legislature finds that agency missions, goals, and objectives should focus on statewide results. It is the intent of the legislature to focus the biennial budget on how state agencies produce real results that reflect the goals of statutory programs.”

• “The governor shall communicate statewide priorities to agencies for use in developing biennial budget recommendations for their agency and shall seek public involvement and input on these priorities.”

• “Objectives must specifically address the statutory purpose or intent of the program or activity and focus on data that measure whether the agency is achieving or making progress toward the purpose of the activity and toward statewide priorities.”

• “The biennial budget document or documents shall also describe performance indicators that demonstrate measurable progress towards priority results.”
• “The governor's operating budget document or documents shall reflect the statewide priorities as required by RCW 43.88.090. The governor’s operating budget document or documents shall identify activities that are not addressing the statewide priorities.”

While it’s good to know these common sense budget requirements are being reemphasized, it’s troubling they weren’t already being done. That aside, guess you could say Gregoire’s signature on the nearly-unanimously approved HB 1242 may put POG back on life support. The key to Priorities of Government budgeting’s successful return to health, and incidentally the outlook for the state’s budget, will be whether or not the governor and legislature are able to comply with the law’s provisions. Based on the budget shenanigans displayed this past session, we all will need to keep a close eye on how state officials implement this potential breath of life for POG.

[lilylangtree]

Down with demoncRAT Fraudooire and her minions in the Legislature that pulled off such atrocities in this year's legislative session.