ThinkTank
How Should the State Deal with the Budget Crisis?
Last week, Democratic Gov. Chris Gregoire recommended $2 billion worth of cuts including scaling back
state employee health care to deal with the $2 billion budget crisis. The state legislature is holding a special session late this month.
The response to Gregoire's proposal was quick—and predictable. The left called for a different approach. Stop the cutting, they demanded (the state already cut $4.6 billion earlier this year and has cut $10 billion overall in the last three years of recessionary budgets.) Instead, they called for closing corporate tax breaks—something Gregoire has balked at .
The right applauded Gregoire's mantra that government can't fund everything anymore and must decide what to cut and what to keep.
Today in ThinkTank: We've asked the left brain and right brain to square off over the budget. From the left, it's Remy Trupin, Executive Director at the liberal policy shop, the Washington State Budget & Policy Center. And from the right, it's Paul Guppy, VP of Research at the conservative policy shop, the Washington Policy Center.
The response to Gregoire's proposal was quick—and predictable. The left called for a different approach. Stop the cutting, they demanded (the state already cut $4.6 billion earlier this year and has cut $10 billion overall in the last three years of recessionary budgets.) Instead, they called for closing corporate tax breaks—something Gregoire has balked at .
The right applauded Gregoire's mantra that government can't fund everything anymore and must decide what to cut and what to keep.
Today in ThinkTank: We've asked the left brain and right brain to square off over the budget. From the left, it's Remy Trupin, Executive Director at the liberal policy shop, the Washington State Budget & Policy Center. And from the right, it's Paul Guppy, VP of Research at the conservative policy shop, the Washington Policy Center.
