Using the State surplus.....

Last week I heard an incredible (maybe not so incredible considering the party of "spend it all, worry about how to pay for everything later") statement on the news by the governor, she didn't want the entire surplus used, just hang on to $500 million of it. Shades of government "budget cuts". (Increase the budget by 6% and then reduce the increase to 4% and call it a cut.) We have had a new tax rammed down our throats to pay for road projects (like the bike lane on some roads in King County) and others for which there are NO plans as yet in place and these clowns want to SPEND the surplus. The economy is in good enough shape to have a surplus in the state treasury and the state house and senate are gleefully making plans to spend the entire amount for their pet projects without even a backward glance at previous deficits in the budget. (I seem to recall that a "large deficit" was one of the many problems that Gary Locke had to try to solve in the last budget. Something that without the work of the (not)elected governor, Senator D. Rossi, the budget would not have been balanced.) (Isn't this a hoot, we have a "selected" governor...?) One of the Republicans was trying to point the way to fiscal responsibilty in his statement, but the impression that I got was he was only on for appearances sake. The more that the generally greedy group wants to spend the more I want to scream.