It helps if you look at it as an opportunity. From the Daily Journal of Commerce (http://www.djc.com/news/business/11002646.html):

January 10, 2000 Opinion:Making I-695 cuts is a healthy challenge

Initiative 695 will reduce motor vehicle excise taxes and fees up to $1.1 billion in the 1999-01 budget. (The 99-01 budget year began on July 1, 1999, and runs through June 30, 2001.) It is estimated to reduce 2001-03 revenues by $1.7 billion.

If the $1.1 billion revenue reduction from I-695 is applied only to the $20.6 billion general fund portion of the budget, the necessary "cut" would be 5.3 percent. If the $1.1 billion is applied to the total $45.2 billion state budget, the "cut" is 2.4 percent.

Although some folks would have us believe doom-and-gloom projections, this revenue reduction could be just the challenge Washington state needs to take a serious look at the scope and efficiency of its government operations, and perhaps more importantly, the priorities of where our money is really spent.

The bottom line then is how that revenue can be replaced or the need for the revenue eliminated.

Washington lawmakers need to consider the many opportunities the state budget presents to save money, and changes that should be made in the budget process. In the last biennium alone, the legislature and governor outspent inflation at the rate of $3.33 for every $1. The new budget submitted just before Christmas calls for hiring another 6,200 full-time state employees at an average cost of $51,700 per year. There are many more examples at the local level.

Washington can use this challenge to make government more efficient and effective.

Some of the best money-saving ideas for state and local governments come from the citizens.

-By MARK DOENNEBRINK

Have you e-mailed your representative to hold the line on government spending?

-- Craig Carson (craigcar@crosswinds.net), January 10, 2000

Answers

Politicians. Little Tin Gods on Wheels. Rudyard Kipling Public Waste

And they are still on wheels, and not transit wheels either.

-- (zowie@hotmail.com), January 10, 2000.