Letters to the Editor
Letter to the Editor | The games the state and county play with their budgets
We’ve watched Olympia and Pierce County plead poverty for the past two years (if not more). Last year, Olympia enacted the largest tax and fee hikes in Washington history only to plead poverty again this year. Pierce County is pleading poverty when it comes to the Pierce County Sheriff. Why are we sending more money to Olympia and to Pierce County only to hear they are still impoverished? Pierce County just voted to raise the sales tax rate to help fund the Sheriff’s department. What? This is the game Olympia and Pierce County play.
It dawned on me that budget shortfalls always impact critical departments. Both the state and the county should, when preparing their budgets, establish priorities. Here are the priorities I would follow if I was working on the county budget:
- PRIORITY #1: Public Safety. I would look at the Sheriff’s needs to adequately staff and equip the department to address ours. Nothing is more important than our safety. And yet it seems budget shortfalls always fall on that department. Pierce County is dead last in the entire country in county rankings of the ratio of citizens to law enforcement personnel. I’ve heard exhausted and burned out corrections officers testify before the council about massive amounts of mandatory and expensive overtime. Is the County infected with silently held “defund the police” philosophies that translate into low wages, inadequate benefits, and a culture that drives deputies away? We all know the City of Tacoma has raided the Sheriff’s deputies in huge numbers. I’d like to see a comparison of what Tacoma has been offering with what the County has been offering. If you want good people, you need to pay them what they deserve.
- PRIORITY #2: Once priority #1 is addressed, I would make priority #2 emergency services (fire and EMT’s). I would make sure these good people are also paid adequately (to the extent the County is involved — not sure of that) and have the equipment they need.
- Priority #3 would be roads and bridges. The County has a lot of bridges in a bad state of repair, and roads are crucial to safety as well. What impact does a drive down a pothole infested road or across an old decrepit bridge have on a Pierce County citizen who’s paying high taxes and fees and seeing no return on his or her money?
- Priority #4 would be infrastructure maintenance other than roads and bridges. The County has a lot of buildings it needs to maintain and a failure to do so only results in major expenses down the road.
- PRIORITY #5: After the first four priorities are done, then I would address budgets for other county services and programs.
When funding Priority #5 items, I would not approve any program that does not also provide a full independent audit of that program. Given all the disclosures of fraud and waste around the country (and I have no reason to believe Washington is not suffering from the same malady), if a program does not contain constant oversight and audit, I would vote “no.” I would demand annual reports that show progress. If there’s no progress, there should be no further funding. Many of these programs are important (not arguing that point), but they should only be supported if the County can afford to do so after addressing the first four priorities.
My concern is that these Priority #5 budget items are given equal or even greater attention when working up the budget and the result is an understaffed Sheriff’s department, inadequate emergency services, failing roads and bridges, and deteriorating County infrastructure. Why do I believe that? Hasn’t every single budget shortfall been announced as impacting critical government functions (i.e., the first four priorities)? Doesn’t this mean there are no issues with Priority #5 budget items?
There’s a simple rule: If you want an economy to thrive, you must leave as much money as possible in the hands of those who earn it. They will find a way to spend it. If you want an economy to wither, tax and fee the citizens to death and watch the economy die. Washington is experiencing this in an ever increasing way. Olympia is looking at adding an income tax for the wealthy (trying to deny us our right to vote on this which may be unconstitutional?), but the odds are once that door is open, Olympia will continue to lower the threshold until we’re all paying income taxes. We are California waiting to happen.
Final word: If the County is successful in making the Sheriff an appointed position, what do you think the odds are that any Sheriff would complain about inadequate funding? I would say zero. This is an absolute power grab by the County Council to get a subservient Sheriff.
Craig McLaughlin
Fox Island