Budget cuts are coming…so why are we paying for artists’ lofts and performing arts facilities?

House capital budget priorities

From the Washington Policy Center’s blog, here’s a list of some expenditures listed in the Washington State Legislature’s capital budget.  I highlighted a couple that I found particularly ridiculous.  Does anyone else find it ironic that our lawmakers are threatening draconian cuts to public safety, public health, education and transportation [some may refer to these things as “priorities”] while throwing around millions for theaters, museum expansions and artists’ lofts?  [Speaking of those artists’ lofts, here’s a link to Artspace Everett.]

•    Apple Awards (for schools) – $250,000
•    Washington State Historical Society – $12,250,000
•    Eastern Washington State Historical Society – $1,939,000
•    Admiral Theatre-No Theatre Left Behind – $140,000
•    Artspace Everett Lofts – $1,000,000
•    Building a Foundation for Discovery – $250,000
•    Campus Consolidation (Cornish) – $375,000
•    Convert Key Bank To Everett’s Plaza Theatre – $500,000
•    Cottage Renovation (Hedgebrook) – $20,000
•    Downstairs at the 5th – $800,000
•    Federal Way Performing Arts Center – $325,000
•    Gateway Center (Lummi) – $150,000
•    James Ctr for the Performing Arts (Sequim) – $150,000
•    Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center – $475,000
•    Legacy Project (Imagine) – $200,000
•    Modular Classrooms for Dance (Gladish) – $30,000
•    Museum Expansion (Maryhill) – $1,500,000
•    New Hands On Children’s Museum  – $1,000,000
•    Phase II Renovation (Mt. Baker Theatre) – $1,000,000
•    Reconstruction of First Stage, Issaquah – $400,000
•    Seattle Opera Center – Phase I Design – $650,000
•    Stage Two (Whidbey) – $450,000
•    Vashon Arts Center – $1,115,000
•    Visual Arts Education Center (Sno Co.) – $1,000,000
•    Viva Vera Capital Campaign – $70,000
•    WA Hall Acquisition and Rehab – $400,000
•    A Home for Opportunity – $325,000
•    Building the new Eastside Clinic – $1,900,000
•    Community Center for Sand Point Housing – $350,000
•    Donald G. Topping HOPE Center – $1,934,250
•    Dove House – $240,000
•    Duvall Multi-Service Center – $617,985
•    East Central Community Facilities Expansion Project – $231,500
•    El Centro de la Raza Safety & Systems Improvements -$250,031
•    Emmanuel Family Life Center – $400,594
•    Eritrean Community Center Expansion – $300,000
•    Family Services Center – $1,265,000
•    Ferndale Boys & Girls Club – $752,847
•    Giant Step – $520,761
•    Greenbridge Early Learning Center – $1,419,281
•    High Point Neighborhood Center – $2,000,000
•    Highline YMCA – $2,000,000
•    Milgard Work Opportunity Center – $1,850,000
•    Mt. Baker Planned Parenthood Education and Training Center – $881,847
•    Northeast Community Center Expansion – $1,800,000
•    Pierce County Therapy Center – $128,000
•    Rainier Vista & Rainier Valley Teen Center – $3,906,000
•    Repurposing Daybreak Star – $87,500
•    Riverwalk Point Community Building – $79,253
•    Rotary Support Center for Families – $3,500,000
•    Technology Access Foundation Community Learning Space – $1,500,000
•    The Keller House Services Center – $600,000
•    YMCA/YWCA Central Spokane Facility – $3,500,000

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A good point from Carpe Diem–why target these sectors for “stimulus?”

$646,214 Per Government Job

“House Democrats propose to spend $550 billion of their two-year, $825 billion ‘stimulus bill’ (the rest of it being tax cuts). Most of the spending is unlikely to be timely or temporary. Strangely, most of it is targeted toward sectors of the economy where unemployment is the lowest.

The December unemployment rate was only 2.3% for government workers and 3.8% in education and health. Unemployment rates in manufacturing and construction, by contrast, were 8.3% and 15.2% respectively. Yet 39% of the $550 billion in the bill would go to state and local governments. Another 17.3% would go to health and education — sectors where relatively secure government jobs are also prevalent.”

As a Conservative, I have no illusions about what this stimulus bill is composed of and why it is being implemented.  But I have to wonder why the average person doesn’t grasp what a sham it is.  I guess because they don’t talk about this kind of thing on American Idol.

Professor Perry’s post has a graph illustrating unemployment by market sector and also a link to the original article by Alan Reynolds at the Cato Institute.

Washington State tax dollars at work: should it be Almond Roca or Aplets & Cotlets

Official State Candy

“A state lawmaker from Wenatchee says
he’ll introduce legislation to name Aplets & Cotlets the official
candy of Washington.

      Rep. Mike Armstrong says the cubes of nuts and apple and apricot
gelatin, covered with powdered sugar, have been made by Liberty
Orchards in Cashmere since 1920. He says they are made from
Washington fruit and identify the state to confection lovers
worldwide.

      But the bill could face stiff opposition from backers of Almond
Roca – the crunchy treat that has been made by Brown & Haley in
Tacoma since 1912. In 2001 a bill was introduced to make it the
state candy. It failed to pass.

      Armstrong says his colleagues might appreciate a non-budget
issue to debate in the session of the Legislature that begins Jan.
12.”

First of all, I like both Almond Roca and Aplets & Cotlets.  They’re both tasty but neither of them should be the “official” candy of Washington State.  Want to know why?  Because our lawmakers shouldn’t be wasting time and tax-payers’ dollars so frivolously.  You can contact Representative Armstrong through his website.

Check out the Crosscut Blog for more Washington State government waste

From the Crosscut blog:

Olympia’s kudzu of commissions

“The Washington Policy Center emailed a link to a Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee report released Dec. 3 that makes recommendations about what to do with the state’s out-of-control proliferation of boards and commissions (pdf). In fact, as the report indicates, tracking them all down is tough, let alone getting a handle of what they do. Or don’t do.”

Washington Policy Center–great group.  A lot of useful information on their website!

“The legislature has already determined there are too many boards and commissions, some 470, ranging from the Dry Pea and Lentil Commission and the Noxious Weed Control Board to the Public Disclosure Commission and the Board of Massage. Some do actual work overseeing public universities, watchdogging industry, advising policy makers, and licensing professionals from denturists to funeral directors. But together with various ad hoc committees and symbolic entities — not to mention groups created as a sop to various constituencies — getting a handle on them has been difficult.”