Cuts can cover cost of new spending plans

This is it – legislative season. It’s when we see all kinds of proposals: purple cards for Alzheimer’s patients, a homeless emergency in Seattle, homeless school children.

Well, if the homeless emergency in Seattle is really an emergency, why isn’t Seattle spending money on it instead of new rail stations or digging tunnels or painting rainbow crosswalks? And why can’t DSHS produce purple cards without a law?

I would suggest that anyone who comes to state government with a request for funds indicate what program should be reduced, unless they’re willing to pay for it themselves. They might look to transportation who it seems can’t design pontoons, or manage tunnel projects, without huge cost overruns. By the way, DOT, how far over budget is Bertha now? Remember the assurance that the contractor was on the hook for this?

This story was originally published February 19, 2016 at 1:13 PM with the headline "Cuts can cover cost of new spending plans."