living liberty january 2004

January 2004 • Volume 14, Issue 1Living LibertyLiving LibertyLiving LibertyLiving LibertyLiving Liberty

Continued on page 8

January 2004

Though many taxpayers are still counting their fiscal bless-ings this year—namely a balanced state budget and anotherlegislative session gone by without the introduction of a stateincome tax—vigilance in 2004 will be crucial if we hope tofend off the latest onslaught of tax hike proposals and keepgovernment accountable for the dollars already being spent.

The good news is that state budget analysts predict a possiblebudget surplus of $380 million by 2009. The bad news? Thesurplus is contingent on fiscal discipline, and the state doesn’thave a great track record. What we do have this year isGovernor Locke’s new priority-based budget model, calledPriorities of Government (POG). If legislators continue tofollow and improve on the principles outlined in POG,resisting the temptation to remove the few protections leftin I-601 (state spending limit), we may see the surplus.

On the flipside, the same budget analysts predict a deficit of$3.1 billion in that time period if Washington fails to prioritizeprograms and continues to make caseload and spendingincreases. Never mind that I-601 will be history, with spendinglimits exceeded by $1.4 billion if we reach that point.

Legislators are already facing the usual army of advocatesfor increased spending. The most vocal are those calling formore education dollars. Numerous groups are crafting plansto increase spending by billions of dollars.

• The League of Education Voters is demanding a $1 billionincrease in K-12 spending, and threatens to run an

initiative if its demands aren’t met. Governor Locke sayshe supports their proposal.

• The Rainier Institute proposes to increase spending by$1.7 billion a year.

• The Superintendent of Public Instruction has floated theidea of a $1 billion increase in education spending.

• Former Governor Dan Evans is lobbying for hundreds of millionsof dollars in increased funding for higher education.

• And finally, we can expect the Washington EducationAssociation to jump on one or more of these bandwagonswith both feet.

But wait. Education spending has increased every year forthe last decade, yet close to one-third of all Washington highschool students today drop out before graduation. Of thestudents who do graduate, more than half must take remedialmath and writing courses at the community college level.And fewer high school graduates in our state are aiming atmath and science degrees.

Advocates of higher spending blame these problems on lackof funding. It’s been the same story for years. So how muchis enough? With no standards in place to measure theeffectiveness of each dollar spent in the system, this is animpossible question to answer.

On top of these education spending plans, some groups arealso hoping to increase transportation spending by roughlyone billion dollars. Discussions about raising the gas taxagain are underway. And of course there’s the issue of cost-of-living salary increases for teachers and state employees;the revamping of the state’s pension system; and the newcollective bargaining power of public employee unions.

What’s a hard-working citizen to do? After all, there is nogovernment money tree, as some seem to imagine. Thosedollars will come out of our wallets, and they will be funneled

by Jason Mercier

Living LibertyLiving LibertyLiving LibertyLiving LibertyLiving LibertyA publication of the Evergreen Freedom Foundation

2

Letter from LynnBy Lynn Harsh

I do not know how to live withoutbooks. When I was nine years old,my school teacher father earned some

extra money by cleaning out a house thathad been flooded. He had permission tobring home anything he wanted that hadnot been ruined by the angry water. Iremember nothing that came out of theback of our station wagon when he gothome except for the books: dozens ofbooks that would never look or smell quiteright, but that contained the grandestadventures in parts of the world of whichI had not yet heard.

During that particular year, we lived inour garage while my parents contemplatedbuilding an attached house. Miles andmiles from town, with no television orelectronic toys to woo us into catatonia,we read—and read—and read. I amunspeakably grateful for that legacy. Myparents may not have been able to pull

together temporal creature comforts forus, but they fed our mind and sharpenedour curiosity. Those are qualities that last.

It was then that I read Little Women, whereI fiercely identified with Jo in wonderinghow I was ever to tame my spirit, myhair, and my tomboy ways. ReadingRudyard Kipling was like finding aconcealed door where magical words andphrases would lead me from one secretstairway to another.

Then there was Madame Curie, a bookpublished about Marie Curie, who haddied 20 years before my birth. That bookchanged many things in my life. My eyesscoured our globe to find Poland, thebirthplace of this brilliant woman bornManya Sklodovski. How to pronouncethese difficult names, I wondered?Curiosity dogged me about hermotherland and the country named Russiathat had oppressed and devastated Poland.My fingers found Russia, and I wonderedabout this giant country and the darknessthat seemed to hang over the people itcruelly ruled.

I was fascinated by the way Marie Curiewas educated. In spite of poverty, burned-out schools, and other circumstances wewould find intolerable today, she and hersiblings were well-educated.

Then there was Paris, the place where shemet and married her equally brillianthusband, who she described as her belovedcompanion. Where was Paris, Iwondered? Again, I searched our globe todiscover it.

And the marvel of scientific discovery, andthe process that led the Curies to unfoldthe existence and usefulness of radium!At nine years of age, I certainly did notunderstand the complex language of thelaboratory, but I instinctively grasped theawe and drive that propelled men andwomen to satisfy curiosity, and thusprovide a service to all mankind.

I imagined the topography, the dress ofthe people, and the food they ate. I learnedto use maps and practice foreign languagesand appreciate the wisdom of others. Ilearned about good and bad governments.And I learned to embrace the curiosity thatsometimes threatened to overwhelm mynine-year-old brain and frame.

A Literary Legacy

Recommended Reading (for starters)

The Law, Frederic Bastiat

The Road to Serfdom, Friedrich Hayek

Economics in One Lesson, Henry Hazlitt

The Federalist Papers, James Madison,Alexander Hamilton, John Jay

The Republic, Plato

The Conservative Mind, Russell Kirk

Reflections on the Revolution in France,Edmund Burke

The American Cause, Russell Kirk

Free to Choose, Milton Friedman

The Bible (forms the foundation for Judeo-Christian thought)

Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville

Benjamin Franklin: An American Life,Walter Isaacson

Never Give In: The Best of WinstonChurchill’s Speeches,Winston Churchill

History of the American People, PhillipJohnson (probably my favorite classic, his-tory of America)

For the New Year:


3

Contents

5 School board faces facts in MarysvilleTeachers kept students out of class as they marched the picket line for 51 days inMarysville this year, convinced by union officials that the school board was greedilytrying to deny the large raises they demanded.

6 Career patients?Between 1998 and 2002, employees in five state agencies reported 36 cases of“influenza”, for which they collected $400,059.55 in workers’ compensationfrom the state. That’s an average of $11,112.75 for each case of the flu.Theamount is shocking, of course, but so is the fact that an employee can collectworkers’ compensation for an illness as common as the flu.

4 Free-market pow wowA meeting of free-market think tanks from around the nation is always colorfuland interesting, and a recent trip to Washington, D.C. for a policy conference wasno exception.

7 Budgeting wisely in the New YearThe new model rejects what has become conventional thinking, which says bud-get deficits must be addressed with higher taxes or fewer essential services. Gover-nor Locke’s model changes the rules and focuses on identifying and achieving thecore purposes of government.

8 UI reforms

Evergreen Freedom FoundationPO Box 552

Olympia, WA 98507(360) 956-3482

Fax (360) [email protected] • www.effwa.org

Living Liberty is a publication of theEvergreen Freedom Foundation.

Editors:Lynn Harsh

Marsha RichardsPublisher:

Joel Sorrell

EFF’s mission is to advance individualliberty, personal responsibility, and

limited and accountable government.

Nothing in this publication should beconstrued as an attempt to aid or hinder

the passage of any legislation.

When do legislative reforms cease to be reforms? Simple: When a state agencydecides it can quietly misinterpret them to advance its own agenda, or when theydon’t make it past the governor’s veto pen.

9 Doing Toto’s WorkWashington Education Association officials operate much like the Wizard of Oz—thundering with a voice of power, unanimity and moral authority. Lawmakers,school directors, journalists and teachers cower before the phony facade. And thatis why we have been working to expose the real face behind the curtain of theteachers’ union.

What a gift of freedom and explorationmy parents gave me when they and myteacher Mrs. Flowers taught me to read.They did not teach me to memorizepictures as prompts for words, or as asubstitute for words. I was not given listsof idioms to learn. Instead they taughtme the rudiments of our language so Icould explore by myself, and so I couldunderstand directly what an author wassaying, rather than needing someone elseto interpret it for me.

Not one person ever told me I waseducationally disadvantaged or “at-risk”because I lived in a garage and didn’t eatbreakfast. How deeply I appreciate myparents and teachers ignoring the obstaclesto zero-in on the possibilities instead.

Continued on page 10


44

Our fearless leader, Bob Williams, is spending more and moretime on the road these days. Recently, over a two-week

period, he traveled north to Marysville, south to Vancouver, eastto Tri-Cities, and out of the state to San Francisco and Jackson,Mississippi. During that time he delivered a total of 18 speechesand presentations, including a keynote address to a luncheonfull of Mississippi legislators. His mission? To explain the im-

portance of responsible state budgeting and share a budget modelthat makes limited, accountable government possible. As this isbeing written, he is in San Diego, where he has several meetingsplanned with key opinion- and policy-makers. Then it’s back hometo gear up for the 2004 Legislative Session!

Bob on the road

A meeting of free-market think tanksfrom around the nation is always col-

orful and interesting, and my recent tripto Washington, D.C. for a policy confer-ence was no exception. The meeting wasarranged by the very resourceful StatePolicy Network, and attracted policy rep-resentatives from Hawaii to Maine andmost of the states in between.

First, we enjoyed abreakfast meeting

hosted by the NationalFederation of Indepen-

dent Business, where wediscussed ways to reintro-

duce the principles of free enterprise(and just plain common sense) into statepolicies governing unemployment insur-ance, worker safety, taxation, health in-surance, etc. We know from experiencehere in Washington that businesses (andjobs) cannot survive when the state’spolicies are all but sucking them dry.(Go figure.)

From there we headed over to theoffices of Americans for Tax Re-form, where we were specialguests at ATR PresidentGrover Norquist’s “Wednes-day Meeting.” That’s

where many conservative leaders andactivists gather for two hours each weekto share news of their work and suggestways to “divide and conquer” from mul-tiple fronts. I was pleased to share anupdate on EFF’s work to promote pri-ority-based state budgeting, and high-lights from our battle with the teachers’union.

The meeting was followed by adiscussion with Steve Moore of theClub for Growth (CFG), whichcentered around how to punish andreward, respectively, the CFG-backed candidates who voted for

and against the massive newMedicare entitlement bill.

Perhaps the most importantstatement made was areminder that good policy is

Free-marketpow-wow

by Marsha Richards

Continued on next page


5

not defined by a party name, but by the right ideas andprinciples. There is widespread disappointment amongconservatives nationally in President Bush’s decision topromote the Medicare bill, and in the strong-arm tacticsused within the Republican party to secure the votes.

We were briefed next by staff from President Bush’sreelection campaign, the U.S. Department of Education(DOE), and the U.S. Department of Treasury.

Conservatives are in an uproar about the increases in federalspending under the President’s watch. Many are seriouslyconcerned about the rift between “big-spendingRepublicans” and “small-government advocates.” Federalspending has increased more than 15 percent since January2000, and families today are, on average, paying morethan $20,000 per household to cover the cost—the highestlevel since the Second World War.

In education, the federal government seems eager to enforcethe No Child Left Behind Act. While we at EFF are notpleased to see more federal control over local schools, wehave analyzed the law to figure out how it can be leveragedto help improve schools in our state. There are a few brightspots. When I mentioned that many schools are notaccurately informing parents of their alternatives when theirchild’s school fails, the DOE representative made it clearthat if we inform them of the problem and the school, theywill take corrective action.

The following day was filled with several speakers hostedby the pharmaceutical industry, during which we discussedmany current health care issues like drug importation andreimportation, rising health care costs, the new Medicarebill, etc.

The conference ended with a three-hour briefing ontelecommunications regulations. I must humbly admit, inthe words of a fellow attendee: “I don’t think I understandnearly as much as I now know about the issue.” What Ican say is that it boiled down to a simple fact: Propertyrights and free enterprise are struggling under the weightof a huge regulatory burden, and something must be doneto alleviate it.

Perhaps the most important and inspiring news I can giveyou from my trip, though, is the knowledge that there area great many freedom-fighting groups like EFF, supportedby folks like you, forging a path toward liberty in everystate in our nation. I expect we’ll win.

Marsha Richards ([email protected]) is EFF’sCommunications Director.

Teachers kept students out of class as they marchedthe picket line for 51 days in Marysville this year,convinced by union officials that the school board

was greedily trying to deny the large raises they demanded.The community, angered and frustrated by the strike,replaced three of the district’s board members with union-backed candidates in the November election.

What have those new members discovered now thatthey’re in office? They’ve discovered the district wasn’tfibbing: there isn’t much money to play with. In fact,they’re facing a $2 million shortfall resulting from theloss of 500 students who, understandably, chose not towait out the strike.

In the enlightened words of new board member MichaelKundu: “We need to find a way to whittle down thisbudget.”

Board members are looking at proposed cuts inequipment, textbooks, field trips, materials, supplies, andteachers’ aides—all of which directly impact studentlearning.

The district had a 5.1 percent ($4.1 million) reserve atthe beginning of the school year, with expertsrecommending a 4 to 8 percent cushion at all times. Thedistrict’s finance director projects a year-end balance of$1.53 million under the current budget, assuming no raisesare given to any employee.

“Given the decline in district enrollment, and assumingthat other revenue estimates remain stable, expenditureswill have to be reduced from the budgeted amounts inorder to avoid an unreasonable and financially precariousending fund balance,” said Keith Lowry, a consultant hiredto review the district’s finances.

The facts are a far cry from what the union told teachersto convince them to mount a nearly two-month-long illegalstrike. Yet who is paying the penalty? Students.

But, that’s typical of a union bent on preserving andexpanding its own power no matter the cost.

Union-backed board membersface facts in Marysville


6

“That’s an average of $11,112.75for each case of the flu.”


Between 1998 and 2002, employ-ees in five state agencies reported36 cases of “influenza”, for which

they collected $400,059.55 in workers’compensation from the state. That’s anaverage of $11,112.75 for each case ofthe flu.

The amount is shocking, of course, butso is the fact that an employee can collectworkers’ compensation for an illness ascommon as the flu.

We recently asked the Department ofLabor and Industries (L&I) to tell us howmany worker injuries are reported byemployees in the state’s top five agencies.It seems working for state governmentmay be one of the most dangerous jobsaround, if you can trust the informationit provides.

Department staff sent us a detailedspreadsheet with a rather seriousdisclaimer

The State of Washington Department ofLabor & Industriesdoes not warrant theaccuracy, reliability,or timeliness of thisinformation, andshall not be heldliable for any losses caused by the relianceon the accuracy, reliability, or timeliness ofsuch information. Portions of suchinformation may be incorrect or not current.Any person or entity who relies this [sic]information does so at their own risk.

Can you imagine if we put a disclaimerlike that on the information we publishas a policy research organization? We’dbe selling balloon animals on street cornersright now.

If we assume for purposes of this articlethat the data provided by L&I is accurate,

a rather brutal picture is painted. Butwhether it’s taxpayers or state workersgetting the worst of it is hard to say.

The Department reports that between1998 and 2002, five state agencies wereresponsible for workers’ compensationclaims totaling $132.7 million. Thoseagencies include the Department of Socialand Health Services (DSHS), theDepartment of Corrections (DOC), theUniversity of Washington (UW), theDepartment of Transportation (DOT), andWashington State University (WSU).

Going strictly by the number ofcomplaints filed, we’ll rank them startingwith the most dangerous:

1. DSHS – 8,789 employee claims; $65million.2. UW – 5,783 employee claims; $21.7million.3. DOC – 3,889 employee claims; $26.3million.4. DOT – 2,155 employee claims; $13.7million.5. WSU – 1,335 employee claims; $6million.

The most common injuries reported weresprains, cuts and bruises. Taxpayers forkedout nearly $15 million between 1998 and

2002 for 5,890 claims of bruises and cutssustained on the job. If you do the math,that averages out to about $2,542 perbruise or cut.

Here are some other interesting (andexpensive) tidbits:

• The highest ticket injury in L&I’s datais called “ill-def symp,” but unfortunatelywe don’t know what that is. The statepaid $20,763,586.99 for 2,648 cases.

• There were 87 injuries to “teeth” fortotal claims of $113,054.78.

• There were 38 cases of “contagious,”“tuberculosis” and “other infect” fortotal claims of $26,416.19.

• Ten cases of “umbilical” cost$40,174.73. Whatever that means.

• One employee was the victim of“freezing.” $74.00.

• There were 692 “scratches” reportedfor total claims of $299,588.18.

• Three people got “boils, etc.” for$5,145.03.

• And there are numerous other injurieslisted on L&I’s chart. The total includes21,961 claims and $132,701,085.83paid out.

This kind of data provokes someimportant questions: Why are taxpayerscompensating state workers for commonillnesses like the flu? Why are state workerscollecting thousands of dollars forseemingly minor and unavoidable mishapslike scratches and bruises? What standardsdetermine a legitimate workplace injury?Who is providing oversight to eliminatefraud and abuse?

The workers’ compensation system wasnot designed to make the normal achesand pains of life a source for supplementalincome. Perhaps getting a scratch duringwork hours should not be tantamount towinning a small-stakes lottery.

Ironically, the Department of Labor &Industries “was dismayed to find out acouple of years ago that the agency itselfhad an employee accident rate that wasabove average.” In fact, L&I employeesfiled and received claims totaling $5.4million between 1998 and 2002, makingthe Department’s “experience rating” (rateof claims) 65 percent higher than theaverage business in its employmentclassification. When Department staffanalyzed the injuries, they concluded that“most of them were preventable,” and havesince launched a “major safety campaign”to reach a goal of “zero accidents by2006.”

Patients?Career

by Marsha Richards and Jason Mercier


7


Budgetingwisely in the

new yearby Bob Williams

As a freshman legislator in 1979, Iworked to revise the state budget process around core governing

principles and plain common sense. Iwanted to:

1. Develop a nonpartisan revenueforecast. (This was accomplished in1982.)

2. Put two percent of the forecastedrevenue into a reserve until it grew tofive percent, then return the excesscollections to taxpayers. (Voters passedthe spending limit Initiative 601 in1993, but the language wasn’t restrictiveenough to prevent legislators fromeroding the limits.)

3. Build priority-based budgets.

4. Require a 60 percent vote to raise taxes.

Significant progress was made towardthese goals when former Governor MikeLowry required all state agencies todevelop mission statements, goals andobjectives, and performance measures.Then, last year, Governor Gary Lockeintroduced his new Priorities ofGovernment (POG) budget model.

The new model rejects what has becomeconventional thinking, which says budgetdeficits must be addressed with highertaxes or fewer essential services. GovernorLocke’s model changes the rules andfocuses on identifying and achieving thecore purposes of government. He asks fourkey questions:

1. How much money does the state have?

2. What results matter most to citizens?(i.e., What are the priorities ofgovernment?)

3. How much should the state spend toachieve each result?

4. How can the state best deliver thoseresults?

Governor Locke received nationalattention for his new budget approach.But state Senator Dino Rossi who, asChair of the Ways and MeansCommittee, inherited more than $500million in unfunded programs from theGovernor’s first request, managed toprioritize all programs into a state budgetthat was balanced without general taxincreases. Basing the budget onidentifiable outcomes closed what wouldhave been a $2.6 billion hole.

The jury is still out on whether legislatorswill build on the new process this year, orrevert to simply adding up spendingrequests and pursuing tax increases.

EFF believes hundreds of millions ofdollars can be saved if legislators take thepriority-based budget model and move itfrom the general budget level down tospecific policy committees (i.e., K-12,Higher Education, Transportation, etc.).

By way of example, we recommend thatthe K-12 committee hold hearings toaddress the following:

• Governor Locke’s goal for K-12, whichreads: “Increase student achievementin K-12.” This needs to be moredefinite. What does it mean to increasestudent achievement? Increase it fromwhat to what? What are the measurablestandards? What is the timeline?

• The mission statement for the Officeof the Superintendent of PublicInstruction (OSPI). Currently it reads:“The [OSPI], in collaboration withfamilies, local communities, businessesand government partners, leads,supports and oversees K-12 educationensuring the success of all learners.”Again, what does this mean and howwill it be measured? We would suggestsomething more specific, such as:“OSPI is responsible for providing

program leadership for our state’s publiceducation system, to ensure that allstudents have the opportunity to achievethe state’s public education goals andobjectives.” Assuming the state had clearstandards, this kind of mission couldbe tracked and evaluated.

• OSPI’s performance indicators. Howdo lawmakers know if this agency issuccessfully meeting its goals? This yearSuperintendent Terry Bergeson had noidentified performance measures!When questioned by EFF, she repliedthat she wasn’t going to make thegovernor’s budget-writing job easy.Since she is independently elected, thegovernor has no oversight of her office,so she can get away with ignoring hisrequests. But the OSPI can’t ignore thelegislature.

Legislators need to hear from you on theseissues. The budget is the most importantpiece of legislation they vote on, becauseall policy is based on how dollars areallocated. Many legislators still do notunderstand how priority-based budgetingworks. They continue to create policywithout understanding how it will impactstate revenue and spending, or what it willlook like if it succeeds. The result is asystem openly vulnerable to waste, fraudand mismanagement—a system ofperverse incentives. This leads to a lackof trust among citizens and a well-foundedsense that tax dollars are not being spentefficiently and effectively.

We will be working this next session toshow legislators how to review the purposeof state agencies with particular questionsand criteria in mind:

• Is the mission a proper function ofgovernment?

• If so, is it being performed at theproper level of government?

• Do the agency goals relate directly tothe mission statement?

• Do performance measures focus onoutcome and reflect the mission?


8

This was news to Sen. Honeyford, whosays he wishes “ESD would have calledfor clarification” if they were uncertainof the legislature’s intent.

Sen. Tim Sheldon (D-Potlatch) also madehis thoughts and intentions clear: “Thisis another time when an agency makesthe final determination on a law becausewe’ve (legislators) given them too muchflexibility. I thought this bill was prettystraightforward. The reduction was to bepermanent at 26 weeks.”

He went on: “It’s terribly frustrating forlegislators to feel that they’ve negotiatedand compromised to pass a law only tofind out that it is immediately changedby an agency. Maybe this is something we’llbe able to address in the coming session.”

Unfortunately, when legislators tried toaddress the problem of out-of-controlstate agencies this year, they ran up againstGovernor Locke’s veto pen again. HouseBill 1531, approved with overwhelmingand bipartisan majorities in both theHouse and Senate, would have requiredthe governor’s signature on all agency rulesand regulations.

Fortunately, lawmakers may still havetime to rein in ESD officials before finalrules and implementation for the UIeligibility requirements are adopted. TheDepartment may also need to bereminded that another of the UI changeslegislators made was to strike the directivethat UI laws “be liberally construed.”Legislators are making it clear they meanwhat they say and they expect the law tobe enforced and interpreted as written.

That is when a reform is truly reform.

When do legislative reforms ceaseto be reforms? Simple: Whena state agency decides it can

quietly misinterpret them to advance itsown agenda, or when they don’t make itpast the governor’s veto pen.

Such is the fate of two importantunemployment insurance (UI) reformspassed by the state legislature last year.Namely, requiring claimants to provideproof of identification and reducing thelength of time a claimant can collectbenefits from 30 weeks to the standard26 weeks.

The first was vetoed by Governor Lockein the name of “expediency” (apparentlyit takes too long to ask for identification),and the second is being misinterpretedand misapplied by our state’s EmploymentSecurity Department (ESD).

In a gesture to labor and an attempt toease the new reforms in gently, legislatorsdecided the four-week reduction inbenefit eligibility would be triggered whenthe state’s unemployment rate dropped to6.8 percent or less. Early versions of theprocess were explained clearly by theWashington State Labor Council for thebenefit of its members, despite the union’sopposition to the reforms:

New claims filed after Jan. 1, 2004 wouldbe limited to 26 weeks of regular benefits,

down from the current maximum of 30 weeks.This would drop Washington from being oneof only two states that allow 30 weeks to beingone of the majority of states at 26.

According to Employment Security estimates,this would save the UI system $160 millionover the next four years, or about $40 milliona year. In addition, there will be moreemployer savings associated with this changebecause as benefit ratios drop, they will beable to drop rate classes faster and thus paylower taxes.

Sen. Jim Honeyford (R-Sunnyside), asponsor of the legislation, said its “intentwas for the maximum number of weeks tobe reduced to 26 weeks in a step process—a permanent reduction to 26 weeks.”

Instead of complying with the legislature’sintent, ESD officials have decided thereduction is fluid and impermanent. TheDepartment spins it this way:

Once the unemployment rate drops to 6.8percent or less, the maximum claim durationwill drop to 26 weeks. If the unemploymentrate rises to a rate greater than 6.8 percent,the maximum claim duration will increaseto 30 weeks. . . Payment of extended benefitsends and begins depending on fluctuatingunemployment rates. In the absence oflanguage expressing the legislature’s intent thatthis change shall be permanent, theDepartment will adhere to the statute aswritten.

UI reforms and unaccountable agencies

Jason Mercier is EFF’s budget research analyst and can be reached at [email protected].

into programs and activities that often haveno clear mission or goals.

That’s why EFF will be stressing someimportant challenges for legislators toundertake in the coming year. (Read moreabout them on page 7.) With your con-tinued help and support, great strides canbe made toward achieving responsible

budget practices. The alternative is towatch government grow in size and inef-ficiency until it becomes too much to bear,but by then it will be much more difficultto crawl out from under it.

Budget continued from page 1 . . .

by Jason Mercier


9

Doing Toto’s work

More than thirty editorials and columnscritical of WEA were written by newspapersin our state this year! This caused unionpresident Charles Hasse to lament that:“Praise from newspaper editors must bea powerful intoxicant, the effect of whichWEA appears unlikely to ever experiencedirectly.”

Folks are beginning to realize that the“wizard” is really a coterie of extremelywell-paid union officials who collectmandatory dues and refuse to beaccountable to teachers.

We are pleased to see the fruit of ourefforts to shed light on the activities andagenda of the National Education

Association and the WashingtonEducation Association. Teachers,journalists and policymakers arebeginning to agree that the union’s“business as usual” is no longer tolerable.

January: Reporters nationwide covered a multi-million dollar embezzlementscandal involving officials of the Washington D.C. teachers’ union. Here athome, WEA officials spent more than $1 million to organize and bus 20,000teachers to Olympia to call for higher wages—only to be soundly ignored bylegislators who weren’t willing to raise taxes to pay for it.

February: The National Education Association revealed its true nature witha lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Labor that seeks to block new rulesthat would require the union to file annual financial reports that most otherunions already file.

April: Reporters nationwide unearthed an even more sordid financial scandalin the Dade County, Florida teachers’ union. And back at home, Washingtonjournalists exposed the WEA’s statewide misinformation campaign thatclaimed teachers were leaving our state in droves to find more liveable wagesin California.

May: Baffled news outlets tried to figure outhow WEA’s partnership with special interestgroups seeking an expansion of gambling andnew taxes was really “for the kids.”

July: The nation learned that the NEA electedto its board a teacher whose credentials hadbeen suspended for sexual impropriety.

October: WEA staged a record-breaking 51-day strike in Marysville, and argued in courtthat parents of students had no “standing”

to seek a court order requiring teachers to end the illegal strike and return tothe classroom.

November: News broke that the NEA is being audited by the IRS afterreporting “zero” political expenditures on its tax forms.

December: WEA officials sued the state legislature to block salary increasesfor beginning teachers, claiming the provision interferes with “local control.”In another case, the state Supreme Court threw out WEA’s lawsuit againstthe Public Disclosure Commission, which recently wrote guidelines to clarifythat union officials cannot use school mailboxes and e-mail systems todistribute political materials.

The day when teachers are allowed achoice about whether or not they will fundunion politics cannot be far away.

Jami Lund manages EFF’s Teachers’ PaycheckProtection project. He can be reached [email protected].

Consider the facts:

“Praise from newspapereditors must be a powerful

intoxicant, the effect ofwhich WEA appears unlikelyto ever experience directly.”

–Charles Hasse, WEA

by Jami Lund

An apt but unflattering analogy forwhat I do here at EFF can be foundin the role of Toto, the mutt in the

Wizard of Oz. Toto is remembered forstruggling to pull back the curtain on thehidden wizard who has intimidated Dorothyand her friends into submission with smoke,noise and lights.

Washington Education Associationofficials operate much like the Wizard ofOz—thundering with a voice of power,unanimity and moral authority.Lawmakers, school directors, journalistsand teachers cowerbefore the phony facade.And that is why we havebeen working to exposethe real face behind thecurtain of the teachers’union.

Years of work andresearch are paying off,and 2003 has beenrough for the union—ayear plagued by scandal,political defeat and public rebuke.


10

Career Patients continued. . .

For the most part, my own children havebeen reared in “normal” houses, wherebreakfast is mandatory. And though theyare distracted by modern electronic gad-gets, it delights me to see them build theirown libraries and attempt to satiate theirown curiosity through books old and new.

Lots of ways exist to help change the livesof our fellow human beings. This year, tryteaching a child to read. Or begin buildinga library for your own children orgrandchildren. Read out loud to childrenas long as they will let you, and then pressfor a little more. If your household hasmore televisions than books, I implore youto get about the business of changing thatsituation. You might try paying yourgrandchildren to read books that willimprove a lackluster understanding ofpersonal character, government andeconomics. I know several people who aresuccessfully doing this.

Not all books are worth reading. Somewould be better placed in an outhouse thanon a bookshelf. But thousands ofextraordinary books await the person whowill sit still long enough to turn a few pages.

From me to you: Happy New Year andhappy reading, too!

Letter from Lynn continued . . .

Oh dear, oops again!We’re not sure how we flubbed this one, but in our November article we printedwhat we thought was Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation. Turnsout we were partly right, but mostlywrong. All but the last paragraph of ourexcerpt is actually part of Lincoln’sProclamation Appointing a NationalFast Day in March of 1863. The lastparagraph comes from Lincoln’sThanksgiving Proclamation, given laterthat year.

We’re very sorry about our mistake, andvery grateful to the sharp readers whocaught it!

• What have the results been during theprevious biennium?

• Do all activities relate to the missionand goals, and do they accuratelyreflect the required three-tiered systemin Washington state of high, mediumand low priorities?

• Does the requested budget accuratelyreflect the three categories as well?

After review, we will help lawmakersformulate questions/answers to bringabout change wherever they deemnecessary. We will also:

• Encourage and participate in publichearings sponsored by legislators.

• Host town hall meetings and visiteditorial boards to familiarize citizensand media with the new budget modeland encourage involvement andaccountability.

• Solicit radio, television and printmedia interviews to broadcastinformation to a wide audience.

• Develop recommendations for budgetpolicies that reward performance andimprovement and eliminate perverseincentives.

We would like to help increase the abilityof the state legislature to address publicconcerns in a responsive and responsible

way by making the budget process moretransparent and accessible. Under apriority-based model, stakeholders haveall the tools they need to articulate theneed for the addition or elimination ofvarious programs.

We also want to see increased informationavailable to legislators, citizens and themedia through the development ofmission statements, agency goals andpriorities, and clearly defined outcomes.This allows meaningful publicinvolvement.

In summary, in 2004, EFF will beworking to link policy and performanceto budgets. Policymakers will have theknowledge and tools to reward goodperformance and develop corrective actionfor poor performance. Legislators andcitizens can better evaluate the need formore or less taxes.

Washington citizens lack confidence intheir elected officials. They do not feeltheir tax dollars are being managed well.The aim of EFF’s budget project is to helprestore trust in government by providingtransparency in the budget process.Citizens armed with this information andthese tools will be empowered toparticipate.

Bob Williams ([email protected]) is EFF’spresident.

Budgeting continued . . .

Funny, we thought the whole purpose ofL&I’s existence was to promote workersafety. Suddenly this new internal cam-paign for worker safety doesn’t seem likesuch an innovative thing after all.

In the meantime, L&I just increasedworkers’ compensation rates for statebusinesses by 9.8 percent, which comeson top of a 29 percent increase earlier

this year. Businesses are reeling, and manyare asking the legitimate question: If L&Ican’t clean up its own house, why is itincreasing the burden on private busi-nesses already struggling to stay afloat? TheDepartment “is doing more than [its]share to drive those costs up,” wroteRandy Gold of the Building Industry As-sociation of Washington.

Yes, indeed. If the numbers provided byL&I are accurate, jobs in state govern-ment are either abnormally hazardous, orclearly vulnerable to fraud.

We recommend the legislature get to thebottom of this.


11

Checking Account–Egiving Systems (Attach a voided check)

Savings Account–Egiving Systems (Attach a voided deposit slip)

I want to invest in the Evergreen Freedom FoundationYes,Dear Friend of EFF,

While we welcome any gift, our greatest need is reliable monthly income. It is imperative for achieving our goals.Please consider our automatic giving program as a way to invest in the cause of freedom. Our safe, Egiving System’sautomatic bank account/bank card payment ensures that more of your contribution goes directly to our work.

Cordially,

VISA Master Card Discover American Express

(required for bank and credit card donations)

Bank Debit/Credit Card Donation AuthorizationI authorize my bank/credit card company to automatically debit my account below for$ each month until further notice. I understand that I am in fullcontrol of my donation, and at any time I can decide to make any changes or discontinuethe automatic service by calling 360-956-3482 or writing to EFF.

Date

Personal Information

AddressCompanyName

PhoneCity, State, Zip

E-mail

Please indicate your preferred withdrawal date: 1st 10th 20th

Signature

Credit Card # Expiration Date:Your Donations to EFF

are Tax-Deductible

C

Please mail or fax in this form (fax 360-352-1874) or call 360-956-3482.We will send you a confirmation letter for your records.

Please mail or fax in this form (fax 360-352-1874) or call 360-956-3482.

I would like to give a one time gift of $

Don’t forget that many companies offer matching contributions for their employees (and sometimes retirees too). Checkwith your employer to see if they will match your gift to charitable 501(c)(3) organizations like EFF!

All checks postmarked on or before December 31, 2003, will count as 2003 contributions! To learn more about these orany other options, please call Juliana McMahan at (360) 956-3482.

Looking for ways

There are a number of ways you can creatively support EFF’s work, including:

• Donating appreciated stocks (avoid capitol gains taxes)• Making gifts through your will (reduce estate taxes)• Setting up a trust fund (reduce your income taxes)• Establishing a Chair or Center (i.e. Wilson Budget Chair,

Smith Education Chair – tax-deductible)• Making in-kind contributions (also tax-deductible)• Volunteering at our office (helps to reduce our expenses)• Giving cash contributions (an old tax-deductible favorite)

to support EFF’s work?

12

Address service requested

A few upcoming events . . .

Thursday, January 8Bob Williams addresses the LynnwoodRotary regarding the future for Wash-ington state businesses.

Monday, January 12The 2004 Legislative Session begins.

Tuesday, January 20March for Life rally at the Capitol Cam-pus at noon.

January 22John Stanton at Discovery InstitutePart of Discovery’s Tech Forum SeriesDiscovery Institute is proud to welcomeWestern Wireless CEO John Stanton tospeak as part of our Technology ForumSeries. Mr. Stanton will speak at Dis-covery Institute on Thursday, January22, from 4:30 - 6 p.m. More details tofollow. Cost for the event is $20 andincludes a selection of regional wine &cheese. To register, please contact JanetMarkwardt at [email protected] or(206) 292-0401, x111.

Friday, January 30The Lakewood Rotary is scheduled tohost Bob Williams.

living liberty january 2004

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