The Columbian | Serving Clark County, Washington

Washington state’s rich uncle has become a summer Scrooge. That big check? It ain’t in the mail. Congress has turned its back on a bill that included $16 billion for Medicaid, which means $480 million won’t be coming to our state unless Congress reverses course before adjourning for its August recess.

Washington’s legislators had written that Medicaid money into the state budget. They lost that gamble. Gov. Chris Gregoire was scheduled to twist congressional arms today in Washington, D.C., trying to get the money before the break.

But the gamble never should’ve been taken by the governor and the Democrat-controlled Legislature earlier this year when writing the budget. As the Spokane Spokesman-Review editorialized Sunday, “hope isn’t a plan.” A spokeswoman for Gregoire’s office said that if the Medicaid money isn’t approved by Congress, Plan B would be to either call the Legislature into a special session (the second one this year) or start making across-the-board cuts.

The needle is about to peg out on the desperation meter. This is what happens when our state (bound by law to balance its budget) relies on a rich uncle that faces no such requirement but is susceptible to the winds of politics and polls. Suddenly, Congress is more resistant to expanding the deficit, and the states are paying the costly penalty for relying on the fickle feds.

To her credit, Gregoire is tackling the problem head-on, not only by ratcheting up pressure on Congress but by turning increasingly to what we’ve said all along (whistling in the wind, we were) is the best strategy: reforming government. The governor last week announced a bold plan that included several reforms such as further privatizing government services. One possibility would be the state ferry system; another is turning over the state’s information technology services to a private vendor. The 32-member task force that Gregoire has appointed will even consider auctioning off the names of bridges, ferries, rest areas and public buildings. Burgerville Bridge, anyone?

Refreshing, indeed, was this comment from Gregoire: “We can’t turn to state government and expect it to do it all. We’re going to have to say that some of the things that people have relied on — some of the things that I would say to you are good — can no longer be performed by state government.”

That’s the right idea, Gov. Gregoire. Now, if only you would mention something about state workers sharing the burden by reducing their pay and benefits. Whenever that subject is brought up, we still hear only crickets. Consider this bizarre comment from Tim Welch, spokesman for the Washington Federation of State Employees, about the threat of further cuts in state government services: “It is a sad day when an effort to ‘transform’ the budget appears to be nothing more than cover for cuts that make no fiscal or common sense.” No, Mr. Welch, that sad day actually dawned long ago when your union, the governor and other Democrats agreed on extravagant, hidebound contracts for state workers … then tucked those contracts safely outside the deficit-solutions arena … then refused to declare the fiscal emergency allowed by law that would have opened renegotiations.

Spare us the crocodile tears about cuts in services when politicians refuse to hold the public unions’ feet to the fire of austerity. That unsightly coziness, plus relying on money from a federal source that is in financial disarray, is a recipe for failure.

We wish the governor’s task force well. State Sen. Joe Zarelli or Ridgefield, the GOP’s chief budget expert, is among its members. “I thought it wasn’t real smart of us to rely on revenue that was tenuous,” he wisely noted. Maybe budget writers will start paying more attention to him now.

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