Vampires in the State Budget
By John Barnes | 11/03/09 | 05:55 PM EDT | 5 Comments
Earlier this year, the marble halls of the state capitol echoed with dire predictions of death and doom as lawmakers cut several billion dollars from the state budget. "People will die," Rep. Eric Pettigrew (D-Seattle) famously quipped in defending a proposed tax hike.
By the time they passed a budget lawmakers claimed they had dug deep into state spending and trimmed all the fat before cutting into vital state programs. Apparently they didn't dig very deep.
While making cuts to health care subsidies, education, and corrections, lawmakers decided to continue spending money to promote tourism. Perhaps Rep. Pettigrew was afraid people would die if the state didn't create a special map showing tourists where to find Twilight hot spots in the town of Forks:
That's right, because Washington is "home of the exciting Twilight saga," the state is spending our money to promote Forks as THE place to be for the show's aficionados.
Promoting tourism is a good thing (though I would argue it is not a function of government--let the businesses that will profit spend their money to promote tourism), but can lawmakers seriously expect their constituents to believe they're prioritizing spending when they continue to fund stuff like this? When I go to a townhall meeting and my legislators look me in the eye and say "there's nothing else to cut" in the state budget, this comes to mind as a perfect example of why they should spend less time meeting with lobbyists and more time actually reading the state budget and evaluating agency functions.
By the way, if you're inclined to snipe back in the comment box with the shopworn line that funds used for stuff like this could be "dedicated funds" or "special grants" or whatever, think again. This comes right from the state General Fund (see page 19 of this document from the state's Office of Financial Management, and spend some time digging through http://fiscal.wa.gov/). This is a line-item appropriation that could have been cut to use the funds elsewhere.
TAGS: State spending
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5 Comments | Related Topics »King County (WA) | Pierce County (WA) | Snohomish County (WA) | Whitman County (WA)
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Comments
....if promoting tourism brings money into the state, isn't that money well spent?
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|I did the Twilight tour in Forks early in the summer with my 15 year old daughter and 16 year old stepdaughter. I had no trouble finding the locations above because the Forks Chamber of Commerce already has maps on their website, as well as printed versions at the Chamber of Commerce headquarters in Forks. In addition, there are numerous other fan sites on the net with maps, pictures and directions.
I agree that this is a huge moneymaking opportunity that Forks has wisely capitalized on (although to the regret of some residents apparently,) but it seems to be another example of something best left to the private sector versus government.
Unlike Mount Rainier, Twilight is just a passing fad, like Twin Peaks and Northern Exposure before it.
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|Anonymous,
Your question should be, "is spending public money to promote Twilight tourism, which the Twilight series does on its own anyway, a higher priority than roads, police, education, etc.?" The answer is obviously no.
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|Anonymous: If advertising is going to bring tourism to Forks, then the Forks Chamber of Commerce can take the lead. The point here is that legislators can't claim that there's nothing left to cut but health care, education, and corrections, if they're going to leave stuff like this in the budget. Legislators should evaluate agency functions and operations, and prioritize spending based on available resources. The things legislators said they had to cut are far more important than this. That tells me they didn't really do much heavy lifting on this budget.
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|What about the 1% art mandate. What about the100's of thousands going out in settlements and lawsuits because of poor planning or evaluation. There are several common sense adjustments that could save a ton of money, but that would be practical.
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