The 2010 legislative session is just over a month away and it is time to remember what took place last year. After her many campaign claims that there was no deficit, Gov. Gregoire’s duplicity was unmasked when the Legislature reported that there was actually a $9 billion dollar shortfall! Five billion of it was unsustainable even in a good economy.

In spite of this, both last year and this year, the Legislature continued adding new programs and passing bills that will cost even more. Some government programs have tripled their budgets!

In the last few years the state budget has increased in size over 25 percent. There seems to be a reality disconnect in the majority party.

In spite of a horrendous deficit, no long range plan was adopted; no difficult prioritizing was done. Instead, the budget was balanced by robbing the infrastructure or long range funds of most government departments and cobbling this together with $3 billion in one-time federal stimulus money. That was called the budget. It was a travesty.

Just remember, when we have something like a bridge collapse here, as they have had in other places, the kind of actions over many years that causes these types of catastrophes.

Also remember, regardless of who is in office at the time, how things got to such a pass. It takes time to achieve those disasters, and we have had Democrat governors and a mostly Democrat controlled Legislature since 1984, for 25 years! Unless something changes, we are ripe for disaster.

Nancy Thompson

Clinton