The Legislature has adopted a budget for 2009 to 2011, but minority Republicans say it simply puts off the day or reckoning. This year’s $9 billion deficit is gone on paper, but it could easily come back even worse in two years if the economy doesn’t perk up.

The 2009 Legislature managed to make do without any substantive changes in how state government operates. But we’re still in a fiscal crisis, and a crisis can be a time of opportunity. In all likelihood, serious cutting will have to be done, and the place to start is with the Legislature itself. It’s two houses are bloated, inefficient, ineffective and far too expensive to run.

The time is right for major surgery. Cut away one of the legislative houses and adopt a unicameral legislature, where one body makes the decisions. And don’t worry that the one body may have too much power. The governor could still veto any bills passed by the single house, and the courts would still oversee their constitutionality. The balance of power would still be in effect.

For the sake of argument, let’s do away with the Washington State Senate. That would eliminate paychecks for the 49 senators and their staffs and other support personnel. Think of the bills that would never be introduced, the staff reports never ordered, the myriad Senate meetings never held and the news conferences not called. There would be no House-Senate conference committees, because there would be no Senate. Fewer elected officials would be meeting in secret, making deals behind the people’s back. The legislative process would be more open, streamlined and less expensive. The only losers would be the senators who would have to find a productive way of life, out of the limelight and without the support of public dollars.

Skeptics need look no further than the state of Nebraska, which boasts the union’s only unicameral legislature. They call their representatives senators, which is fine. We could just as easily eliminate our House of Representatives. Nebraska is operated in the black, its budget is balanced and it has a healthy budget reserve even during this economic crisis. As an added benefit, Nebraska politicians don’t run as Democrats or Republicans, but as non-partisans. This helps assure that their allegiance is to the people that elected them, not to the backroom boys who put them in power.

If our leaders in Olympia can slash their own budget and streamline their own operation, then they’ll have the credibility needed to do the same to the myriad other departments of state government. If this economic crisis can produce less government, it will not have been a total loss.