Comments on: Gov. Gregoire Floats Ferry, Education Reform to Near-Universal “Meh”

By: Constance Lambson

Constance Lambson — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 18:54:00 +0000

Many, many moons ago, back when Governor Gregoire was AG, I worked in the Seattle AG’s office. Due to restrictions written into the budget process, we were not allowed to order pens or mechanical pencils for our day to day work, because they were “too expensive.” So, we had to order regular #2 pencils. Due to another little cost-saving item, there was only one pencil sharpener for the entire floor. The result was that we were forced to order pre-sharpened #2 pencils by the truckload, and then throw them away as soon as the lead wore down.
I brought in my own little, manual sharpener, thinking I was being clever, then got (metaphorically) spanked because using my own supplies could, possibly, in some weird version of the universe, give me cause to sue the state for compensation or something.
Coincidentally, I had previously worked as a page in the state House during a budget session, and had the opportunity to see the process in action. It was an interesting lesson in cause and effect. Working in public service is much, much weirder than most people realize.

By: Jeremy M. Barker

Jeremy M. Barker — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 17:35:00 +0000

She’s rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic because Washington’s budget is fucked…by the economy and unrealistic limitations on the government’s ability to fund itself, not because of mysterious, never-to-be-pinpointed by anyone huge amounts of waste which, if only we got rid of them, we’d be able to have our cake and eat it, too. While the waste in the ferry system was particularly egregious, it almost proves the point that such huge amounts of waste cannot escape detection forever. If you really think there’s billions of dollars disappearing down a blackhole of unfair overtime payments that would make up the very real deficits in these fields, well, I have some magic beans I’d love to discuss selling to you.

By: Buzzsaw

Buzzsaw — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 19:40:00 +0000

Seeing how millions were wasted on bloated salaries, overtime, and make work in both institutions, this is just more of the clueless Governor sidestepping responsibility again and rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Seeing how the people didn’t raise their taxes in the last election she is going to try to shift any tax increases to the counties that have ferry terminals. Seeing how King 5 tv exposed Waste on the Water, maybe they should do the same on our education system.