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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Neeka who wrote (265468)	6/20/2002 1:33:06 AM
From: Raymond Duray	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769667

Sometimes? Dear moenmac, If you are using this fly-trap of a thread for an education you really are in trouble. Rarely do posters put anything worthwhile or educational on this thread. Almost every post I provide includes a link to the outside world. This is a rarity here, unfortunately. Unfortunate because the inward looking opining of the gathered crowd is about as useful to your education as a hangnail. You really need to get out more often. A line you've suggested to me. See the world, here's an excellent place to start: rittenhouse.blogspot.com Don't bother with these blogger's useless rambling in the text column. It's dreadful. But the links provided are non pareil. If you want to educate yourself, you need to pay attention to something (anything) other than this thread. Present company excluded. I do tend, in spite of what my vocal and lame critics claim, to provide a great variety of relevant information to those who sincerely believe that George Bush is about the worst thing that's happened to the ideals of the American democracy since the Civil War. Happy Trails, Ray

To: Neeka who wrote (265468)	6/20/2002 9:29:36 AM
From: greenspirit	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

M, one of the best resources for Washington State budget information is the Evergreeen Freedom Foundation. effwa.org Unlocking Gridlock A Five-Part series on improving transportation without raising taxes ". . . hold us accountable." – Governor Gary Locke Part 1: Making the Transportation Budget Process Effective The Blue Ribbon Commission on Transportation’s (BRCT) final recommendations for our transportation system are the hot topic in legislative transportation meetings this session. But the Commission didn’t recommend that the broken transportation budget process be fixed. 1. Create a binding, accountable budget. Transportation funding has its own budget, separate from the state operating and capital budgets. This budget is written in loose, non-binding language, and money is appropriated to transportation programs without project specification. The Secretary of Transportation even has unlimited transfer authority to move money between transportation programs. This means there are no fixed standards against which to audit spending. Recommendation: Transportation appropriations should be written in clear, binding language and should be included in the state operating and capital budgets. 2. Tie funding to performance. The BRCT recently recommended that the legislature tie transportation funding to performance measures, or "benchmarks" as the BRCT calls them. This is a great idea, but not a new one – state law already requires that agencies create meaningful performance measures and submit them with their budget requests. As it is, performance measures are not treated seriously and are often meaningless to actual progress. If a transportation agency fails to turn in performance measures with its budget request, the legislature should reduce its funding. Recommendations: Transportation agencies should prove their necessity by adopting meaningful and achievable performance measures that show the agencies’ progress toward accomplishing their core missions. These performance measures should not focus on inputs (i.e., the number of people served) but rather should focus on outcomes (i.e., how well the agency served people). The legislature should include with each major item in the budget clear and realistic goals and expectations for the outcome or result it expects. 3. Find and eliminate inefficiencies. Many lawmakers seem more willing to increase taxes than delve into an agency’s budget request to look for inefficiencies. A major portion of the BRCT’s final report recommends that the legislature create a new revenue package to solve deficiencies in transportation funding. Before considering a revenue package, the legislature should look for and eliminate inefficiencies in transportation. The governor stated in his 2001 State-of-the-State Address that he would make the Department of Transportation as lean and efficient as possible. In January 2000, members of the BRCT stated that "the commission’s first task is to explore ideas for increasing efficiency and stretching dollars as far as possible." But the BRCT has suggested transportation agencies make 10% across-the-board administration cuts. These across-the-board cuts would punish agencies and managers who are doing well, without addressing the real problem. Recommendation: Transportation agency officials and lawmakers should review each of the agency’s functions to determine whether they fall under the agency’s core mission. For example, is it a core function of the Transportation Improvement Board to administer $1 million of state money for a car museum in Tacoma? Or how about DOT’s radio advertisements? What is the state’s role in funding transit? If a function is determined to fall under the agency’s mission, lawmakers should evaluate whether it can lawfully and more efficiently be outsourced or privatized. What about the state’s Safety Rest Areas? DOT might consider running these rest areas as part of its core mission, but what keeps them from putting the operations of rest areas up for competitive bidding? 4. Treat the Legislative Transportation Committee expenses like the expenses of other committees. Unlike other committees, the Legislative Transportation Committee receives funding from the motor vehicle account (primarily gas taxes and licensing fees). This account is not subject to the limitations of I-601 and has little oversight from legislative leadership, allowing potential waste. Recommendation: Expenses for the Legislative Transportation Committee should be appropriated out of the general fund. Before worrying about where the funding will come from to repair and expand roads to accommodate our growing population, the budget process must be improved. There is no need for legislators to raise or impose new taxes and fees until these other options are considered