Piglet Book on State Government Waste Released
Budget transparency and earmark review discussed at press conference

Olympia –Yesterday Washington Policy Center (WPC) and the D.C.-based group Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) released The Washington State Piglet Book: Connecting the Dots on How Government Wastes Your Money in Olympia.

At a press conference at the state capitol, WPC vice president for research Paul Guppy, CAGW vice president for policy David Williams, and Washington State Auditor Brian Sonntag spoke to media, legislators, and staff about more than $160 million in earmark and wasteful spending in the state budget identified in this book. Items discussed included:

* $2.5 million to a wealthy tribal casino
* $1.5 million for decorative lights on the Tacoma Narrows Bridge
* $1.5 million in wasteful spending at the State Motor Pool
* $442,000 for the short-lived “SayWA” tourism campaign
* $300,000 in Medicaid checks and pension payments to dead people

“I’m honored that Washington Policy Center highlighted some of our work in this publication, and the fact that the Center cares about this issue,” remarked Brian Sonntag, whose work is cited in the book and whose office has been conducting in-depth performance audits of state and local government agencies since early 2006.

A searchable website for all state spending, which WPC has proposed and the governor’s office, the State Auditor, the Attorney General, and a bipartisan group of legislators support, is a step in the right direction of remedying earmarks and wasteful spending. Lawmakers should also consider a Washington state equivalent of the Grace Commission, a federal commission that evaluated every budget earmark in the early 1980s.

Yesterday’s news that the state will likely be facing a $2.5 billion deficit by 2013 due to the rampant growth in spending over the last four years reinforces the need for budget transparency and limiting expenditures to the core functions of government.