Olympia is back at work with a vengeance. Last time around the budget didn’t work out so well and revenues didn’t come in as expected.  So Olympia decided to move money around, accept dollars from “Obama’s stash” and use accounting gimmicks, including: unspent department funds from the previous year to make things look better than they really were; and raising taxes on small businesses.

Olympia then said it didn’t know it was going to be so hard, that cutting the budget to the bone and higher taxes were in order again.  So the next budget was written by the same masters of the one-party state and we get more of the same.

That’s higher taxes and fees at state parks and more gimmicks like delayed payments and fund transfers. Then  they claim they’ve made huge cuts in spending to deal with the huge new shortfall. And when the final numbers are added up, total spending is down, right? Whoops,  it’s up about 8 percent over the past four years.

Then December’s “special” session is called to deal with a new budget crisis and Olympia  kicks the can further down the road, wasting more taxpayer money rather than actually dealing with the problem. Some describe this as a “perpetual budget nightmare.”

Now we’re being told Olympia’s priorities are: additional tax increases (sales and gas); legalizing gay marriage and marijuana; and spending valuable time on abortion issues.

And, oh my, the State Supreme Court just announced that Olympia is failing in its “paramount duty” to fund education. So the teachers take a day off work and storm the Capitol building.

The one-party state in Olympia is completely dysfunctional. It is time to throw the bums out and give somebody else a shot.

Tom Greene, Bainbridge Island