STATE BUDGET

First if you are going to cut expenses anywhere, you should be willing to cut those in your own offices. How much money is spent on our elected officials on parties, dinners, lunches, transportation, etc., that can easily be cut? Perhaps you need to cut the number of hours of office staff. I believe you can easily cut everyone’s office budget and traveling expenditures by 10 percent. This also means cutting your own salaries. If other people in this state can live with their paychecks being smaller then you can too.

Second, quit talking about raising taxes. Even talking about instilling an income tax will make people stop spending. If people stop spending you stop collecting taxes on that spending.

Third, no matter how much whining you hear, you have to cut spending. It simply is no longer an option. It is your job as an elected official to balance the state budget.

Kristine Howard

Moses Lake