Reader disagrees with editorial

The Columbia Basin Herald fell into a common and comfortable trap trying to convince us that the Super Committee or our state government has a "simple and fair" solution to its current budget crisis (CBH Editorial, November 25).  Besides its proposal that a single, across the board cut will eliminate the deficit, the opinion digs itself in further by stating that "This approach is easier for an agency to make and prevents the total loss of any service."  Yikes.

Set aside politics; set aside special interests from labor unions to indigent elderly; and set aside even the fact that a series of compounding cuts over the last three years have been visited on state agencies, already causing varying degrees of damage.

Even with these harsh factors out of the equation, your "basic" math won't work.  Only a little homework is necessary.

For example, nearly 80 percent of the Washington State Department of Agriculture budget is derived from fees for services (e.g. farmers pay for the inspections required to keep our exports flowing to our trade partners).  That means the across the board budget cuts you advocate have to be taken - as cuts have been for the last three years - from about 20 percent of the Department's budget.

And higher education, which provides a service necessary to fuel an honest recovery that a so-called stimulus package can never possibly do, is being forced to drive away the engines of recovery with higher tuition that still won't cover its cuts.

Any opinion that seeks to make legislative solutions appear "simple" does nothing to educate citizens or support intelligent dialog.