Not Again, Please!

According to the National Governor’s Association, tax revenue for states will average an increase 2.1 percent in the next budget year on top of a projected 5.9 percent increase for the 2011 budget year. Finally, some great news about our economy.

But the real question is are we going to do things differently in this state or are we going to repeat the disasters of the past few years? Are we going to spend money assuming it will flow forever or are we finally going to set out our priorities? Because, we can’t do both.

We need to decide just how important our future is and start funding innovative programs that prepare our kids to compete in a global economy. We need to look at programs in other states that are successful and we need to adapt them to our state. How can we expect our kids to remain in Washington if we don’t provide them with the incentives and skills to get jobs here?

Economists are predicting that before the end of the decade, the Seattle area will be the second largest biotech center in the United States. These are the kind of jobs we want to encourage and these are the kind of jobs we should be helping our children prepare for. What I want to do is get the business community more involved in our schools and after school programs. We should take advantage of the expertise that’s available to us and that’s a message I want to keep pushing.

As George Santayana said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” We can’t go down the same path and expect a different result.