Senate an unneeded apparatus of state government

By Bill Johnston

The national economy is in the toilet. The economy of Washington is on life support and sinking fast. The governor has submitted a budget that does three things – cut, slash and burn. The Legislature will show about as much mercy during this year’s session as an eighth-century Viking raiding party; little will be left standing.

Yet there is a huge cut that can be made but not a chance it will even be considered. This cut could save millions of dollars and make state government 30 percent more effective. At the same time eliminating this expense to the taxpayers would not affect you and I at all. We would not feel a ripple and few would even be aware this particular operation of state government has disappeared.

For goodness sakes man, “tell us!” I hear you shouting. Where is this saving and why has it not been considered? Here it is – get rid of Washington State Senate. Yes, get rid of the 49 senators, their staffs, per diems, committees, committee staffs and all associated costs. Just off the top that is a $52 million savings.

Do we need a Senate? Why? What for? A fairly politically astute friend of mine, when I presented him with my idea, thought state senators represented counties like United States senators represent states. I explained to him the State Senate is apportioned just like the State House of Representatives, not based on geography but population. One person, one vote. The Senate duplicates the House. Do we need that? Of course not.

What does the State Senate do? Well, I worked for it for four years and what I saw was a waste of effort slowing legislation and problem solving. The Senate, House and governor all present legislation at the beginning of each session not terribly different from one another and it all has to go through the research, the hearing process and floor action twice, usually adding nothing.

Nebraska gets along fine without a senate so why not us? It would make the legislative process much easier to follow for the average citizen and eliminate a huge financial burden.

Do you even know who your state senator is? I know mine and she is a fine person and probably one of the best senators in Olympia, but that has nothing to do with what I am proposing. The point is the State Senate serves no practical function. It just costs us a lot of money and it should be eliminated, especially in this time of financial disaster.

I guess it could be argued the lieutenant governor would not have a constitutional job if he did not preside over the State Senate, but we could probably figure out something else for him to do. But does that not bring up another question? What does the lieutenant governor do? And this could lead to the question of why do we have the elected offices of attorney general, insurance commissioner, land commissioner, state treasurer – all separate little kingdoms employing costly bureaucracy. Why are these people not just part of the governor’s cabinet like in other states?

Instead of slashing health care for children, trashing schools, dumping state workers who provide needed services for the citizens of Washington and dumping criminals into our communities, all in the name of saving tax dollars, why is the Legislature not talking about getting rid of outdated and pointless governmental departments no longer relevant to this day and age? Because Olympia is loaded with over-active egos who believe it when the lobbies tell them their IQs went up 50 points when they were elected. They talk about “tough choices” but are unwilling to make them when they are on the receiving end of those choices.

And finally, it would take a constitutional amendment through the initiative process to make this happen and I do not imagine Tim Eyman could figure out a way to make enough money to get him to run the campaign.

There are ways to solve our financial crisis, but if we expect the ideas and the innovation to come out of Olympia we are going to be waiting for a long, long time.

Bill Johnston is a Tacoma resident.

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