It’s always gratifying when a major news organization cuts through the political spin and informs readers of what is really happening with government budgets.  Amid loud claims of a supposed state budget deficit, a Seattle Times editorial on Sunday correctly notes that “...tax collections for public services are up.”

Only in the public sector is a slowdown in the rise of expected tax revenue called a “shortfall.”  For most of us a rise in household income of say, 8%, instead of an expected 10%, is still an increase – and welcome good news.  In government circles that same revenue increase would be labeled a 2% cut and treated as cause for panic.

That just happened on November 8th, when Governor Inslee’s Director of Financial Management announced the state is facing a $10 to $12 billion funding “deficit” over the next four years.

Refreshingly, the savvy editors at The Seattle Times aren’t buying it.  As they rightly note, state revenue has been steadily increasing.  Here’s the key quote:

“This bleak budget is not the result of a recession or any external economic factors — it’s a self-inflicted wound by Gov. Jay Inslee and ruling Democrats in Olympia who managed to outspend even dramatic rises in tax revenues over the past decade.”

Following is a helpful graph from the Research Council showing that, “State coffers for general spending, including K-12 education, have nearly doubled in the past decade.”

(Update: on March 29th Governor Inslee signed a bill adding another $2 billion to the current budget.  He also secretly agreed to pay out $1.2 billion more in state unionized employee raises.)

With the election over, state leaders are now signaling they want a tax increase, but newly-elected governor Bob Ferguson and legislative Democrats can hardly go to the public with the message, “We want more of your money because we’re greedy.”

They know they need a cover story – and “We’re in a budget crisis” appears to be their chosen narrative.  The legislature meets on January 13th.  Expect to see more stories out of Olympia saying the state faces a “shortfall,” “deficit,” “gap,” “cut” or similar alarmist formulation.

Objective measures show the state has ample revenue, enough to fund public services well into the future.  The only question is whether the public buys the budget-panic narrative or, as some insightful media sources are reporting, sees that state lawmakers already have plenty of money.