No Loss for Words

Under the Constitution of the State of Washington, all government entities are required to adopt balanced budgets every year.  But it is allowable to create budget obligations by contract for some time period in the future that are not funded in the period in which they are obligated with the expectation that current revenue will pay current obligations when they come due.

Why can’t we force state and local government agencies to make pro-rated annual contributions to the unfunded pension liabilities, creating a trust fund needed down the road to pay obligations without ravaging current revenues needed to provide current services.

Under the current system, we pay debt obligations and contract obligations first and if we are lucky there might be money for services.

When I was an elected official, the city had equipment replacement funds we contributed to every year so we didn’t have to scramble when equipment wore out.  If we treated employee pension requirements the same way, we wouldn’t have to scramble when our employees wear out and retire.

If we had to make employee retirement contributions, it wouldn’t be so easy to shift the burden to future budgets.  And if employees don’t stay long enough to qualify for benefits, contributions made in their name can either be returned to the general fund or designated for some other purpose.

What seems clear to me is our reserve requirements are not near high enough to meet our obligations resulting in stripping current budgets of discretionary spending.