Washington Business Fall 2019 | Washington Business | Page 42

business backgrounder | taxation
“The House budget
proposal did not
provide a public
summary of any
savings or program
cuts, despite asking the
taxpayers for billions in
new taxes.”
–Clay Hill
3. learn from other states
Establish a legislative task force on spending reform to examine the efficacy of our
spending programs relative to best practices and effectiveness of similar programs in
other states.
4. examine impact of lower spending
House Bill 2153. This bill would have required agency budget request submissions to
the Governor to include an analysis of how an appropriation of money at specified
percentages less than the current biennium’s appropriation level would impact agency
activities.
5. set a spending expiration date
House Bill 2150. This bill would have required that every new state spending program
have an expiration date, a statement of how its performance should be measured for
effectiveness specifying the data that will be collected, and performance review by the
Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee.
6. start from zero
House Bill 2149. This bill specified that the Legislature can direct agencies to submit
“zero-based budget reviews” for identified programs. A zero-based budget review is
defined in the bill to be a sort of bottom-up analysis of the background and costs and
benefits of the spending program. This information and analysis would be included as a
separate document in an agency’s biennial budget request.
42 association of washington business