ROSSI CAMPAIGN ADMITS IT LIED IN TV ADS

Some of you have also voiced concern about the budget talk in the race for governor.

In a stunning development on that front, The Seattle Times reported yesterday that the campaign of gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi has admitted it lied in TV ads attacking Gov. Gregoire on the budget. Other print and broadcast media have now followed with the same results about the admitted Rossi fibbing.

Rossi’s TV ads accuse Gregoire of denying there is a budget deficit.

But as the Times reports:

“The ad is inaccurate for this reason: The state is facing a projected $3.2 billion budget hole next year, but it does not have a deficit today.”

The Times continues: “The current budget, which runs to June 30, 2009, is balanced and the state has several hundred million dollars in reserve. Part of the reserve is in a rainy-day fund that Gregoire pushed to create.”

The Times reports that Gregoire has taken several measures in the face of a projected deficit of $3.2 billion in the two-year budget cycle starting July 1, 2009. “In fact,” as The Olympian reports today, “the latest state revenue report issued (in September) showed Washington still has a surplus of $529 million, which could grow to more than $800 million if Gregoire’s orders to cut $290 million in spending over the next year bear fruit.”

The Times also reports “Rossi responded to her (Aug. 4 hiring freeze) announcement by saying Gregoire ‘has started to recognize the budget crisis she’s created’—his own admission that she was not denying a problem, contrary to what his ad suggests.”

Rossi’s campaign admitted to the Times it had lied in the TV ads about Gregoire and the budget.

“Rossi’s spokeswoman Jill Strait admits the state does not now have a deficit,” the Times reports. “But she stresses the state ‘does now face a projected deficit that we should be addressing today’,”—even though Rossi himself acknowledged the governor was tackling the projected deficit in his Aug. 4 statement on her hiring freeze.

It’s not the first time Rossi has continued twisting the truth in the face of reality. And many of his distortions target your economic future.

Here’s what he said in answer to an on-air question from KIRO radio talk show host Dori Monson on Sept. 3:

MONSON: Would you give state employees a pay raise if you are the governor of this state?

ROSSI: Well right now, I don’t know how you afford it. We’re $2.7 billion in the hole, so she’s giving them a raise with what money? With what money? And the problem is right now the way it works and this has happened since a bill that passed in 2002, which allows the governor to negotiate basically in a back room with the state employees before legislative session even starts. Before it even starts. Normally it used to be done during the legislative session and you would work it out with all the pieces of the budget.

Rossi voted against the collective bargaining law in 2002, so he should know what’s in the law.

Rossi suggested suspending negotiations, which is illegal. He seems to suggest returning to pay raises set during the legislative session, not through negotiations. The only problem: It’s illegal and would guarantee nothing for state employees because the law says the contracts must be done by Oct. 1—before the Legislature convenes.

The law is clear on the role of all parties, including the Legislature. The law prohibits the Legislature from even considering contracts that didn’t finish by Oct. 1 (RCW 41.80.310 [3]).

Still, lawmakers retain the all-important power of funding or not funding the economic parts of the contract. Contrary to recent news reports, legislators can vote the economic parts up or down but cannot tinker with the contracts. They can send the governor and the unions back to the table, but they can’t change the negotiated contracts. That’s the law (RCW 41.80.010 [3]):

“The Legislature shall approve or reject the submission of the request for funds as a whole. The Legislature shall not consider a request for funds to implement a collective bargaining agreement unless the request is transmitted to the Legislature as part of the governor’s budget document … . If the Legislature rejects or fails to act on a submission, either party may reopen all or part of the agreement or the exclusive bargaining representative may seek to implement the (impasse) procedures” in the law.

We will use this hotline and website to set the record straight when candidates distort the facts to target the well being of you and your families.