State lawmakers who accepted federal stimulus dollars this year may have traded their birthright for a pot of stew.
Take the state of Washington. Legislators here faced an appalling $9 billion budget shortfall in 2009, which they "solved" using just about every budget gimmick in the book. They raided various dedicated accounts, drained the state's rainy day fund and raised every fee in sight to avoid Washington's two-thirds legislative requirement for tax increases.
And they accepted more than $4 billion in one-time federal stimulus dollars.
Legislators were either oblivious to or unconcerned about the attached strings. Why else would they agree to severe restrictions from the federal government in the amounts and types of budget cuts and policy decisions they can make in their own states?
Like Washington, most states will enter 2010 with worse deficit problems.
When Washington legislators began looking for ways to close their next billion-dollar deficit, legislative staff informed them that their options were limited. The "maintenance of effort" provisions in the Recovery Act mean that Washington state cannot adopt eligibility standards for Medicaid that are more restrictive than those in effect on July 1, 2008...
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