Jake: WA’s monster budget will devour us all

My old boss, Dori Monson, spent his career warning about the dangers of faceless, unaccountable government bureaucracy. In Washington, we’re living that warning in real time.

I recently came across a graph showing the state’s operating budget over the last 30 years. The number that jumped out: In just the last decade, Washington doubled its spending.

Not gradually. Not slowly. Doubled.

The go-to defense is always population growth — more people, more services, bigger budget. Except that argument falls apart immediately when you look at the actual numbers. Washington’s population has grown at less than 1% a year. That’s it.

Meanwhile, since 2015:

•   🏛️ The state budget grew 110%
•   💰 Median household income grew 54%

The government is growing at twice the rate of your paycheck

So if it’s not population, and it’s not income growth — why does the government need so much more of your money?

Here’s the part that should make every taxpayer want to run like hell: when you run short on cash, you figure it out. You skip the restaurant. You cut a streaming service. You adjust. That’s life. But when the government runs short? They don’t cut. They reach into your pocket and take more.

I asked AI to project Washington’s budget forward at this current rate of growth. Here’s what that looks like:

•      2015-17: $38.2 billion
•      2025-27: $80.1 billion
•      2035-37: $129 billion (projected)

$129 billion. For one state.

That is monster-level government, and monsters don’t go on diets. They devour everything in their path.

Maybe that number sounds insane. But you probably would have said the same thing about today’s $80 billion budget back in 2015.

History is the only reliable predictor of the future. And right now, history is screaming.

Follow me on X and Instagram. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

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