How competitive contracting can help balance the budget

Washington lawmakers again face a multi-billion dollar budget deficit, meaning they will either increase the amount of money they collect from citizens each year, or re-evaluate the way they deliver core services to the public. Increasing taxes during a recession would add economic hardship, while changing the way services are delivered offers part of the solution to closing the deficit without raising taxes. One tool available for improving service delivery is Washington’s competitive contracting law, passed as part of civil service reform and signed by Governor Gary Locke in 2002. In practice, however, state managers rarely exercise their statutory contracting out authority, meaning an important provision of the 2002 civil service law remains largely unused . . . READ MORE