Governor Locke is on the right track. Realizing that our state’s budget deficit is growing and Washington’s anemic economy won’t be able to pour enough money into the treasury to support “government as usual,” Gov. Locke assembled a group of the state’s business leaders, agency heads, and budget experts to find ways to reduce costs, eliminate non-essential services, and prioritize spending.

The process is called POG, which stands for the Priorities of Government. Its findings could change the way the state budget is developed and possibly how the government does business. The idea is to set priorities and make the hard choices necessary to achieve them. For example, the POG recommends spending more money to improve early childhood education and K-12 student achievement. To help pay for those improvements, POG recommends reducing or eliminating all non-basic education programs.

These efforts fit hand-in-glove with the Governor’s Competitiveness Council’s recommendations to streamline government and regulatory processes and avoid new taxes and fees. That is particularly good news for Washington employers, who pay more than half of all state and local taxes, while being strangled by hundreds of regulations.

For the Governor, the key is to fully implement the recommendations of the POG and his Competitiveness Council. This won’t be easy, because nearly everyone in the state has a vested self-interest in some agency or program. No, the answer is not easy, but it is simple: The state must do business differently by prioritizing its spending to support only essential programs and services. It also means that bureaucrats in Olympia will have to do things differently. For example, they must stop gaming the system and face the fact that some of them and their agencies will simply have to go away.

Like other states, Washington is swimming in red ink with a budget deficit of at least $2.3 billion. That means, for every $10 of spending already authorized by the legislature, there’s only $9 available. Whether the POG can make up the 10 percent shortfall remains to be seen, but taxpayers sent the legislature, Governor and bureaucrats a strong message on Nov. 5: “We don’t think government is using our money wisely.”

Implementing the POG and Competitiveness Council recommendations would go a long way toward restoring taxpayer confidence in government. Without that confidence, politicians who simply want to raise taxes to support “government as usual” may find themselves in the same boat as Referendum 51.

You’re on the right track, Governor. Stay the course.