Lawmakers OK budget, head home

There was more relief than revelry Thursday when the Legislature passed the ninth budget proposal it has considered since January, ending a session that went into double overtime.

The Legislature, which was supposed to convene for 60 days, instead adjourned at 2:17 p.m. on the 94th day, when leaders in the House and Senate dropped their gavels. A few members missed the moment, having left the building as soon as the budget had been passed.

"Hooray, I get to go home," House co-Speaker Clyde Ballard, R- East Wenatchee, said during a post-session news conference with the governor and other legislative leaders.

Asked his plans for a celebration, Rep. Jeff Gombosky instead recited the route across the state. "I-5 north to Highway 18. Then east on I-90," said the Spokane Democrat.

Gov. Gary Locke praised the Legislature for adopting a budget that "goes beyond expectations." It provides more money for education and preserves many of the road projects planned before voters approved $30 car tabs, cutting state revenue by $750 million.

The budget restores some of the money local governments lost to the initiative, including $1.6 million of the $3 million the city of Spokane will lose this year and next.

The city had hoped for more. But "there was a time when we didn't see any legislative fixes coming this year," said Dave Mandyke, the city's director of general services.

The budget was achieved despite an equal split in the House, a situation that forced Democrats and Republicans to reach consensus. That alone was "historic," said Rep. Tom Huff, R-Gig Harbor, one of the budget writers.

The House vote to approve the $20.85 billion budget was 86-12, the Senate vote was 33-13. The Legislature also approved a $3.3 billion transportation budget. The vote was 96-2 in the House and 45-1 in the Senate.

The main budget inaugurates two new aid-to-education programs that will swell local coffers by about $1.5 billion over the next five years. The down payment is $57 million for school improvements, including class-size reduction, longer school days or academic years, Saturday tutorials, staff training and other local priorities.

The plan also includes $138 million for school construction.

The new spending is possible because the negotiators agreed to spend about $400 million of the state's $1.3 billion in reserves.

The Legislature failed to approve property tax cuts that both parties said they wanted.

Legislators couldn't agree on the size or scope of the tax cut. Various proposals ranged from $200 to $500 a year. Some lawmakers thought every homeowner deserved a break; others wanted the reduction just for seniors or the disadvantaged.

Legislators were hard-pressed to recite specific figures from the budget. Many of them didn't see it until 9 a.m. Thursday.

"That's exactly why I voted against it," groused one West Side representative. "I like to be able to read it on the john before I vote on it."

Rep. Lynn Schindler, R-Spokane Valley, was among the few who voted no, saying she was left uncertain the budget meets the spending limits voters set in 1992, with passage of Initiative 601.

Schindler also supported a proposal to earmark all lottery money for schools, an idea that didn't fly in the Senate. Instead, the budget puts all lottery money in the general fund, then gives an equal amount to schools, a plan Schindler called "a muddied compromise."

The budget includes about $21 million immediately to begin work on the north Spokane freeway and about that much more over the next six years, said Rep. Alex Wood, D-Spokane. That's about half what was proposed earlier in the session, but enough so the state can start buying property, he said.

Also included is money for I-90's Sprague Avenue interchange and engineering to widen the interstate to Sullivan Road.

The budget includes money for the Spokane Intercollegiate Research and Technology Institute, for advanced studies at Washington State University's Spokane campus and to increase enrollment at Eastern Washington University.

"It's really one of the best education budgets in a long time," said Sen. Lisa Brown, D-Spokane and an EWU economics professor.

As they've done nearly every day during the session, locked-out Kaiser steelworkers watched Thursday's proceedings from the galleries. Earlier this session, House leaders blocked a proposal to extended unemployment benefits for union members, whose labor dispute started as a strike more than 18 months ago.

Union member Steve Peak, who worked at Kaiser's Mead plant, called his three months in Olympia a civics lesson that will pay off in future sessions. Legislators who didn't support the union's cause will face opposition in the November election, he said.

"We'll be targeting candidates to run against them," he said.

The ceremonial end of the session came with a silent protest by one steelworker, who stood stoically at the open door to the House chambers.

He blocked the view between the House and the Senate, forcing leaders to use telephones to orchestrate the simultaneous dropping of their gavels.

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