Aftershocks: Pols deal with political quake

David Ammons, AP POLITICAL WRITER

OLYMPIA -- The warning sign in front of the John L. O'Brien Building captured the situation well, if strangely: "Emergency in progress."

Inside the sandstone office building, a sort of government-in-exile, Gov. Gary Locke and legislative leaders were in a private huddle about how to cope with the sudden, shattering impact of an earthquake on an already awful legislative session.

Long faces and black humor: The Session from Hell had just gotten worse.

Locke and lawmakers already were facing a grueling task of writing a balanced budget in the face of tight spending limits and soaring costs for everything from health care to blackboard chalk. Other big issues also weighed lawmakers down: fixing the transportation mess, revising the popular "blanket" primary, addressing the energy crunch, and more.

And all of that was compounded by the grave political difficulty of getting anything through a divided Legislature.

The theme for the session -- doubly true now -- was "The Perfect Storm," Senate budget Chairwoman Lisa Brown says with a chuckle. A movie poster for that disaster flick dangled askew in her trashed committee office Friday.

The bleak agenda already had sober members grimly wondering "What more could go wrong?"

Don't ask.

Earthquakes happen.

The wild card adds uncertainty -- and a mega-price tag -- to an already unstable session. Mother Nature has thrown the pols for a loop.

Budget-writers have to go back to square one.

Any ambitious new programs -- and some of the old ones -- have to take a back seat to the realities of quake relief. Transportation, already a $10 billion challenge to ease congestion, now has to focus first on the emergency.

And lawmakers still are locked out of their quarters and Locke is itinerant.

Until the magnitude 6.8 quake rumbled through Olympia's backyard, cracking the Capitol dome and shattering the wintry calm, the Legislature was working at snail's pace with an unusually subdued mood that had all the joy of an undertakers' convention.

No more.

The place is buzzing with energy and goodwill.

"We've got some great big decisions to make," says House Co-Speaker Clyde Ballard, R-East Wenatchee.

"This is very humbling," says Rep. Karen Keiser, D-Des Moines. "You think you're talking about such important things and then the earth shakes and you're back to square one."

Financial impact

Foremost among the decisions Ballard talks about is how to absorb the huge financial impact of the quake.

The number? Anybody's guess right now.

At week's end, the state was starting to assemble damage estimates to forward to the feds. The government will partially reimburse losses or provide low-interest loans.

The state's tab, primarily for buildings and roads, will run to untold millions, but it's still unclear how much of that Uncle Sam will pick up. Repairs to the Capitol, for instance, could be a 75 percent federal match, officials said Friday.

Federal help might be available for repairs to highways and bridges, too.

Once the largesse is depleted, the state will get stuck with the rest. The state is self-insured.

The main hit will be on the transportation and construction budgets. Lawmakers can arrange priorities to fit in the quake repairs, meaning lower-ranked projects will fall off the table.

"It's scary to think what will happen to our transportation and capital budgets. All the assumptions are off the table," says Rep. Luke Esser, R-Bellevue.

State budget director Marty Brown says with a sigh: "This screws everything up. Everything will have to be revisited."

The $1.2 billion construction budget proposal probably can be rewritten to free up about $400 million for quake response, and the highway budget can be adjusted, says Hal Spencer, budget office spokesman.

"It's like starting all over again," says Rep. Gary Alexander, R-Olympia, co-chairman of the House Capital Budget Committee. "We will have to put first priority on making sure our current structures are safe and stable" before approving new projects.

"When you get a curve ball thrown at you by Mother Nature, you respond, just like when there are fires or volcanoes."

Lawmakers already were considering a $111 million plan to upgrade and finish earthquake-proofing the Capitol. Leaders say that's now on a fast track.

Lawmakers might decide to tap the state's $1.1 billion reserve fund for part of the quake repairs, although the governor and Legislature already were planning on using about half of it to balance the hard-pressed regular budget.

"This is a contingency for emergencies, and I guess this is what saving for a 'rainy day' means," says Rep. Keiser.

This was supposed to be the session that lawmakers solved the transportation mess -- Locke wants a $10 billion, six-year program, financed by taxes that would go to the voters this fall.

Quake damage to state and local highways adds even more urgency, says Senate budget Chairwoman Lisa Brown, D-Spokane. As long as the repairs are being addressed, it makes sense to step up to the whole transportation needs of the state, she says.

Taking it in stride

So far, the governor and Legislature are taking the sudden turn of events in stride -- and predict that in an odd way, it might change the chemistry of the session, positively.

"I'm hoping it will bring us together," says Alexander.

"It's a bonding experience for us," says Sen. Ken Jacobsen, D-Seattle. "We've all been through a pretty terrifying experience together, and I think it's clear to us that there are things that are more important than partisanship."

A sense of common purpose might serve as a lubricant in the sometimes cranky Legislature, lawmakers suggest.

"We'll be unified," says Sehlin. "It doesn't matter whether you're a Republican or a Democrat or a House member or a senator. We've all got streets torn up and houses down in our districts. We just don't need to be partisan."

"I'm hoping it has a positive effect and will encourage people to pick up the slack and get out of here in 105 days," he says.

David Ammons is the state political writer for the Associated Press and has covered the statehouse since 1971. He can be reached at P.O. Box 607, Olympia, WA 98507, or at dammons@ap.org on the Internet.

The Olympian Copyright 2000

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