Partisan wrangling leaves building projects dangling

Plan would add $112 million to state construction budget

PAUL QUEARY, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Originally published Thursday, March 14, 2002

OLYMPIA -- Caught in a partisan dogfight, more than $100 million in state construction projects designed to jump-start the state's struggling economy will hang in the balance as the Legislature's session ends today.

The plan adds $112 million to the larger 2001-2003 construction budget adopted by lawmakers last year, said Rep. Ed Murray, D-Seattle, chairman of the House Capital Budget Committee. It also prevents some of the projects in the existing budget from grinding to a halt because of the slump in the state's revenue.

Normally, such proposals pass easily because they sprinkle money and jobs into lawmakers' districts. The plan includes projects ranging from $17.5 million to dredge the Columbia River shipping channel to $250,000 to replace a fish passage barrier at Sequim Bay State Park. It includes money for projects at state universities, community colleges and parks across the state.

Hand-picked projects

Many of the projects were hand-picked because they could begin quickly, producing private-sector jobs.

But the bill could well fall short of the 60 percent House majority required to approve the bonds to finance the projects.

"I think it's going to be one vote one way or another," Murray said.

A similar bill has already passed the Senate with bipartisan support but ran into a party-line stonewall from minority Republicans in the House. Democrats hold 50 seats in the House, so at least nine GOP lawmakers would have to join them to pass the bonds.

But passing the bill requires raising a legal limit on the amount of bond debt the state can carry at any given time, and GOP lawmakers have balked at that idea.

"We should not use this new scheme of pretending we don't have a bond limit," said Minority Leader Clyde Ballard, R-East Wenatchee. "'You can't spend your way out of an economic decline."

State law limits bond debt to 7 percent of general revenue. The steep decline in state revenue since Sept. 11 means the existing construction budget doesn't fit under the limit. Murray dodges the debt limit problem by counting tax revenue that isn't generally included in the calculation.

Murray and senators from both parties have lobbied heavily during the past few days for the bill. Even Gov. Gary Locke, who proposed a similar plan late last year, is keeping a sharp eye on it.

"It would create thousands of private-sector jobs that would benefit virtually every part of the state," Locke said.

Sen. Darlene Fairley, who oversees the construction budget in the Senate, accused Ballard of purposely blocking the bill in a bid to force a politically embarrassing special session after the Legislature's regular session adjourns today. Fairley, D-Lake Forest Park, called it a symptom of partisan strife.

Sen. Joe Zarelli, R-Ridgefield, blamed frustration over the larger and more contentious debate over the operating budget.

Both Fairley and Murray said they'd rather scuttle the projects than compromise further.

Ballard said Democrats have made little attempt to compromise and dismissed the notion that his opposition was a partisan maneuver.

Murray said he would delay a vote on the budget until just before adjournment, when lawmakers would be certain that a "no" vote would doom projects in their home districts.

On the Web:

- 2002 Supplemental Operating Budget Proposals
House Proposed (03/13/02)

- Washington State Legislature

- Washington State Treasurer

- Gov. Gary Locke

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