Thursday on the governor's desk

Originally published Friday, March 29, 2002

Gov. Gary Locke vetoed two sections of the capital construction budget Thursday:

- A direct $649,000 grant to People for Salmon for salmon recovery projects. Locke, who vetoed a similar provision last year, said giving the money directly to the group would intrude on the Salmon Recovery Funding Board's authority to choose fish recovery projects.

- A reallocation of $150,000 from an ongoing study of the governance of the University of Washington's Burke Museum to preserving the museum's collection. Locke said it was inappropriate to forego the study and pay for museum operations with the money.

Locke also signed bills Thursday dealing with:

- Drug needles. House Bill 1759 allows the sale of hypodermic syringes to drug users to limit the spread of blood-borne diseases such as HIV. Locke vetoed part of the bill sponsored by the House Committee on Health Care, eliminating a provision that would have required syringe buyers to turn in an equal number of used needles when buying new ones. Locke said such a requirement would have posed a health risk to pharmacy workers and a burden on legal syringe users such as diabetics.

- Archaeological sites. House Bill 1189 toughens penalties for disturbing archaeological sites. The bill sponsored by the House Judiciary Committee allows civil penalties of as much as $5,000 for someone who damages an archaeological site, digs without a permit, or removes any archae-ological object without a permit. Such violations are already a misdemeanor, but local authorities often don't press charges.

- Duplicate fishing and hunting licenses. House Bill 2435 gives the Department of Fish and Wildlife, authority to lower fees for replacement fishing and hunting licenses. Most duplicate licenses now cost $10 by law, a figure department officials say is too high.

On the Web:

- Gov. Gary Locke

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