Days dwindling for Legislature

BRAD SHANNON, THE OLYMPIAN

Originally published Tuesday, March 12, 2002

OLYMPIA -- Lawmakers on Monday inched down the final stretch toward adjournment, reporting progress on major budget and transportation issues, but stumbling enough that the specter of an overtime session still looms.

Senate Majority Leader Sid Snyder, D-Long Beach, conceded the chance of finishing the 60-day session by midnight Thursday was "very slim, because we've got all kinds of bills to pass that are necessary to implement the budget."

But he caught himself a moment later, saying, "I should say we still have a chance."

One major holdup is with taxes on which the Senate budget is based, and which the House also hoped to include in its budget plan. Sen. Erik Poulsen, D-Seattle, who has been preparing the revenue proposals, said passage of a bill to close three tax loopholes was in doubt, as were other proposals to raise liquor taxes by 3 percent to 5 percent.

"A lot of people feel the hard stuff is behind us because we passed the budget" Saturday in the Senate, Poulsen said. "The reality is the budget assumed $100 million of new revenues. Getting the votes is next to impossible."

The House budget assumed $205 million of revenues, some of which the House Democrats earmarked for 2 percent pay raises for state workers.

Federal revenue

The solution may be to use a trick from Gov. Gary Locke's much-criticized budget: Write in the assumption that a lot more federal reimbursement dollars will come to the state to cover Medicaid nursing costs.

On the other hand, major progress was made on transportation during the weekend as Senate and House negotiators agreed on a 9-cent-per-gallon increase in motor-vehicle fuel taxes, up from 23 cents.

The roughly $8 billion plan gaining favor also would raise the weight fee for heavy trucks by 30 percent and add a 1 percent sales tax surcharge on automobile sales.

In a breakthrough reached Monday, Democrats also agreed to shift the sales tax from new road construction projects into transportation accounts starting in 2006, providing a source of money for rail, ferry and transit programs.

The hang-up is that the Senate insists on enacting transportation tax increases without a public vote, while the House insists on a referendum, perhaps as early as May. There has been virtually no movement from these two positions since last July, despite hopes in the Senate that the House would eventually scrounge up the votes to bypass the voters.

"We don't have the votes! I don't know how many times I have to tell those people," said Rep. Ruth Fisher, the Tacoma Democrat who chairs the House Transportation Committee. "We don't have the votes! ... We don't have the votes!"

Regional tax package

Also delaying action on the transportation issue were some Senate members insisting on delaying a transportation tax vote until the House first passed a regional plan.

The regional tax package would let King, Pierce and Snohomish counties raise additional revenues for mega-projects like the widening of Interstate 405 in Bellevue or replacement of the Alaskan Way Viaduct in Seattle.

By using voter-approved local taxes to match statewide tax receipts, motorists around the state would not see all the new revenues pour into the state's most populated, and traffic-congested, areas.

"We're closer than we've ever been," said Sen. Bill Finkbeiner, R-Kirkland, one of several key GOP negotiators on transportation who is willing to vote for higher transportation taxes without a referendum.

Fisher, however, said she won't vote for the regional plan favored by the Senate, which puts almost all of the new regional money into road projects rather than to transit. There may not be enough votes in the House to approve the Senate plan, she added.

To finish by Thursday night, lawmakers would have to reach agreements on some of the issues today or early Wednesday so staff could prepare the bills for passage.

"I really think we're going to get out of here," said Rep. Sandra Romero, D-Olympia.

"We made great progress yesterday," said House Majority Leader Lynn Kessler, D-Hoquiam. "We can do it."

Locke, who hasn't given up on a transportation tax package without a referendum, is holding out hope lawmakers can strike the necessary deals today or by early Wednesday to get out of town on time.

His budget and transportation advisers have been involved in the negotiations.

"We're still confident we're getting out on Thursday," Locke spokesman Pearse Edwards said. "We believe progress is being made on both budget and transportation."

Brad Shannon, political editor for The Olympian, can be reached at 360-753-1688 or bshannon@olympia.gannett.com.

Snyder has pneumonia

Senate Majority Leader Sid Snyder has come down with pneumonia, but he is expected back at work today when the Senate might try to send a transportation-tax package to the House.

Snyder, a Long Beach Democrat who announced at the outset of the session that he is battling prostate cancer, is forever upbeat. He held up his medication container, and he joked about his newest illness.

"If you want your mail opened, call me. They're giving me Cipro, which they use to treat anthrax," he said.

The Olympian Copyright 2002

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