Building plan touted as ticket out of recession

PATRICK CONDON THE OLYMPIAN

OLYMPIA -- A bipartisan pair of senators proposed $120 million in government building projects Wednesday to prop up the state's ailing economy.

The plan is similar in concept to Gov. Gary Locke's call in December to add $100 million in new projects to the state's current capital budget in the hope that local construction jobs would ensue and stimulate the economy.

Officials at The Evergreen State College are likely to favor Locke's plan -- it included $3.5 million in job creation and infrastructure projects for the school, money that's not included in the Senate proposal.

But the Senate plan calls for a different set of building projects, and would pay for them in a different manner than was proposed by Locke.

The Senate proposal includes no new spending at four-year higher education institutions. Evergreen officials could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

No apologies

Sen. Darlene Fairley, D-Lake Forest Park, and Sen. Joseph Zarelli, R-Vancouver, the two chief capital budget writers in the Senate, proposed the Senate plan.

While echoing Locke by describing the new construction as an "economic stimulus package," Fairley was unapologetic about varying from the governor's project list.

In fact, Fairley said, she and Senate colleagues first considered adding to the project list last fall, when Locke temporarily froze portions of the capital budget over concerns that the state wasn't taking in enough revenue to pay off construction bonds.

That decision did not sit well with lawmakers.

"At the time, there were some of us who said, 'Not only should it not be frozen, there should be more projects,'" Fairley recalled.

"We talked about it long before the governor did," Zarelli added.

Pumping money into state building projects is one way the Legislature can directly improve local economies, Fairley said.

"We can't stop the recession," she said. "We can't put it to a halt. But we can fight it with jobs, and that's what this is about."

Locke temporarily froze some projects over concern that falling revenue would force the state to exceed its legal debt limit in paying off bonds.

With his economic stimulus package, Locke would have circumvented the debt limit by taking money from a school construction fund to pay for the campus building projects on his list.

The Senate proposal goes another direction, temporarily exempting certain bonds from the 7 percent debt limit. The Senate plan would take the state's debt to about 7.35 percent.

"We're stepping out of our comfort zone a little bit, but we're stepping into projects we would have done eventually anyway," Zarelli said. "We just want to make sure the pain doesn't get any worse, as well as we can."

What's ahead

In order to become law, the capital budget must be approved by at least 60 percent of both the House and Senate.

Fairley and Zarelli predicted smooth sailing in the Senate, which approved last year's capital budget unanimously.

Prospects in the House are less clear, where Republicans have objected to dropping deeper into debt for new building projects.

Rep. Gary Alexander, R-Thurston County, said he'd prefer more allocation of state resources to help private business, as opposed to government building projects.

"It's not creating permanent jobs in the private sector," said Alexander, the ranking Republican on the House Capital Budget Committee.

It would require at least eight Republican votes to reach the 60 percent needed to pass the plan in the House.

Alexander said House Republican leadership shares his concerns.

"They're uncomfortable with it, too," he said.

Patrick Condon covers state government for The Olympian. He can be reached at 360-753-1688 or at condonpatrick@ hotmail.com.

On the Web:

- Washington State Treasurer

- Gov. Gary Locke

- Washington State Legislature

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