Tony Overman/The Olympian
House Democrats (from left) Jeannie Darneille, D-Tacoma; Eileen Cody, D-Seattle; Ed Murray, D-Seattle; budget writer Helen Sommers, D-Seattle; and Toni Lysen, D-Burien, gather on the House floor Thursday evening as legislators tried to wrap up the legislative session.

Haugen

Mitchell

Transportation taxes will go to voters

House, Senate break impasse as session ends

BRAD SHANNON AND PATRICK CONDON THE OLYMPIAN

OLYMPIA -- In the final minutes of a 60-day session, state legislators agreed to send a transportation tax package to the voters in November.

The agreement came about midnight after the Senate and House earlier deadlocked over giving voters a say.

Earlier, on Thursday morning, the Senate had voted decisively to raise $7.7 billion without a vote of the people.

But the House rejected that proposal Thursday evening, despite Gov. Gary Locke's 11th-hour arm-twisting.

Until the Senate relented, the dispute had threatened to send lawmakers into a special session of up to 30 days, overshadowing what had been a strong bid by majority Democrats to show that they could use their narrow advantage in both houses to break the 2-year-old gridlock on transportation.

"I think, if it has any chance at all at the polls, it will be in November," said Senate Transportation Committee Chairwoman Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island. "I'm going to have trust in the voters to do the right thing."

Earlier, Gov. Gary Locke had lashed out at House Speaker Frank Chopp, D-Seattle, who had promised a referendum on the tax package and who asked his 50-member Democratic caucus to reject the Senate's plan because it lacked a public vote.

"Frank Chopp was leaning on people to vote no. I'm very disappointed," Locke said. "Leaning on people to vote no, that's not leadership."

Positions switched

Locke had campaigned for re-election in 2000 promising a referendum, until he changed his mind last spring on grounds that the state could no longer wait to fix up its congested highways.

Chopp went the other way, seeking a legislative solution until early this session.

The transportation referendum issue had been one of the two biggest questions of the legislative session -- the other being the majority Democrats' solution to a $1.6 billion operating budget shortfall.

Lawmakers were able to pass the budget early Thursday, despite Republican claims in the House and Senate that it is a shaky plan that sets the state up for a huge tax increase next year. So lawmakers, who met in three overtime sessions before giving up on a transportation plan last July, were again left staring at the transportation problem as they readied to leave town.

The Senate had voted 34-15 in a show of bipartisan show of force for the tax package without the referendum.

Eleven Republicans joined 23 Democrats to vote for the plan.

Taxes included

The package includes a tax increase of 9 cents per gallon tax on motor vehicle fuels, a 30 percent increase in gross-weight fees for commercial trucks and a 1 percent sales tax surcharge on car sales.

Sen. Karen Fraser, D-Thurston County, and Sen. Dan Swecker, R-Rochester, voted to raise the taxes without a referendum. Sen. Tim Sheldon, D-Potlatch, voted against it.

Some backers of the plan said it was needed immediately because it will keep businesses from leaving the state and will put 19,000 people back to work in the state's battered construction industry.

Others, like Senate Majority Leader Sid Snyder, D-Long Beach, said the state's business climate and bond rating will suffer without the package.

"It's $4.50 a month. It's 15 cents a day," Snyder said.

"It's hard to attract business to a district where the freeway floods," said Swecker, referring to flooding of the Chehalis River near Centralia, which has affected Interstate 5.

Opposing the tax package was Sen. Harold Hochstatter, R-Moses Lake, who said, "The transportation problem in my district is the threat of a gas tax."

Sen. Don Benton, R-Vancouver, led a morning fight to require a referendum in the Senate, arguing that the government has broken its trust with the people and can only restore it by taking the measure to the ballot.

Members of the House agreed resoundingly with Benton late in the evening, voting 64-34 at 9:15 p.m. to reject the Senate proposal.

"There's been a lot of pressure to take the vote here. I think there will be a lot more pressure when we go home and look people in the eye and say, 'We didn't trust you to make the decision,' " said Rep. Maryann Mitchell, R-Federal Way, her caucus' leader on transportation issues.

Among the resisters was Rep. Kathy Haigh, D-Shelton, whose 35th district includes Mason County and parts of Thurston and Kitsap counties. "They want a vote," Haigh said of residents who have contacted her.

Six Republicans and 24 Democrats, including Olympia Reps. Sandra Romero and Sam Hunt, voted for the tax increases without a referendum.

Voting against that option were Chopp, and four South Sound lawmakers including Haigh, Rep. Bill Eickmeyer, D-Belfair, Rep. Gary Alexander, R-Thurston County, and Rep. Richard DeBolt, R-Chehalis.

Brad Shannon and Patrick Condon cover state government for The Olympian. They can be reached at 360-753-1688.

On the Web:

- Washington State Legislature

- Gov. Gary Locke

For related stories go to the Legislature 2002 section.

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