Budget deficit made legislative session stressful for all

YAKIMA, Wash. — When the legislative session started in January, state budget projections included a $5.7 billion deficit, Dan Newhouse represented the 15th District, and the Yakima Valley School in Selah was marked for closure.

By the end of the session, Newhouse had left to assume control of the state Agriculture Department and he was replaced by Moxee rancher and land-use consultant David Taylor.

And the deficit increased to $9 billion. The Legislature passed a $35 billion no-new-taxes budget that cut spending by $4 billion. Those cuts were not deep enough for local lawmakers, all of whom voted against the budget.

The all-Republican delegation from the Yakima Valley succeeded, however, in keeping the state-run Yakima Valley School open for at least another year. The facility, which provides inpatient and respite care for the severely disabled, is home to 87 residents and employs 275 people.

"That battle is far from over," said Sen. Curtis King, R-Yakima. "But I think we're well positioned."

While the session saw some of the 13th, 14th and 15th District lawmakers break from the party line on issues such as gay rights and basic education funding, they uniformly agreed on one thing: It was tough to get much done under the stress of that budget deficit.

"I voted no probably more than I voted yes," said Rep. Charles Ross, R-Naches.

Among the hot button issues facing local lawmakers this legislative session were bills on domestic partnership rights and basic education.

The first, SB5688, gave registered domestic partners the same benefits as married spouses. The HB 2261 education bill allowed for a redefining of basic education in the state,
opening up the possibility of longer school days, all-day kindergarten and a new funding strategy, as well as new performance standards for teachers.

Here is a look at how the session went for each of the legislators from the districts representing the Yakima Valley. For more information on each of them, including bill sponsorship and vote roll calls, visit www.leg.wa.gov.

14th District

Sen. Curtis King, R-Yakima

* Domestic partners, SB5688: Yes

* Basic education, HB2261: No

* State operating budget: No

Before the session, King said if he could get a bill passed protecting kids from sports concussions, that's what he'd feel best about.

He shepherded the legislation, which would require stricter oversight of head injuries in school sports, through the Senate while Rep. Jay Rodne moved a companion bill through the House.

On Thursday, the governor signed the House version of the bill into law. In an interview after the session, King reiterated that he considers the concussion bill among his best accomp-lishments in Olympia this year.

"That and the Yakima Valley School," he said. "Those are the things that make you feel the best. That's really what we're there for."

King was a key player in the push to halt the closure of the Selah facility, working with legislative colleagues and local supporters to earn it at least a stay of execution.

He also made headlines this session for voting against his party to expand domestic partner benefits, an expansion that opponents argue is essentially legalized gay marriage.

King said he cast that vote because he knows and respects gay members of the Yakima community, and believes they deserve equal legal rights. He will draw the line at legalizing gay marriage, if that comes up for a vote, because he believes in the traditional definition of marriage as between a man and a woman.

Rep. Charles Ross, R-Naches

* Domestic partners: No

* Basic education : No

* State operating budget: No

Ross made news last year as the champion of a sweeping anti-gang bill, and he plans to continue pushing for new legal tools to fight gangs. But that had to be put on hold this year, as the Legislature struggled with a $9 billion budget deficit, Ross said.

"A lot of what needs to be done on that is expensive," he said.

Instead of pushing for new criminal justice programs, Ross found himself defending existing ones. A committee amendment to a juvenile sentencing bill, Senate Bill 5746, would have stripped state law of minimum fines for juvenile auto thieves.

A 2007 bill that Ross had co-sponsored established those fines at $250 for first-time offenders and $400 for juveniles with prior convictions. He succeeded this year in keeping those fines on the books.

"I live in a world today where penalties mean something," Ross said in an April 9 floor speech aimed at maintaining the penalties. "And to sit here and say that $400 is too much for a 17-, 18-year-old kid to pay is appalling. Anybody know how much an Xbox 360 costs?"

While he had success there, Ross and his Repub-lican colleagues from the Yakima Valley were unable to stop the Democratic majority from passing a budget they see as shortsighted.

Rep. Norm Johnson, R-Yakima

* Domestic partners: Yes

* Basic education: No

* State operating budget: No

In his first session, Johnson made good on a campaign pledge to work both sides of the political aisle, getting the necessary Democratic support to approve $800,000 for Yakima's Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences.

Initially, Johnson pushed for it with a bill that would have authorized funding -- House Bill 1901, one of only two bills Johnson introduced this year. But the bill failed to get even a hearing from the House Finance Committee despite a bipartisan group of more than 20 co-sponsors. So Johnson went to Rep. Kelli Linville, D-Bellingham, who as chairwoman of the Ways and Means Committee was able to secure the funding as part of the House budget proposal.

"You have to be able to work with people," Johnson said.

He also joined King in crossing party lines on the domestic partner bill.

Johnson, who has two gay sons, said he knows the vote is likely to be unpopular with local conservatives. Skip Schoff, the vice president of Christian Broadcasting of Yakima, devoted a half-hour program to criticizing King and Johnson for their votes. Neither Johnson nor King regrets the vote.

"To me it's a matter of what's right and what's wrong," Johnson said.

13th District

Sen. Janéa Holmquist, R-Moses Lake

* Domestic partners: No

* Basic education : No

* State operating budget: No

The session was defined by opposition for Holmquist, who succeeded in battling back a few bills she found harmful to business and provided a loud dissenting voice while losing the fight on domestic partnerships.

She also sponsored successful legislation -- highlights include a bill limiting prisoners' ability to file frivolous public records requests, Senate Bill 5130, and a bill waiving penalties for first-time paperwork violations by small businesses, Senate Bill 5042.

But Holmquist is most proud of successfully watering down proposed emissions "cap and trade" legislation and killing a proposal that would have prohibited employers from requiring employees to attend meetings about politics and religion.

"I was more focused on stopping bills," she said.

One she couldn't stop was Senate Bill 5688, the expansion of domestic partner rights. Holmquist was among the bill's most vocal opponents.

"It gets around the Defense of Marriage Act to, in essence, institute same-sex marriage. ... I don't think they have a right to redefine marriage for all of us," Holmquist said.

Rep. Bill Hinkle, R-Cle Elum

* Domestic partners: No

* Basic education : Yes

* State operating budget: No

Prior to the session, Hinkle listed improvements to Interstate 90 between eastern and western Washington as his top priority for the year.

Well, there is now about $55 million set aside for that, including the $2.5 million resurfacing project that began late last month near Ellensburg.

But Hinkle voted against such funding because it became available from federal economic stimulus funding, which he philosophically opposed.

Though Hinkle allowed that if the money was going to be spent, "infrastructure is a good place to go," he opposed the spending because he considers the stimulus poor federal policy and a short-term fix to the state's budget woes.

"It seems like every year we just keep pushing our problems forward to the next biennium," he said.

He voted against the state budget for the same reason. While he criticized spending levels in the budget, Hinkle also considered it a Republican victory that the budget didn't include significant tax increases.

"Our significant accomp-lishment was really repre-senting the feeling of the people back home that tax increases really weren't going to be acceptable," he said.

Rep. Judy Warnick, R-Moses Lake

* Domestic partners: No

* Basic education : Yes

* State operating budget: No

Only two out of nine lawmakers from districts representing the Yakima Valley voted in favor of House Bill 2261, which redefines "basic education" and commits the state to better funding it. Hinkle was one of them, Warnick was the other.

But Warnick supported it first; Hinkle only voted for it the second time it came before the House.

"Eventually I talked him into that," Warnick said.

Though questions remain about how the changes will be funded -- it's estimated the overhaul will cost the state billions when it's fully implemented in 2018 -- Warnick said something needed to be done "to get us doing something, get us moving forward" to provide steady funding for education.

"Maybe there will be problems down the road. ... But that's why I supported it, was because it was a plan," she said.

Like Hinkle, Warnick listed transportation improvements on I-90 as among her top priorities prior to the session. Unlike Hinkle, Warnick voted in favor of the state transportation budget and the stimulus appropriations bill, House Bill 1978, that allocated federal recovery money to I-90 projects.

Warnick said she understands people's objections to the stimulus funding for automakers and the financial industry, but infrastructure projects are different.

"These projects are on-the-ground projects the taxpayers can see," she said. "And they will provide jobs."

15th District

Sen. Jim Honeyford, R-Sunnyside

* Domestic partners: No

* Basic education : No

* Budget: No

According to Honeyford, the biggest challenge this session for Senate Republicans was fighting Gov. Chris Gregoire's environmental proposals, which they considered unnecessary and harmful to business. And they were pretty successful in that, diluting the emissions cap-and-trade legislation pushed by Gregoire and legislative Democrats.

"We all worked together to create a lot of pressure on that," Honeyford said. "And that was scaled down considerably. ... It would have increased the costs of every product that we buy."

His attempt to introduce an optional four-day school week to help school districts save money was less successful.

"It ran into a lot of criticism or opposition from the WEA," Honeyford said, referring to the Washington Education Association, the statewide teachers union.

Instead, the Legislature passed an alternative allowing the state to grant waivers to districts so they can "operate one or more schools on a flexible calendar for certain purposes." It's in essence a pilot program for the four-day-week option, something Honeyford may push for again in the future.

"We'll wait and see how the pilots turn out," he said.

Rep. Bruce Chandler, R-Granger

* Domestic partners: No

* Basic education : No

* State operating budget: No

Like his Central Washington colleagues, before the session Chandler emphasized a desire for a balanced budget without tax increases. In a way they got that, but it still didn't work out how they'd wanted. Instead of taxes, the operating budget passed by the Legislature is balanced by one-time federal stimulus funding and by raiding other state funds.

Like the other Yakima Valley lawmakers, Chandler voted against it. Instead of what he considers a stop-gap budget, the Legislature should have used this economic downturn to examine and revamp how state government spends money, he said.

"I was frustrated at how many legislators seemed to be determined to assume all we have to do is get through the next 12 to 18 months," he said. "They took $800 million -- almost a billion -- out of the capital budget, which is like taking a second mortgage on your home to go buy groceries."

He was similarly dismayed at the House's inability to provide any clarity on longstanding state exemptions allowing unlimited water use for livestock. Confusion over the issue is causing lenders to hesitate before working with dairies and feedlots, Chandler said.

That's the kind of session it was, he said.

"It was marked by what didn't happen."

Rep. David Taylor, R-Moxee

* Domestic partners: No

* Basic education : No

* State operating budget: No

It was a pretty short session for Taylor, who was appointed to replace Newhouse after the Sunnyside Republican was made head of the state Agriculture Department. Taylor was sworn in March 30 and arrived in Olympia the next morning. The session ended April 26.

Taylor introduced just one bill in that time -- a proposal to mandate a 72-hour review period for bills affecting the budget -- and it died in committee.

But he did learn a little bit about how to think as a legislator. He points to a vote to dig a deep-bore tunnel that would divert traffic from Seattle's Alaska Way Viaduct. Initially, he couldn't see himself supporting the $2.4 billion project. But he ended up voting for it after hearing from constituents in agriculture who explained how important such transportation projects are to the industry.

"Without something to relieve congestion, getting products to the port would be very, very difficult," Taylor said.

He also learned how to lean on colleagues' expertise in areas where he lacks it, because with thousands of bills in play each year it's "impossible to be up on all of it."