Lawmakers launch election-year session
OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) - Washington lawmakers, already eying the fall elections, on Monday opened their 60-day session, with Gov. Chris Gregoire and the Democrats hoping for a penny-pinching follow up to last year's ambitious session.
The session opened at noon.
Democratic leaders were tamping down expectations by nixing heavy new spending and vowing a quick gathering of 60 days or less.
In the minutes before the session opened, about 50 property tax foes held a version of the Boston Tea Party on the Capitol steps. They're looking for more property tax relief, following the November special session that re-imposed the state's 1 percent property tax cap.
Lawmakers also are dealing with the budget, transportation, housing, education reform, environmental and energy bills, crime, health care, and flood relief.
Overall, the Democrats are using a theme of "Safety and Security."
The backdrop for the session will be election-year politics. Gregoire and the Democratic supermajorities in the House and Senate will face the voters this fall. Presidential politics will add a partisan jolt next month when both parties hold caucuses and primaries.
Unlike last year, when the Legislature dipped heavily into the state's surpluses to start new programs like daylong kindergarten and cleanup of Puget Sound, Democratic lawmakers and the governor are scaling back expectations this year.
Little new spending is anticipated and only bite-sized bills are expected to survive the session. House Speaker Frank Chopp, D-Seattle, said small-scale "kitchen table" issues will dominate the agenda, such as expanded housing programs and flood relief.
Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, talks about "checkbook issues" and addressing voters' rising anxiety about the economy.
"There have been a lot of successes in our state, the economy has been strong, unemployment rates have been low, but people are starting to feel a sense of uncertainty," Brown said.
"They are feeling a sense of political uncertainty, they don't know what will happen in the coming year. They are feeling a sense of economic uncertainty as they hear bad news and when they look at their own bottom line, things can be deteriorating."
Leaders say they will guard against a runaway session that dips too deeply into the state's $1.4 billion reserve. Gregoire, who sent a modest budget plan to the Legislature last month, wants a $1.2 billion reserve, including $430 million in a hard-to-tap "rainy day" fund created by the voters in November.
The Gregoire budget would add $234 million in net new spending to the current two-year budget of $33 billion.
Brown and Chopp last week predicted a reserve of at least $1 billion, although their budget leaders, Sen. Margarita Prentice, D-Renton, and Rep. Helen Sommers, D-Seattle, said spending pressures will be ferocious.
"We will hold the line," Gregoire insisted in a pre-session interview.
But Republicans, including Gregoire challenger Dino Rossi, the former Senate Republican budget chairman, said the Democrats are faux conservatives and are trying to hoodwink voters.
House Republicans' budget leader, Gary Alexander of Olympia, said Democrats have jacked up the budget by one-third over the past four years and show no sign of trimming costs.
Rossi said Democrats "suddenly got religion," but aren't credible on the issue.
"I'm confident they will overspend some more and not be fiscally responsible, even though all their press releases will say they're to the right of Rush Limbaugh," he said.
The governor said she's happy to defend Democrats' budgets. Like a good business, she said, the state invested in important improvements when times were good, such as education and health care, and now is reining in as the national economy cools.
A state government deficit of over $600 million is now projected in the upcoming two-year budget cycle.
Lawmakers this week planned a jammed agenda of committee hearings, on such things as the budget, housing, highway and bridge tolls, popular election of the president, signature-gathering for initiatives, impeachment of the president, and regulation of grocery bags.
The session opened at noon.
Democratic leaders were tamping down expectations by nixing heavy new spending and vowing a quick gathering of 60 days or less.
In the minutes before the session opened, about 50 property tax foes held a version of the Boston Tea Party on the Capitol steps. They're looking for more property tax relief, following the November special session that re-imposed the state's 1 percent property tax cap.
Lawmakers also are dealing with the budget, transportation, housing, education reform, environmental and energy bills, crime, health care, and flood relief.
Overall, the Democrats are using a theme of "Safety and Security."
The backdrop for the session will be election-year politics. Gregoire and the Democratic supermajorities in the House and Senate will face the voters this fall. Presidential politics will add a partisan jolt next month when both parties hold caucuses and primaries.
Unlike last year, when the Legislature dipped heavily into the state's surpluses to start new programs like daylong kindergarten and cleanup of Puget Sound, Democratic lawmakers and the governor are scaling back expectations this year.
Little new spending is anticipated and only bite-sized bills are expected to survive the session. House Speaker Frank Chopp, D-Seattle, said small-scale "kitchen table" issues will dominate the agenda, such as expanded housing programs and flood relief.
Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, talks about "checkbook issues" and addressing voters' rising anxiety about the economy.
"There have been a lot of successes in our state, the economy has been strong, unemployment rates have been low, but people are starting to feel a sense of uncertainty," Brown said.
"They are feeling a sense of political uncertainty, they don't know what will happen in the coming year. They are feeling a sense of economic uncertainty as they hear bad news and when they look at their own bottom line, things can be deteriorating."
Leaders say they will guard against a runaway session that dips too deeply into the state's $1.4 billion reserve. Gregoire, who sent a modest budget plan to the Legislature last month, wants a $1.2 billion reserve, including $430 million in a hard-to-tap "rainy day" fund created by the voters in November.
The Gregoire budget would add $234 million in net new spending to the current two-year budget of $33 billion.
Brown and Chopp last week predicted a reserve of at least $1 billion, although their budget leaders, Sen. Margarita Prentice, D-Renton, and Rep. Helen Sommers, D-Seattle, said spending pressures will be ferocious.
"We will hold the line," Gregoire insisted in a pre-session interview.
But Republicans, including Gregoire challenger Dino Rossi, the former Senate Republican budget chairman, said the Democrats are faux conservatives and are trying to hoodwink voters.
House Republicans' budget leader, Gary Alexander of Olympia, said Democrats have jacked up the budget by one-third over the past four years and show no sign of trimming costs.
Rossi said Democrats "suddenly got religion," but aren't credible on the issue.
"I'm confident they will overspend some more and not be fiscally responsible, even though all their press releases will say they're to the right of Rush Limbaugh," he said.
The governor said she's happy to defend Democrats' budgets. Like a good business, she said, the state invested in important improvements when times were good, such as education and health care, and now is reining in as the national economy cools.
A state government deficit of over $600 million is now projected in the upcoming two-year budget cycle.
Lawmakers this week planned a jammed agenda of committee hearings, on such things as the budget, housing, highway and bridge tolls, popular election of the president, signature-gathering for initiatives, impeachment of the president, and regulation of grocery bags.
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