Spokane Finding A Better Way

Republicans can’t retain power in the Washington state Legislature merely by swinging hatchets at our wicked government. While plenty of bureaucratic underbrush does need removal, the longer-term issue is how government can serve and spend in a better way.

For examples of the new wave in government, legislators ought to take a closer look at Spokane.

This community has a track record for local innovation in the use of state funds. Successful agencies here join hands to create new, multidisciplinary programs that remove bureaucratic barriers to the people being served. These efforts combine state funds with local and federal dollars to make the state’s investment go further. Local policy making allows quick, responsive course corrections. State dollars make the projects viable.

The best-known example is the downtown higher education program, now emerging in a unique urban campus. Several universities, public and private, will share facilities to reduce costs. They offer practical, career-oriented degrees with direct economic and social payoffs. The classes are overwhelmed with student demand. State funds are needed to design the next building.

Spokane’s “continuum of care” project offers a model for reform in Washington’s enormously inefficient social service programs. Local schools, hospital staff, caseworkers, criminal justice professionals and housing shelters work and plan together to rescue street kids, prevent child abuse and stabilize families on the brink of costly collapse. The project blends local expertise and funds with those of the state. It’s popular among front-line law enforcement, medical and social workers tired of merely picking up the human fragments of social disintegration.

Proposals to establish a Pacific Science Center branch in Riverfront Park, and to develop a priceless display of Native American art at the Cheney Cowles Museum, would combine state dollars with locally raised private contributions. Both projects involve programs with known records of success, and would create regional assets consistent with state government’s educational and economic priorities.

These Spokane undertakings have one more thing in common: Their funding is in jeopardy. This is a test for members of Spokane’s legislative delegation, who figure prominently in the new Republican power structure. The Legislature’s hatchet swingers need to distinguish dead wood from green. They also need to plant good seeds for the future.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = John Webster/For the editorial board