Sharing The Power Democratic Governor, Slim Gop Majorities Mean Legislators Must Learn To Get Along

Every year as the legislative session gets under way, lawmakers blow rhetorical kisses at one another and promise to cooperate. This year, they’ll have no choice.

Power is divided, so it will have to be shared.

The state’s new governor, Gary Locke, is a Seattle Democrat. He’ll have to make policy with Republican majorities in control of both houses of the Legislature.

Not a single legislative leader or committee chairman comes from Locke’s party or home city.

But the GOP majorities in the House and Senate are not commanding.

In the House, the balance of power is more solidly in the GOP’s column than in the Senate, where the Republican majority is only three seats deep.

That means the GOP can’t barrel legislation over to the governor’s desk, confident of overriding a veto.

“We are going to have to get along with Gary,” said Rep. Duane Sommers, R-Spokane. “There’s no need to lob bills over he’ll veto. With the slim majorities we have we can’t override everything.”

With power divided and a state spending cap in place, the session will be a reality check on big plans.

Backers of a new football stadium in Seattle will face a wary and skeptical legislature. Republicans who have floated tax cut plans larger than the $420 million surplus have another think coming.

And supporters of changing I-601, the state spending lid, to pour more money into schools face unified GOP opposition.

“We are not going to tamper with 601. People can just lay all those schemes to rest,” said Sen. James West, R-Spokane, chairman of the powerful Senate Ways and Means Committee.

The Senate initiates budget negotiations this year for the 1997-99 biennium.

West will lead the crafting of what he promises will be a leaner, smarter budget. He pledges to think twice before taking money out of the pockets of working people.

“What about Bob?” said West, referring to Bob Hemphill, the owner of a Spokane chicken joint, Chicken ‘N More. “He’s one of the little guys out there, working 12 hours a day just trying to make it go. We have to ask ourselves, when we consider continuing or starting any program, is it worth taking money away from him.”

The state spending lid allows lawmakers to spend $19 billion in the coming biennium, up from $17.6 billion in this biennium’s budget.

Republicans have put together aggressive tax cut plans, including a rollback in business and occupation taxes to pre-1993 levels.

Locke has committed to the rollback, but not much more. “We can’t spend the surplus five times over,” Locke said.

Both parties are also pushing for a property tax cut.

While property tax reductions have been on the legislative agenda for years, lawmakers vow this will be the session cuts are finally adopted, if only to stave off more radical cuts by initiative.

“We have a responsibility to keep something off the ballot that destroys government as we know it,” said Senate Minority Leader Sen. Sid Snyder, D-Long Beach.

A variety of plans are in the works. One would hold down increases in the tax rate to the rate of inflation. Another would limit rising assessments by pegging them to a rolling two-year average, to smooth out spikes in property values.

Lawmakers also want to permanently reduce the state share of the property tax by 5 percent.

The drive to cut taxes will make it harder to raise money to pay for transportation projects.

Backers of increasing the state’s tax on gasoline, including Sen. Eugene Prince, R-Thornton, new chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee, are not optimistic.

The most Prince expects at this point is a shift in about $100 million from the general fund to transportation programs, instead of a hike in the gas tax.

One of the biggest fights of the year will be over welfare reform, with Republicans seeking to limit the time recipients can spend on the dole. Some of the tougher provisions sought by the GOP in recent years are likely to go by the wayside, including cutting off benefits for additional children born to welfare mothers.

Democrats, meanwhile, are likely to go along with a five-year, lifetime limit on benefits in return for increased spending on job training, child care, and other services to help people make the transition to work.

State lawmakers have tried to pass a welfare reform law for years, but this year they have a unique incentive. The federal government has passed a sweeping reform law that leaves it to states to craft their own welfare plans within broad federal guidelines.

Outgoing Gov. Mike Lowry has already submitted the state’s plan, and it remains law unless the Legislature comes up with an alternative. Lowry’s policy uses a federal waiver to enact a liberal policy, with recipients allowed to keep receiving benefits for years.

That gives Republicans a reason to work seriously to adopt a new law.

Sen. Majority Leader Dan McDonald, R-Bellevue, said the GOP also will not shy away from social issues. “I don’t think anyone expects us to leave our principles at the door.” A bill banning gay marriage is almost certain to pass both houses, but Locke hasn’t said if he’ll sign it.

Lowry has introduced a bill legalizing same-sex unions but the bill is regarded as dead on arrival.

If lawmakers pass the gay marriage ban, it is likely to include a referendum clause that allows them to bypass Locke’s veto pen. That would also give the public a voice on the issue in November.

Bills that ban late-term abortions and require parents to be notified if their minor daughter has an abortion have already been filed.

As for a new football stadium in Seattle, lawmakers are backing away from the idea so far it doesn’t appear on anyone’s priority list.

“I don’t even think it’s a fight. I think it’s dead,” said Prince, who was instrumental in getting Eastern Washington votes together to back the new Mariner’s stadium in Seattle last year.

“Last time I helped them pass it. But I can’t believe we are spoiled enough to think we should start a second stadium before even beginning the first one. People will think we’ve lost our mind.”

Locke has refused to pick up the stadium tar baby so far. Asked if he’ll take up the stadium cause, he said he’d wait and see what a task force studying the issue reports at the end of the month. And Locke says state employees deserve a raise. How big will be the question.

It’s not a session in which unions, or anyone else, can insist on their own way. “It has to be a session of solutions, not stalemate,” said Rep. Cathy McMorris, R-Colville.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo