Locke Says Legislature Left Job Undone

Showing the frustrations of a man whose priorities are largely irrelevant to the party in charge, Gov. Gary Locke on Friday bemoaned a legislative session marked by “missed opportunities.”

“We’re disappointed that the Legislature did not step up to the high standards that we had set,” said Locke, who compared the session with his toddler daughter’s faltering first steps.

“This is not the time to take a lot of little steps.”

During a meeting with The Spokesman-Review’s editorial board, Locke praised the Legislature for getting tougher on drunken drivers and methamphetamine labs. He said he also was pleased that the state’s budget provides a third of the money he requested for elementary school reading programs.

But the Democratic governor complained that the Republicans who control both chambers did not adopt his ideas for bolstering the economies of depressed rural counties and further improving education.

Locke said he wanted to give tax breaks to businesses that expand their plants in the state’s most economically depressed rural counties.

The rejection of that proposal amounts to telling struggling rural workers to “move to Seattle,” where jobs are plentiful, Locke said. “I think that’s extremely callous.”

The Legislature also rejected Locke’s proposal to offer four-year scholarships to 100 top students studying to become teachers, and to offer bonus pay to the best teachers.

Locke said he agreed with the Republican plan to reduce the motor vehicle excise tax, but not to use what’s left of the car tax to fund $2.4 billion in transportation projects. Republicans want voters to approve that proposal in November.

Locke, who made an increase in the gasoline tax one of his top priorities, said he still thinks it’s the best way to pay for road work. Republicans declared the idea dead before the legislative session even began.

The Republican transportation plan will take money from education, and is risky, since it relies on future state revenues, said Locke.

As chairman of the House Appropriations Committee in the early 1990s, then-Rep. Locke approved a budget that similarly relied on unhatched eggs. The Legislature was forced to cut programs when Boeing laid off workers in 1993.

“I’m saying we should never make that mistake again,” Locke said. “We should never be spending more than we take in.”

, DataTimes