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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

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Editorial: Legislatures have bigger budgets, challenges

The Idaho and Washington legislatures open for business Monday with shared challenges – transportation, education, employee compensation – but with brighter revenue prospects as the grip of the Great Recession eases.

These sessions will be an opportunity to regain lost ground, and move forward on initiatives that will improve the economies of both states, and the lives of their citizens.

That always starts with education.

Idaho should at last restore school funding to pre-2009 levels. But with 6,000 more students enrolled statewide, there’s room for more progress. Teachers must be better paid, or they will continue to leave.

Plummeting state support for higher education must at least stabilize.

Gov. Butch Otter talked up education when campaigning for his third term, but since then has refocused on tax cuts to attract business. It’s the wrong solution. Employers will go where there are skilled, educated workers.

Compensation for all state employees is falling further below private sector levels. Some testified Thursday that, even with a state job, they qualify for public assistance. That’s just wrong.

Teachers and other Washington employees may get a cost-of-living pay hike for the first time in six years if Gov. Jay Inslee has his way. He may not have his way. The tab could exceed $1 billion with benefits included, a number the Republican-controlled Senate may nix.

Legislators are fixated on the additional $2 billion for schools the state Supreme Court expects over the next biennium, and voters want even more expended if the state is to meet class-size mandates set by Initiative 1351.

The state also faces substantial additional expenditures for mental health care, foster and child care, and firefighting.

A projected $3.6 billion revenue increase may not cover everything.

Inslee has proposed a new capital gains tax if other revenues fall short and, to pay for transportation projects, he’s relying on a new cap-and-trade pollution plan instead of higher gas taxes. With $2-a-gallon gas, the Legislature might be better advised to revisit a plan nearly approved last year, which combined tax increases with reforms.

It also included full funding for the North Spokane Corridor. A must have. Without action this year, Washington economy will be stuck in traffic.

Idaho’s problem is less congestion-related, and more about deterioration. A 2010 governor’s task force estimated that keeping up with maintenance would take an additional $262 million a year. Yet nothing has changed.

Legislators always have a tough task, made harder the last few years by budget constraints. They’ll have a little more breathing room this year.

Wish them well, but hold them accountable. It looks like Washington residents may be able to testify on proposed bills this year without going to Olympia. Idaho should work on a similar plan.

It helps when legislators aren’t listening only to their own voices.