Budget Hits Snag In Senate Sen. Roach Derails Plan By Refusing To Make Crucial Vote

Republican legislators prepared to send a $19 billion state budget to a skeptical Democratic governor Thursday, but were temporarily derailed by a one-woman protest in the Senate.

GOP House and Senate leaders said they fear Gov. Gary Locke will veto all or part of the two-year spending plan to try to pressure them to spend more on education, the Basic Health Plan for working poor, and training for displaced workers.

A veto would be a bad idea, said House Speaker Clyde Ballard, R-East Wenatchee.

A day earlier, the governor broadly hinted that he’d uncap his veto pen in order to continue budget negotiations with the Republicans. He listed a number of objections, and his budget office on Thursday released changes he still wants.

Republicans have produced their budget unusually early this year, to give Locke time to consider his options and for the Legislature to respond if there are vetoes.

The package was negotiated by Republicans behind closed doors and the two houses planned to pass it in just three hours Thursday.

It almost worked.

The measure cleared the House 53-44 with little strain.

The bill, SB6062, then zipped over to the Senate. Lawmakers repeated the same pro and con arguments the House had heard, and the roll call began.

Sen. Pam Roach, R-Auburn, a fiery conservative who ran for the GOP nomination for governor last September, stunned and angered her Republican colleagues by refusing to provide the decisive 25th vote for the spending plan.

It failed to pass on a 24-24 vote.

Some senators called it revenge for being steamrolled earlier on major revisions to her juvenile crime bill. Roach didn’t flatly deny it, but told reporters it was a protest that the budget is partially financed by the motor vehicle excise tax, the tax paid when motorists get their license tabs each year.

Roach, who previously helped scuttle a gasoline-tax increase plan, said she wants the millions of dollars in the vehicle tax revenue to be used for its proper purpose, transportation projects.

Locke has called the Republican budget “mediocre” on his No. 1 issue, education. He wants $29 million more for education-reform programs, $12 million for magnet schools and other projects, $15 million for levy support for property-poor districts, $6 million more for student financial aid, better funding for training displaced workers, more enrollments for the Basic Health Plan and lower co-pays, $4 million more for AIDS prescription drugs, $8 million for water policy and more for state employee salaries.

The GOP budget is up $1.4 billion over the current $17.7 billion spending plan. It’s $193 million below Locke’s spending request.

It would allow tax cuts of at least $373 million, leaves at least $486 million unspent, and is $136 million below the spending limit imposed by Initiative 601.

The biggest increases are for a 3-percent pay raise for teachers, professors and state workers.