Legislature Still Hung Up On Budget, Stadium With Just One Week To Go In Session, State Spending Plan Faces Locke Veto

The state budget, a new stadium for the Seattle Seahawks football team, a clampdown on juvenile criminals and limits on minors who seek abortions are among major issues still to be resolved as lawmakers head into the final week of their regular legislative session.

Despite the load, Republican leaders of both houses claim they are optimistic they can complete their work within the 105 days allowed for a regular session under the state constitution. That deadline is next Sunday.

“I don’t see why we’d need a special session,” Senate Majority Leader Dan McDonald, R-Bellevue, said Saturday. “The work that needs to be done can be done” by then.

But maybe not.

The budget poses the most serious problem. The Republicans’ $19 billion spending plan for the next two-year budget cycle was sent to Democratic Gov. Gary Locke on Saturday night.

The rule change the Republicans used to allow the vote - a third ballot taken after the same bill had been rejected twice - prompted the resignation of Sen. Sid Snyder, D-Long Beach, and a walkout by other Democratic senators.

Locke is expected to drop the budget - or at least major chunks of it - right back in lawmakers’ laps this week.

“We hope he doesn’t do that,” said Senate budget chief Jim West, R-Spokane. “We think it is a good budget and a responsible budget.”

But Locke says he has concerns over what he considers too little spending for education and health care, among other things.

Another issue that could slow down the scheduled departure from Olympia is the powerful lobbying effort for a statewide vote on a funding package to help finance a new stadium for the Seahawks, a proposal strongly backed by Locke.

The Republican-led House is being pushed to vote on a proposal to authorize a June election on a financing plan for the stadium.

If the House votes on the issue, it will be close. “We sure don’t have (the required) 50 votes right now,” Bud Coffey, the main lobbyist for the project, said Saturday.

The Senate has approved a public vote.

Billionaire Paul Allen has pledged to provide about $100 million of the $425 million cost of a stadium, plus he has said he would cover any cost overruns.

House Speaker Clyde Ballard, R-East Wenatchee, said he hopes the House can at least agree on a final proposal today, setting the stage for a vote later in the week - “but only if 50 votes are there.”

Other issues remain that, by themselves, probably would not delay adjournment. But they could distract the Legislature from its main business - passing a budget before the July 1 start of the new fiscal year.

Among them is a measure to get tougher on juvenile criminals, sending the worst of them into adult courts and prisons and toughening sentences for the rest.

The proposal is heading for a House-Senate conference committee, and leaders say agreement exists to send the measure to Locke in a form he will sign.

But there is a wild card in this game. Senate Law and Justice Committee Chairwoman Pam Roach, R-Auburn, has made no secret of her distaste for the bill as written. As a member of the conference committee that will write the final version, she could hang the measure up before it reaches each floor for a final vote.

A less contentious issue is a measure requiring parents to be notified before their minor child can get an abortion. The proposal is expected to obtain Senate approval and be sent to the governor this week. Locke has said he would veto the measure.

Amid all the uncertainty, the Legislature did manage to dispose of two major issues before the final week.

Last week, Locke signed a broad overhaul of the state’s welfare system after vetoing sections he didn’t like. Republican lawmakers say they can live with the vetoes, and they abandoned plans to send their original package to voters.

The Legislature sent Locke a controversial measure Saturday to free the insurance industry of rules intended to give consumers access to affordable health insurance. Locke hasn’t said if he will veto all or parts of the bill.

Some issues seem to be dead, but as Locke said Saturday, “Nothing’s dead around here until the Legislature goes home.”

Among proposals that look dead:

Charter schools

Senate Republicans blocked a House-passed bill authorizing non-profit groups to create publicly funded but independent and largely deregulated schools.

Gay marriage

The Senate failed to come up with enough votes last week to send to the statewide ballot a proposed ban on same-sex marriage after Locke vetoed the ban. Enough Senate votes to get the ban on the ballot don’t appear to be forthcoming.

Growth management

The Legislature has sent the governor six measures to revise the state’s 7-year-old land-use planning law, and he is expected to veto them all this week. An attempt to find compromise legislation fizzled last week in the House, where Republicans said they would rather have nothing than the minor revisions backed by Locke.

Gas tax

Senate backers have all but given up attempts to pass a two-step 7-cents-a-gallon increase in the state’s 23-cent gasoline tax.