232 More Bills Await Locke’s Action Governor Must Decide Fate Of State Budget, Road Funds, Land-Use Rules
Most of Gov. Gary Locke’s policy and budget analysts took the day off Monday to recover from the Legislature’s mad dash to adjourn the 1997 session the night before.
The analysts had better enjoy their one-day break because, while lawmakers head for home, they have to help the governor decide the fate of 232 bills by May 20.
Locke already has acted on 254 of the 486 bills that the Republican-led Legislature sent to the Democratic governor, according to Locke spokeswoman Marylou Flynn. He vetoed 20, partially vetoed 20 others and signed the rest.
The remaining measures will be the topic of policy briefings which are to resume today. The governor will announce his decisions over the next few weeks, with the first batch of bills scheduled for action Thursday.
Locke has a number of decisions to make on some complex issues, led by the second version of the $19 billion state budget that Republicans sent him Saturday.
The two-year budget increases spending for education, gives state employees and teachers a 3 percent raise, boosts college tuition and adds 8,000 people to the state’s Basic Health Plan, which provides subsidized health insurance for the poor.
Locke is expected to veto a provision that prohibits the state from accepting $16 million in federal Goals 2000 education money.
The governor also must review a $3.3 billion no-new-taxes transportation budget that’s about $100 million smaller than the current spending plan due to dwindling gasoline tax revenue and the loss of federal funds.
The decline would have been twice that amount except that transportation leaders agreed to shift about $100 million from the state’s general fund into the roads budget. However, Locke expects to veto half of that transfer, according to Flynn.
Locke already has vetoed two bills designed to greatly loosen the state’s controversial Growth Management Act, which limits land use in an effort to control urban sprawl. He is expected to veto sections of another land-use bill but keep the provisions that follow the recommendations of the Land Use Study Commission, which proposed only minor changes.
Other measures awaiting gubernatorial action deal with regulatory reform, water rights, tobacco tax collections and assorted tax cuts for targeted industries such as beer distributors.
Flynn said calls poured into the governor’s office Monday from people anxious to lobby for or against the bills awaiting Locke’s action.