Lawmakers Get Down To Business Critic Cites “Piling-On” Effect Of Business-Friendly Legislation

From bills that roll back insurance reforms to tax cuts for banks, lobbyists and lawyers, special interests are having a hot legislative session this year.

Lawmakers are just over halfway through their work, and many proposals may die or be rewritten. But so far insurers, restaurant owners and business interests large and small are making progress on an aggressive agenda.

“It’s a great session for business,” said Lonnie Johns Brown, a lobbyist for social services. “They’ve got the votes to run all this stuff and they don’t have to worry about any new taxes or mandates. So now it’s a piling-on effect.”

Republicans, like Colville’s Cathy McMorris, chairman of the House Commerce and Labor Committee, said they are helping working people by providing a better climate for business.

“We are trying to build up working families,” McMorris said. “That’s what happens when businesses prosper.”

Sen. Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, called that a “rising tides lifts all boats” philosophy. “But it ignores the fact that for a lot of people, that’s not happening. They are beached.”

Brown backed a bill to increase the state minimum wage and was the prime sponsor of a plan to require that business tax breaks be tied to the creation of family-wage jobs. Neither bill got very far.

Some of the largest businesses in the state would benefit from a bill passed by the House and Senate that rolls back business and occupation taxes to pre-1993 levels.

Democratic Gov. Gary Locke killed the measure, saying business already has wrung about $1 billion in tax cuts out of the Legislature in recent years. The business and occupation tax cut bill is expected to be revived before the session is over.

Businesses also will reap the largest benefit from two property tax-cut bills already adopted by the Legislature. Locke vetoed those bills, too, so lawmakers put them on the November ballot.

Another business-backed bill would save millions in taxes on so-called intangible assets, including a company’s name recognition. The bill passed the Senate last week over the protest of Democrats who said it would shift the tax burden to others.

“Why should we tax businesses for succeeding?” said Don Brunell of the Association of Washington Business, the state’s largest business group. He said many bills pushed this year are intended to make up for laws passed by Democrats when they were in control.

Republicans now control both houses of the Legislature.

“Naturally Democrats would be more friendly to labor, and Republicans would be more favorable to business,” Brunell said. But overall, he said, lawmakers in both parties are friendly to business this year.

“They realize the economic effects on business of legislation and regulation.”

Still, the road hasn’t been completely smooth for business lobbyists. US West lost its bid for a bill that would hike phone rates. And banks don’t like a proposal that puts a moratorium on fees charged at automatic teller machines.

But many industry lobbyists are close to victories they have sought for years.

“It’s kind of a feeding frenzy,” said Jeff Johnson of the Washington State Labor Council. “In terms of the number of bills, I’ve never seen anything like it.”

The insurance industry won passage in committee of key bills that roll back insurance reforms adopted in 1993.

If the bills become law, insurers could once again refuse coverage on the basis of pre-existing conditions. They also could delay the start of coverage for as long as 14 months.

That’s more than four times the current maximum wait.

Another bill curtails the insurance commissioner’s ability to regulate the insurance industry. Former Gov. Mike Lowry vetoed the provision last year. Now it’s back, in a regulatory reform bill.

The Washington Restaurant Association also may clinch its six-year battle to pass a bill that freezes the state minimum wage at the current level of $4.90 an hour for employees who make tips.

Gene Vosberg, executive vice president of the association, said the bill helps employers pay such employees as dishwashers and busboys more by preventing an increase in the base pay of tipped employees.

Another bill backed by a coalition that includes nearly every major corporation in the state makes it harder for people to sue businesses for damages, encourages early settlements, and limits plaintiff attorney fees.

Cities and counties, insurers, hospitals and the state medical association also back the bill. The provisions have been before the Legislature in bits and pieces for years, but this is the first session to bring them all together.

Consumer advocates also are feeling out-gunned by a cadre of smart, sophisticated and well-funded industry and utility lobbyists pushing a bill to deregulate the electric utility industry.

“Our troops are small,” sighed Nancy Hirsh, who recalled a recent work session where more than 40 lobbyists showed up. Only two represented someone other than industry or a utility, she recalled.

Hirsh’s group, the National Conservation Act Coalition, is the only consumer group monitoring the deregulation bill full time. Meanwhile, folks like Enid Layes, or The Energy Queen as she’s been dubbed in Olympia, can work members day in and day out on behalf of her clients backing the bill, including The Boeing Company, Weyerhaeuser Co., and Birmingham Steel.

The measure sets a date by which the state would allow electricity to be bought and sold under free-market competition, instead of by regulated monopolies and publicly-owned utilities.

But it is vague on how the details of some crucial consumer questions would be resolved, deferring resolution to study committees. The question of who would pay the cost of building the state’s failed nuclear power plant system is unanswered, among others.

“This bill is halfway there on the protection of consumers. We have a lot of concerns with quality of service, price, and access,” Hirsh said.

Sen. Bill Finkbeiner, R-Carnation, the bill’s sponsor and chairman of the Senate Energy and Utilities Committee, promised more work and changes on the bill.

“Give us some credit. Every lobbyist here wants to get the most they can for who ever they represent, and that includes environmentalists and consumer groups. Our job is to strike a balance.”

McMorris, chairman of the House Commerce and Labor Committee, said her focus is “to make Washington more attractive for businesses so there is more opportunity to create more jobs for our citizens.

“The Legislature has been balanced and we’ve tried to get impact from across the spectrum. In no way is anything we’ve done an attack on working families.”

Senate Majority Leader Dan McDonald, R-Bellevue said GOP lawmakers running the show in both houses have the average citizen’s best interests at heart.

“It seems to me we are working on a whole host of things that will make life easier for working people. We are reducing taxes, and keeping spending low.”

, DataTimes