Public Periscope

Brown has difficult task ahead

Last week might be described as a good news, bad news week for state Sen. Lisa Brown of Spokane. The good news is, she’s the new chairwoman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, which almost always has the adjective “powerful” thrown in front of it because the panel starts the process of deciding how the state spends billions every year from its general fund. … The bad news is, she’s the new chairwoman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, which will write a budget in which voters have decided that the state should collect less in taxes, and pay out more for education, in the form of smaller classroom sizes and annual cost-of-living adjustments for teachers. The day after her appointment, Brown said Gov. Gary Locke called to say two things: congratulations, and are you sure you want this job?

“The key problem is simply that we’ve got parts of state government mushrooming faster than expenditure limits,” Democrat Brown said late last week. State law, enacted by the voters, says spending can go up only 5.9 percent next year. Health care costs are up 18 percent, which is likely to hit the state in terms of higher insurance costs for state employees, as well as Medicare and Medicaid recipients. … The Legislature’s also going to have to do what the voters said they wanted, which is invest more in basic education. This takes up nearly half of the state’s general fund already. And Brown doubts that the voters were saying they want the Legislature to cut back on higher education. So, what’s a chairwoman to do?

First, look for cuts and efficiencies, although “we’ve been doing those kinds of things for years, and that’s not necessarily going to free up a lot of funds.” Find a way to cooperate with Republicans in the Senate, who are only one seat in the minority - Spokane Sen. Jim West, who held that chairmanship just a few years ago, is now the GOP leader - and with both parties in the House, which is evenly split. Then, look at the budget piece by piece. … K-12 education is the biggest piece, so “it would make sense to start there.” They’ll also look at the social services budget, but welfare numbers have been dropping because of reforms, so the folks left on the rolls tend to be among the state’s most vulnerable. … “I’m not going to close the door on big ideas, but obviously, it’s not the kind of environment we had in some past years. Nobody’s talking in grand ideas.”

One of these days

Democrat U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, talking to the Washington Association of Wheat Growers, got a few chuckles with her observation of the need for bipartisanship in next year’s Congress. “We have to meet the challenges by working together. I will work with the new administration, whoever takes office - if we ever find out.” … But finding cross-party accords may be a little difficult, based on comparisons of the comments Murray and Republican U.S. Rep. George Nethercutt gave on the next Farm Bill. She emphasized the need to find a safety net for farmers, with supplemental income payments and better loan repayment terms and rural development programs. The bill might not be ready for a final vote until 2002, she said. … Nethercutt talked about the need to continue opening more markets, to complete the shift away from government controls started in 1996. “I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a Farm Bill in 2001,” he said.

Well, at least they agreed that they were against removing the Snake River dams - something that drew applause from the assembled farmers - even if they continue to disagree on the best way to accomplish that.

Say what?

At the Wheat Growers luncheon, Nethercutt was given a certificate for a national award he recently won. But we had to check twice, to make sure we heard it right. At first, it sounded like he was being lauded as the Weedeater for 2000. … A quick check showed the award was Wheat Leader. He got the honor for work on removing sanctions against food and medicine sales to countries like Iran and Cuba.

Where have we heard that name?

Those paying close attention to the activities in Florida - the dispute over the presidential race, not the question of who plays in the Orange Bowl - may keep running across the name Ken Lisaius among George Bush forces. … If that name sounds familiar, it’s because Lisaius is a hometown boy who was involved in local politics. He served as press spokesman for Nethercutt, first in the 1994 election campaign and later in the congressional office. He quit about a year ago to work for a New York media relations firm, but politics stayed in his blood. He signed on for the Bush campaign earlier this year, and was the press spokesman for the Northwest.