Untie Budget Knot With Compromise

Someday, Washington’s Legislature will adjourn for the year. When it does, members can point to some remarkable achievements.

For now, though, they’re tied in a knot. The state budget has to be revised, and leaders don’t agree on several key details.

But, if the list of achievements to date is any indication, compromise will occur - and the list will lengthen considerably. Some of the bills already passed and signed into law were the product of extended negotiations over very difficult issues.

Individual health insurance leads that list. Years of legislative and regulatory manipulations had created so many problems for health insurance carriers that they stopped selling individual insurance policies. That created severe personal hardships for small business people and retirees. Finally, the cries from constituents grew so loud that legislators responded. Now, there is hope that carriers will start selling individual coverage again.

In addition, legislators passed a patient bill of rights, to confront the health insurance industry’s games and provide its customers more leverage to get what they pay for - namely, coverage of care when they’re sick.

Less publicized was an important improvement in the state’s overtaxed business climate. Legislators passed a bill cutting the unemployment insurance tax on most Washington employers and providing funds to retrain workers laid off from timber, fish, aerospace and other industries. This deal keeps the unemployment trust fund in good shape and resulted from lengthy negotiations among people who usually are at odds - Republicans and Democrats, business and labor.

Showing commendable concern for less prosperous areas of Washington, legislators passed three bills designed to encourage the provision of advanced telecommunication service in rural areas. This makes it more likely the entire state will gain access to electronic commerce opportunities.

The ongoing effort to reform public schools broke important ground, when legislators authorized a teacher testing program and created an educator standards board to improve the preparation of those entering this crucial profession. Math teachers, for example, will be expected to know and love math. For the football coach to teach economics, he should know the subject. Wonderful!

As always, legislators have approved scores of smaller bills helpful to specific regions. For instance, House Bill 1987 creates a tax break for the purchase of machinery needed to remove straw from fields so it won’t have to be burned.

If all these things could be done, surely the budget standoff can be resolved.