Job Well Done Worth Recognizing

The wait was worth it. Washington’s Legislature adjourned last week after one of the more difficult, contentious and productive sessions in years.

The public has heard for months about the session’s conflicts.

But the settlement is a much more important story than the arguments that forged it.

Public education won big. School construction funding was enhanced significantly, a step that will lighten the load on local property taxes and hasten school-improvement projects all over the state. Also enhanced were substitute teacher pay, class sizes, reading instruction and school safety programs.

The Legislature handed economic development tools to less prosperous communities. It created avenues for advanced telecommunication in rural areas. Eastern Washington University received funding toward renovation of Cheney Hall, where in-demand technology classes are held. Health sciences and applied technology research in Spokane won needed funding.

Legislators remedied headaches in health insurance, with a patient bill of rights and some key reforms designed to make individual health insurance policies available again.

Showing respect for last fall’s voters, The Legislature bypassed an opportunity to let Initiative 695 die after a judge found it unconstitutional. Instead, legislators affirmed the voters’ decision to kill the unpopular motor vehicle excise tax. Then, legislators performed major surgery on the state’s budget, keeping essential programs alive without the revenue that the excise tax had provided.

That budget rewrite was a major achievement. Repeal of the excise tax killed financing for important highway construction projects. This, in a state where highway congestion threatens livability and economic growth. Legislators restored funding for roughly half of those highway projects. Legislators also restored a majority of the dollars lost by the ferry system, public transit, cities and counties and public health districts.

Even so, this achievement leaves many needs unmet. Next year, legislators will consider proposals for comprehensive reform to the transportation system. They’ll have a chance to fund the system more adequately and make it more efficient.

Also, legislators ought to take a close look at overall tax reform. This session ended without hoped-for cuts in property taxes. Next year, the debate should continue - and it should include an issue that was missing this year: Economic booms do not last forever. Tax relief should come in a form that improves the business climate and keeps state revenue stable when the economy cools.

Initiative campaigns do not lend themselves to complex financial debates with multiple options. But that is the essence of the Legislature’s work. This spring legislators earned the public’s confidence, for the issues they’ll undertake next year.