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Last vetoes surprise, hurt a few

• Published May 19, 2009

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In political speech, having a chunk of your precious bill sliced off without warning is called being "disappointed."

"We're pretty disappointed by the whole thing, in short," said Andrew Austin of the Transportation Choices Coalition. His group was chagrined to find Gov. Chris Gregoire took out a section of Senate Bill 5433 that allowed transit agencies to ask voters for a $20 license tab fee.

The idea was safe yesterday, Austin said. "We got it on there because legislators …especially from urban areas, realized that transit agencies are going off a cliff."

Granted, the auditor is happy with one of the governor’s line item vetoes, but plenty of other folks are not. Aside from the disagreement over policy, feelings were bruised when Gregoire didn’t warn supporters her red pen was coming out.

See also: getting rid of an advisory board in the Health Washington Coalition’s hopeful bill on health coverage, or Gregoire’s announcement before several dozen education types today that she was taking special needs early education out of the new definition of basic education.

"We're deeply disappointed that Governor Chris Gregoire vetoed the early learning section of the basic education bill," said Paola Maranan, Executive Director of the Children's Alliance.

Gregoire, for her part, says it's been a rush to get the bills signed at all. The crush pushes debate and hard calls to the last, she said.

“There were people this morning who were unhappy with me on the education bill. ... That was because I finally this morning at 9 o’clock said, I’m done. I’ve put myself through enough. I can't sign it, I have to veto it," Gregoire said.

UPDATE: Gregoire's vetoes in the budget affect the reserves, and I just noticed this line in a release quoting Sen. Rodney Tom (emphasis mine):

"We understand the volatility of the current economic cycle and that's why the Senate's original intent was to have over $800 million in reserves. We’re a little disappointed we weren’t able to get there in the final budget."