The Olympian

Look for a focused legislative session

Our views

The Olympian • Published January 13, 2008

The opening gavel on the 60th legislative session falls at noon Monday in what promises to be a quick session with a limited agenda.

Lawmakers, many of whom face re-election this year, will tweak the $33 billion operating budget, adjust health care and environmental policies and address emerging transportation concerns quickly, with hopes of getting out of town and onto the campaign trail by March 13.

For this 60-day session, Democrats enjoy lopsided majorities in both legislative chamber — 32-17 in the Senate and 63-35 in the House — giving them the green light to essentially ignore minority Republicans. The best the Republicans can hope for is to lay the groundwork for this fall’s general election by drawing distinctions between themselves and majority Democrats.

Already leaders of the two parties are contrasting their views on taxation and spending, on how much supervision to insist upon for sex offenders and whether to make further adjustments in state high school graduation requirements.

One bit of important business remains from the 2007 session when lawmakers approved a paid family leave program scheduled to begin in 2009. Lawmakers left town last spring without deciding how to pay for the program, leaving that dirty work to an interim committee. Among suggestions are a proposed 1-cent or 2-cent hourly payroll tax on workers. It’s clear, if lawmakers are unable to agree on a source of funds to pay for family leave benefits, the Legislature will be forced to delay the program beyond next year. And Gov. Chris Gregoire has said she wants a public vote if a payroll tax is the Legislature’s solution.

Supplemental budget

The supplemental budget is not expected to be much of a battle. Last year, Democrats increased spending $4 billion over the previous biennium, but also left a healthy $1.4 billion budget surplus. Gregoire is proposing a modest $144 million adjustment to the operating budget this year — some of it to provide relief from the December floods.