FILE -- In this Feb. 26, 2016, file photo, the Senate is seen from the public gallery during debate on a supplemental budget proposal in Olympia, Wash.
You may have followed in these pages a series of stories about the negative local impacts related to the fact the Legislature has so far failed to pass a capital budget. The list is long, including $1.4 million in funding for building maintenance and repairs at Centralia College; a new intermediate school that is not currently being built in Chehalis; flood mitigation and fish habit restoration work that is on hold for lack of funding; industrial infrastructure development that is not happening in Winlock.
No one knows when — or if — the Legislature will finally pass a capital budget for the biennium that started July 1. In the meantime, the construction contracts may impose penalties for delays, which drives up the cost of these public projects.
On the one hand, our legislators did a fine job getting the state operating budget passed before July 1. There were 11 states that did not pass an operating budget this year. In Washington, we faced the historic task of developing a state budget that would substantially restructure funding for K-12 education and satisfy the requirements of the McCleary case. So, the legislators deserve our thanks for finishing that difficult task. However, adjourning the last special session without passing a capital budget speaks to a failure of leadership.
The capital budget is currently being held hostage in a fight over water rights and the resolution of the Hirst decision. Undoubtedly, water rights is an important issue and needs to be addressed. However, the situation we currently face is this: because they could not come up with a solution for one difficult problem — how to deal with water rights — the legislature caused an even broader problem by not passing a capital budget. Having two statewide problems is not better than having one statewide problem.
In the days after the legislature adjourned without passing the capital budget, there was finger pointing from both sides, with Democrats blaming Republicans and Republicans blaming Democrats.
But that’s a distraction from the real issue. This is not a partisan problem; this is a failure by the Legislature to do the work voters sent them to Olympia to do.
The capital budget can be passed with a one-day special session. We need leadership, not finger pointing. Pass the capital budget now.
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Joe Dolezal is a member of the Centralia College Board of Trustees.
