As the Legislature at long last called an end to a third special session Thursday, many in Olympia nearly sprained their arms in attempts to hastily point fingers.
The fact is, both Republicans and Democrats deserve a certain amount of blame for failing to pass a capital budget, which would have created or supported thousands of jobs and funded projects here in Lewis County and across the state.
Still, the Democratic-controlled House should be careful when claiming the failure is all due to obstructionist Republicans in the Senate, where a capital budget was passed during the regular session with a fix to the controversial Hirst decision.
The October 2016 state Supreme Court ruling requires counties to evaluate whether there is enough water available before permitting new buildings, ending the prior use of Department of Ecology information for such decisions.
It placed an incredible burden on rural communities, including Lewis County. It requires either the homeowner or the county to pay a hydrologist to report on the availability of water at a cost of anywhere from $2,000 to $10,000.
Republicans have been vocal since April that they would not pass a capital budget without a legislative fix. Democrats apparently thought it was a bluff.
As Sen. Jim Honeyford, the Senate’s capital-budget leader, put it: “The Senate unanimously approved a capital budget during the regular session; we approved our Hirst proposal with a strong bipartisan vote four times, starting in February, while the House did not bring any of its own proposals or ours to a vote.”
Democrats proposed a two-year delay to the new rule, but Republicans didn’t support that Band-Aid fix due to other demands. Sen. Judy Warnick, R-Moses Lake, said in a press release the Democrats “demanded that tribes have a veto over where development occurs anywhere in the state. That is something that we cannot support.”
Ever since Republicans took control of the Senate with the Majority Coalition Caucus, Democrats have struggled to succeed in a legislative world where their ideas and proposals are no longer rubber-stamped by a one-party government. At the same time, Gov. Jay Inslee has proven himself unable or unwilling to act as an efficient negotiator from the governor’s mansion.
It would be unfair to place the entire debacle at the feet of Democrats. All elected leaders are called to act in the best interest of their districts, and none of them are served by a lack of a capital budget.
When the finger-pointing comes to an end though, the fact that millions of dollars in projects to improve infrastructure will not take place is simply disappointing, no matter which party you choose to blame.
