Lawmakers do the "Media Tour"

In Washington State, the 2006 legislative session begins on January 9th.

I'm a media person with a fetish for what local lawmakers do while in session - I'll take feeds from the media services offices from each of the caucuses, but I know that those feeds are from a political party perspective. So, for the past 8+years, I've been interviewing local lawmakers "one-on-one" to see what they're up to while they're in Olympia, representing the little guy. Those interviews are valuable local news material, plus (on occasion) these lawmakers go against their party's platform, which makes it all the more interesting.

Anyway, the 2006 session is set to start next Monday, and two local lawmakers (Republican Representatives from Island County) visited the radio station today for a pre-session pow-wow with your friendly, neighborhood Radioguy. The interview lasted just over 20 minutes, and provided a good deal of useful information on the platform for Republicans in the House and Senate this session. Here's some of what I gleaned from the interview:

For the first time in many a year, Republicans in the House and Senate have released a unified platform, focusing on hot-button issues, like passage of tougher sex-offender laws, and paying state debts with the $1.45 billion tax "surplus" (as opposed to using the money for new state spending programs). The two lawmakers I interviewed today agreed that state spending is out of control, bills should be paid (rather than spend money on new programs that will cost the state more in the future), and much needs to be done to bring state government into financial responsibility.

The items included in the Republican Party platform, however, stand little chance of seeing daylight during the 2006 session. I say this because the Republican Party, good intentions and all, are the minority party in both the House and Senate. During the 2005 legislative session, the Democratic majority passed a bill that effectively killed a voter-approved initiative that limited state spending. In light of heavy state debt, coupled by ever increasing unfunded mandates passed along to counties and cities, Republicans during the 2005 session called for spending and taxation restraint. The 601-killing bill, which (BTW) was heralded as a "victory for the state" by majority Democrats and Democratic Governor Christine Gregoire, included an emergency clause that cancelled a portion of the initiative that required a 2/3rds vote of the legislature to approve any new statewide tax increases. After that bill was passed, the legislature (that is, the Democrats in the legislature) re-enacted an estate tax previously ruled unconstitutional, enacted yet another gas tax at a time of record high gas prices, and introduced a long list of new state programs, which are resulting in increased state spending.

Now, although it may seem so, I'm not railing against the Democrats in teh legislature. Many of the programs the Democrats have proposed have merit. Where those lawmakers and I differ is fiscal responsibility, especially in light of the $1.45 billion the state now has in its coffers. The "extra" money the state now finds itself in posession of is a direct result of over-taxing the general population (thanks to policies, regulations, etc., established in the past couple of years). Instead of "paying the bills", Democrats in the legislature are once again talking about new spending that money on new programs.

Sorry if I was long-winded in my post...