Blame game as state lawmakers adjourn without transportation budget

Washington state lawmakers have gone home, adjourning their regular 60-day legislative session after approving a supplemental budget late Thursday.

The new spending plan includes a $155 million spending increase over the $33.6 billion, two-year state operating budget approved by the Legislature last year.

Governor Jay Inslee and lawmakers are trading barbs over what was not accomplished in Olympia. Specifically, the failure to pass a transportation budget that would pay for mega-projects, ferries, and transit.

Pierce County Senator Bruce Dammeier says Republicans were not willing to increase the gasoline tax without transportation spending reforms, even though his district is counting on the funding.

“There’s a lot of infrastructure needs that are very important there, including the final completion of State Route 167, which is critically important for our ports to connect; it’s got great economic development, but we’ve got to make sure we get the reforms.”

“We were happy to see reforms because we think there are always ways to improve organization and that’s going on right now,” the governor responded.

Dammeier blamed the governor for lack of leadership and disengaging from negotiations with legislative leadership.

“If I had failed as spectacularly as the Senate to produce a transportation bill, I guess I’d be looking for excuses, too,” replied the governor, who said Republicans in the Senate refused to put a transportation bill up for a hearing.

The bi-partisan supplemental budget, that passed the Senate with just one no vote, adds $58 million for basic education but does not include cost-of-living increases for teachers and does not close any tax exemptions, both things that were initially proposed by the House.

While lawmakers approved several other bills before adjourning, including one that would allow military veterans to pay in-state college tuition without waiting a year to establish Washington residency, several other bills died, including one that sought to merge the state’s medical marijuana system with the new recreational system.