Clock ticks on chances for real reform

Although we're in the final hours of the 2011 regular session of the Legislature, it's too early to be disappointed. They're going into extra innings and I'm uncharacteristically optimistic. But like a hapless home team, lawmakers will ultimately disappoint us. Such is their lot. And ours.

Intractable problems, fundamental policy disagreements and an absence of attractive options conspire to frustrate consensus. Like the nation, we're a state divided. Legislators have tackled tough stuff. Eventually, however, inertia -- a commitment to the status quo -- is difficult to overcome. This is particularly true when the would-be change agents are also the architects of the current structures.

To their credit, they've come further than many imagined possible several months ago, though not far enough.

The reasons for disappointment will vary. Let's begin with the House and Senate spending plans, which share much in common.

Reductions in higher education threaten to reduce access and erode quality. Cuts in health care and social service programs will cause wrenching hardship for those who depend on the state's expanded safety net, as well as for those whose jobs are at risk. You can't swing a red pen without splashing ink on a frustrated constituency.

That change is necessary doesn't make it easy or welcome. Neither does being difficult and unwelcome make it any less essential.

Budget trimming, though, only goes so far. Matching revenues to spending is the first step, not the end of the journey. Many of the tough budget actions contemplated in the two legislative proposals continue the presumption of impermanence. The Basic Health Plan and Disability Lifeline (formerly General Assistance-Unemployable) are trimmed back, pruned but not uprooted. The never-funded family leave program is suspended, not ended. The I-728 class size initiative and I-732 cost-of-living increase for teachers remain suspended. Suspension simply balloons the shortfall in the next budget cycle.

Reform opportunities are slipping away.

The governor's proposed reorganization of natural resource and education agencies stalled. The plans offered a thoughtful path to increased accountability and long-term efficiency in state government.

Despite rhetoric on both sides, public employee compensation is not seriously threatened. There have been no efforts to undo the state's 2002 collective bargaining law. The negotiated contracts will be funded.

But the law should be amended to make it easier to contract with private providers and to allow lawmakers to modify compensation agreements in fiscal emergencies.

These reforms were never entertained. Perhaps, when passions cool, they will be.

Preserving the collective bargaining privilege did not satisfy union members. Cutbacks in education, corrections and social services mean job losses. So lawmakers endured days of chants and rants, arrests outside the governor's office, and demands for new taxes.

There's no war on the middle class here. There is, however, an urgent need for public policies that will put people back to work, restore confidence in state government, and spur the economic growth that will replenish tax revenues.

Here, too, the record is mixed.

The waning days of the session will be decisive for several pending issues critical to economic growth. Legislation that would tie teacher performance to layoffs will help assure that the best talent remains in the classroom. Preserving graduation requirements focuses learning. Maintaining opportunity and quality for college-bound students by expanding tuition flexibility and enhancing financial aid also boosts the innovation economy.

Unemployment insurance tax relief passed early in the session. Bipartisan Senate-passed workers' compensation reform remains stalled in the House. To restore solvency to a troubled system, reduce employer costs and expand options for injured workers, House leaders should permit a floor vote.

Some Democratic legislators recently proposed raising taxes by repealing tax preferences. Under Initiative 1053, such repeal requires supermajority approval in the Legislature or affirmation at the polls. The increases are unwarranted and unlikely.

Conflict and compromise define legislative politics. So far, they've played a bad hand remarkably well. Yet even when the process works best, most players -- and most of us -- will be disappointed. But we cannot afford to leave the game.



Richard S. Davis, president of the Washington Research Council, writes on public policy, economics and politics. His email address is rsdavis@simeonpartners.com.