The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

"I

've been in the leg- islature four years now," Representa- tive Terry Nealey told me last week, "and in that time we've had nine extra ses- sions."

Nealey, a Dayton Re- publican, pointed out that he prefers to call the those stints when Washington state legislators are called back into session beyond what was originally sched- uled, "extra" rather than "special." At a rate of nine in four years, I agree that they don't seem very special.

In Washington, the leg- islature is scheduled to meet for 105 day in oddnumbered years and 60 days in even-numbered years. If they're unable to finish their business within the allotted time, the governor can call an extra session. This year there were two of them.

Nealey told me that, real- ly, this year's extra sessions were good news for Repub- licans. "We had more clout this year," he said. "The be- cause of the makeup of the Senate, the Democrats had to listen to us." But it took time for Republicans to get their message across.

For those who have more important things to do than obsessively follow state politics, here's the situation: This year the Washington State House of Representatives has a strong Demo- cratic majority - 55 to 43. The State Senate officially has a three-seat Democratic majority, but two of those Democrats, Rodney Tom and Tim Sheldon, are fiscal conservatives who agreed to caucus with Republicans, giving them effective con- trol. "That was huge for us," said Nealey.

This year's session was the first since the state Su- preme Court overruled an initiative passed by vot- ers requiring a two-thirds majority of both houses to increase taxes. "They (the Democrats) could have in- creased taxes with a simple majority," Nealey said. "But the Senate held firm." Neal- ey said that the only tax in- creases that were approved by the legislature this year were a couple related to landline telephones because of a restructuring of landline and cell phone billing.

It wasn't for lack of try- ing by the Democrats. Nealey said that, earlier in the session, House Democrats passed $900,000 in tax increases. However they went nowhere in the Senate. A big chunk of that proposed increase was in Business and Occupation Tax rates.

"That was a terrible idea," said Nealey, who is ranking Republican on the House Finance Committee. "I really fought against that." He pointed out that B&O taxes apply to a business's gross receipts. "For a low-margin business, a half-percent rate increase on gross revenues is a huge portion of its profits," he said.

When the legislature began its scheduled 3 1/2-month session in January, it was facing a projected revenue shortfall of approxi- mately $1.5 billion, according to Nealey. In addition, because of a Supreme Court ruling last year called the McCleary decision, the legislature needed to find an additional $1 billion to fund public education.

In the end, after nearly six months - including those two extra sessions - a $33.5 billion budget was passed on June 30 for the biennium that began the following morning. A potential shutdown of state government was averted, and almost no taxes were increased.

The cause was helped some by improved rev- enue forecasts. The monthly forecast by the office of the state economist released in June showed a projected tax revenue increase of $231 million over the previous forecast. This was due to an improving economy, Neal- ey said. (By the way, among his other duties, Nealey sits on the House Forecasting Committee.)

"In the forecasts they look closely at things like housing starts and automobile sales," he said. Those categories have been par- ticularly strong this spring, especially in the Seattle area.

But much of the final agreement was a result of old fashioned horse-trading, Nealey said. A significant portion of the money came by way of a transfer of funds from the Public Works Trust Fund. Another significant saving came from a process called "discretionary nonpayment."

In other words, certain expenditures that are currently allowed, such as teachers' cost of living increases and family leave payments, will not be made.

"I think the end result was very good," Nealey said. "We got a new budget with almost no tax increases and I think we did a good job meeting the McCleary requirement."

On top of that, Nealey pointed out that, for the first time in many years, tuition at public universi- ties in Washington will not increase this year.

One disappointment coming out of the legisla- ture this year was that no transportation budget was passed. Nealey said he had mixed feelings about the Democrats' proposed trans- portation budget.

Rep. Terry Nealey

"Two big new projects were included in that package for the 16th District," he said. (That's our district.) They included a major up- grade of Highway 12 west of Walla Walla and a new freeway interchange near Benton City.

"Those are important projects for our district," Nealey said. But the pack- age included a 10.5 cent- per-gallon gas tax increase. "I just couldn't support that," he said. Nealey said he feels the burden on driv- ers would be too great in the current weak economy.

Nealey told me he hopes his constituents understand that the two extra legisla- tive sessions this year were necessary and ended with a good result. "The republican minority in the House had a lot more say-so this year," because of the Senate majority coalition, he said. "They had to come and talk to us."