Camden: Good start, but don’t bet on Legislature beating clock

Two days before voting to forestall what’s commonly called the levy cliff, the Senate lurched to a contentious ending as Democrats tried to force the levy issue onto the floor after Republicans had tried (and failed) to force a vote on raising taxes that almost no one in the chamber wanted to raise. It ended so quickly that some members still needed time to let off rhetorical steam, so they gathered around the press table and continued the debate, sometimes using recriminations like “liar” — a slur that would not be allowed on the Senate floor.

Perhaps it was necessary for that steam to escape the pressure cooker valve to soften up both sides for the eventual deal over the levy cliff extension. But the fact the Legislature needed two months to do what almost everyone acknowledged was going to be done bodes ill for lawmakers finishing their business without going into overtime.

As he commended lawmakers for passing the bill, Gov. Jay Inslee was circumspect in predicting they would come up with a school reform package in the 50 or so days left in the regular session. They absolutely could, he said, but added: “I’m not going to advise people to place bets on any particular outcome.”

When it comes to wagers on whether the Legislature will finish in the allotted time, we always bet the over.

Highway naming takes turn

A new wrinkle developed last week in a House proposal to name U.S. Highway 395 in Washington the Thomas S. “Tom” Foley Memorial Highway.

Sen. Mike Baumgartner, R-Spokane, proposed bifurcating the naming, with the stretch from Ritzville south to honor the former House speaker and ambassador and the stretch from Spokane to Ritzville to honor Sam Grashio, a local World War II veteran who survived the Bataan Death March and was one of the few to escape a Japanese prison camp.

Both are local heroes, Baumgartner said, and there’s some nice symbolism in naming part for Grashio, who fought the Japanese in wartime, and part for Foley, who was the U.S. ambassador in peacetime.

That change will come up today when the Senate Transportation Committee holds a hearing on the original proposal, but there may be some pushback. For one thing, the Ritzville-to-Oregon section that would carry Foley’s moniker is mostly not in his old district.

For another, supporters have collected resolutions from cities along the route from Colville south, as well as Ferry, Spokane and Lincoln counties, to name it for Foley. Some might be OK with Grashio, but they haven’t been asked.

Roads and bridges are generally, although not exclusively, named for people who have been longtime advocates of transportation issues. Foley would definitely qualify considering he found hundreds of millions of dollars to improve that highway, at one point tying it to NAFTA as a major trade corridor between Canada and Mexico.

Jim Camden is a columnist with the Spokesman-Review in Spokane. Email: jimc@spokesman.com.