INITIATIVE 601, SPENDING LIMIT LAW, STILL KICKING AFTER FIVE YEARS
(Columbian; 01/24/99) (Copyright 1999)

Gov. Gary Locke has clout, sure. In the Legislature, the Republicans and Democrats jockey for top-dog status, no doubt.

But for raw political power, it's tough to match Initiative 601, the voter-approved state spending limit that was sponsored by former state and federal lawmaker Linda Smith of Hazel Dell.

Five years after its adoption in reaction to a billion-dollar tax increase, the spending cap has transformed Washington's political landscape, holding down spending growth and ushering in an era of tax cuts and, critics say, tax-phobia.

Backers call it Governor 601 and say putting government on a diet is something pols would never do on their own.

Critics say it trivializes representative government and imposes a one-size-fits-all formula regardless of society's changing needs.

I-601 says state spending can grow by no more than the rate of inflation plus population growth. That's running about 3 percent a year, less than half the average annual budget growth for the past two decades.

The external discipline has taken away most of the guesswork, drama and judgment in budgeting.

Instead of grand political theater about competing visions of government spending priorities, liberal vs. conservative, the process has been whittled down to spats about spending on the margins.

The initiative is regularly attacked, but appears firmly imbedded in Olympia's psyche for at least two more years.

Before 601 and creation of an independent revenue forecast council, lawmakers would decide what they wanted to spend and then ask the administration to either come up with a rosier revenue forecast or jack up taxes.

Now spending limits and revenue forecasts are cast in stone. Tax increases are few and far between, given the requirement for legislative supermajorities and-or public votes.

Critics long to invest more in public schools and colleges, but make no serious attempts to dethrone the 800-pound gorilla of state government that is I-601.

Gov. Gary Locke, who hankers to be known as an outstanding education governor, knows that it takes money to expand colleges, improve public schools from border to border and pay the kind of salaries that would make Washington a magnet for top college professors and teachers.

Instead, he pays grudging homage to I-601 and proposes only budgets that fit within the limits. Legislative Democrats do likewise.

Timidity?

Reality.

As long as the Republicans have an ounce of power, they'll use it to preserve 601, say House Co-Speaker Clyde Ballard, R-East Wenatchee, and Senate Minority Leader Dan McDonald, R-Bellevue.

The Republicans have a 49-49 tie in the House. That means no budget that busts I-601 will get the time of day. And even if the Democrats had a lock on the Legislature, it's doubtful they'd make any moves just yet to substantially alter the law.

You may get to vote this fall on a proposal to tweak 601 to make state surpluses slop over into a school-construction account sooner than they would.

But the basic restraints still would be in place.

The initiative and a steady diet of tax cuts are about all that are holding off a tax revolt like those already experienced by California, Oregon and other states, Ballard says.

"What 601 does is to force the Legislature to run the budget process like every business and every private individual has to do," he says. "You can't consistently spend more money than you have and you have to build up good reserves."

Constant pressures

In addition to simplicity and predictability, I-601 provides a new set of pressures.

For example, who gets bigger pieces of the finite pie?

This year, the governor and Legislature already know the size of the budget, $20.6 billion. It's a zero-sum game: If you want to pump up education or some other program, you have to restrain growth elsewhere or make actual cuts.

Locke's budget proposal would use dollars from welfare and social services to boost education spending.

The effort is helped by two anticipated windfalls: a huge settlement with the tobacco industry and savings from plummeting welfare rolls.

Marty Brown, the governor's lobbyist, says it's disconcerting to realize the state might not be so lucky the next time around.

Education, which accounts for about 58 percent of the budget, isn't the only spending priority, of course.

This past week, for instance, lawmakers heard urgent pleas for increased spending on everything from salmon restoration and housing to teacher pay raises and health insurance coverage.

And it won't all fit.

David Ammons is the AP's state political writer. He can be reached at P.O. Box 607, Olympia, WA 98507, or at dammons@ap.org on the Internet.

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