POLICY CHANGES from the State Legislature are likely to be a rare commodity this year.

For one thing, it is a short session, lasting only 60 days. The session began January 14, 2007 and ends in mid-March. Time, therefore, is short for elected officials to accomplish major changes in policy.

Another factor is the governor’s race that takes place in the fall. Clearly, Gov. Chris Gregoire, a Democrat, is reluctant to rock the boat before she faces off against her opponent, Dino Rossi, in what could be a tight contest.

A third influence is that members of the majority Democratic Party are likely to avoid running up major budget increases during an election year. Although the state is projecting a $1.4 billion surplus into 2009, Democrats want to be seen as fiscally responsible in the light of forecasts of a troubled economy ahead.

Any moves to increase spending, Democrats believe, might give fodder to the Republicans during the campaign.

“That does not mean our work stops,” says Council 2 Deputy Director Pat Thompson. “We always are concerned about making sure the services our members perform are adequately funded.”

The major issue on which Council 2 is working is to try to persuade the Legislature to reconsider its action last year when it reinstated Initiative 747, which placed a 1 percent cap on property tax increases. The Legislature reinstated the provision in a one-day session on November 29, 2006 after the State Supreme Court overturned the original initiative, which was passed in 2001.

“The increases used to be subject to a 6 percent-a-year cap before the initiative,” Thompson says. “Now it is 1 percent. We are looking for a more thoughtful approach to the issue.”
With the housing market cooling, local governments will continue to struggle with an increase that is well below the inflation rate, Thompson adds.

During the Legislative Weekend held in Olympia in the first week of February, Council 2 members handed state legislators a letter from Council 2 as well as the Association of Washington Cities and the Washington State Association of Counties. The letter points out that the levy limit has significantly strained many budgets, particularly small and rural cities and counties.

The letter urges legislators to support a cap based on the implicit price deflator, which is a measure of inflation based on the prices of the bundle of goods that make up the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as well as changes in the bundle of goods themselves.

Were this measure to be used, the property tax increases would be capped at 2.084 percent during this year, close to the average for the last decade.