Legislature opens like a lion

The 60-day legislative session opened in Olympia Jan. 9, with much speculation about just what can be accomplished in the short-but-intense session as senators and representatives hope to finish on time, under budget and get home to campaign for re-election.

The main issues, at least according to all the media reports include the state operating budget, education reform's next step, and gay rights.

• The budget reflects a roughly $1.4 billion surplus that comes just a year after plugging a $1.8 billion hole a year ago. Some say return the money to taxpayers; others favor reinstating drastic cuts made to balance the budget. I say let's wait a year and see if the surplus was a fluke or whether the revenue projections and growth mean the state can lower tax rates slightly.
• Among the contentious debates will be whether to back away from the state's high-stakes exit test, the Washington Assessment of Student Learning, because trends show huge numbers of sophomores won't pass this spring on schedule and therefore won't be on track to graduate as planned in 2008. Some say the WASL should be revised or removed as such a pivotal graduation requirement (it is now just one of four, the others being course completion, a fifth-year plan and a culminating project). Others say that high standards must be maintained. But is the WASL's high standard too high? Can the state afford to pay for remediation of all the students who don't meet the standards? Can it afford to lose face if it backs away?
• The gay-rights bill would add sexual orientation to the list of groups against whom discrimination is illegal in Washington state. The bill has been offered nearly each of the past 20 years and failed in the Senate last session by just one vote. It gained a lot of strength on the first day of the session. Sen. Bill Finkbeiner of Kirkland, formerly a Democrat who switched parties and became Republican leader but who stepped down from that post late last year, said he would support the bill. He had voted for it twice when he was in the state House, but he voted no last year in the Senate, when he was Republican leader. Now, without the need to lead his more conservative colleagues, he is again free to vote for the measure, and sponsors are more optimistic than ever of its passage.

So, there is a lot going on in Olympia already. The question remains whether the Legislature can deliver or whether it will get bogged down in the short session and fail to accomplish much of anything. If the first day is a measure, this should be a productive session.

-- Wenatchee, Wash.