Governor nixes city funding

Published 1:35 pm Thursday, December 11, 2008

By Kevin Hanson, The Courier-Herald

The Legislature giveth and the governor taketh away.

That's the painful story learned by the city of Enumclaw, which finds itself a million dollars poorer thanks to the veto pen yielded by Washington Gov. Gary Locke.

City officials were plenty pleased a couple of weeks ago, when they learned state lawmakers - in both the Senate and House of Representatives - had agreed to a $1 million appropriation in this year's capital budget. The money was to be used for the city's coming upgrade of its wastewater treatment plant, a project with a price tag that has already climbed to $16 million.

The city is looking at borrowing the entire sum, a debt that will be repaid by customers and require rate increases. The state's million, it was said, would keep rate increases a bit lower than expected.

At the last minute, however, there was a fly in the ointment. Actually, it was the governor.

When it came time for Locke to sign off on the capital budget, he had a list of deletions - items that had been included by legislators but scratched at the highest level of state government. And Enumclaw was on the list.

Ultimately, what hurt Enumclaw is the request went directly from lawmakers to the budget process, rather than going through normal channels.

In explaining his decision, Locke pointed out the city grant was slated to come from the state's Water Quality Account. The city did not seek the money through the competitive process and had not applied for 'hardship" status, the governor said. In a note to legislators, Locke wrote, "A specific grant for this project would be unfair to other communities that applied for assistance and are waiting in line for hardship funding from the Water Quality Account."

That didn't sit well with Sen. Pam Roach, a leading force behind the city's intended grant.

"I'm extremely disappointed. It was my amendment and it was part of the budget," she said.

"(For the governor) to reach down and take out a million dollars is extremely disappointing," Roach said.

Roach said she had no advance warning the appropriation might be eliminated, and the move caught city leaders off guard, as well. Chris Searcy, the city's public works director, said the city was counting on the money, but the unexpected loss won't disrupt the timing of the project. The worst-case scenario is the city now looks at borrowing $1 million more than expected, with the accompanying bump in rates.

Locke's note concluded with a reminder that the city is eligible to compete for state money later this year. Enumclaw "may apply for additional assistance during the next competitive grant and loan funding cycle beginning in September 2004," he wrote.

Kevin Hanson can be reached at khanson@cmg-northwest2.go-vip.net/courierherald