Helen Sommers: An Oral History

The Press
This Is No Laughing Matter
Robin Laananen
Wednesday, Dec 11 2002
Sommers: She’s
Norwegian!
WASHINGTON’S VOT-
ERS are practical jokers.
That’s the only possible
explanation for their behavior
in recent elections. They have raised havoc with
the state budget by voting for initiatives that slash
taxes—Tim Eyman’s specialty — while simultaneously
passing other initiatives that require new services
but do not raise new revenue — the educrats’
money grabs for smaller classes and more pay for
teachers. Add the state’s economic woes and you
have a deficit of between $2 billion and $2.5 billion
in the $25 billion general fund.
To give us an idea of how big that deficit is,
Senate Minority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane,
points out that funding for all the state’s higher
education facilities — six public universities and
34 community and technical colleges — is $2.9 billion.
If you abolished all of the state’s prisons and
eliminated the long-term care of the elderly and
disabled, Brown says, you’d only save $2.5 billion.
The state’s pranksters—I mean, voters —didn’t
end their mischief there, however. They gave control
of the state House of Representatives to the Democrats
by a slim majority, 52-46, while turning over
the state Senate to the GOP by the narrowest possible
margin — 25-24. To make matters even more
difficult, the voters re-elected a weak governor a
couple of years back, Gary Locke. The final joke,
of course, was launched by Washington’s professional
jester, Eyman, in the form of Initiative 800,
which he recently amended to require a two-thirds
supermajority in the Legislature — or any city or
county council, for that matter — to raise taxes.
THE STATE’S POLITICAL parties are respond-
ing differently to these pranks.
pg. 281
State Rep . Helen Sommers, D-Seattle, is chair
of the House Appropriations Committee. A 30year
veteran of Olympia whose slim physique and
short stature can mislead a casual observer into
underestimating her incredible tenacity, Sommers
is pushing for deep cuts and new revenues. She has
no hesitancy in going after initiatives, which can be
overturned by a simple majority of legislators two
years after the measures become law. The so-called
class-size initiative, I-728, would cost $772 million
over the next two years, according to Brown. Sommers
says, “We will not do it.” Also in her sights
is I-732, which mandated annual cost-of-living
increases for teachers statewide. Since health care
costs for the poor and for state employees are rising
so rapidly, Sommers wants to whack them back.
State Sen. Ken Jacobsen, D-Seattle, quips,
“Helen likes to cut. She’s frugal, she’s Norwegian!”
Sommers cracks up at the joke, points out she’s
only one-quarter Norwegian, and admits, “I’m not
a big social-service spender. I question some of the
things we do.”
Even with all these Democratic sacred cows
entering the slaughterhouse, Sommers insists, cuts
alone will not be enough. She believes that revenue
— some combination of taxes, fees, and fines —
must be increased.
State Sen. Dino Rossi, R-Issaquah, newly elected
chair of the Senate’s Ways and Means Committee,
is adamantly opposed to messing with the education
initiatives or increasing revenue. Rossi seems
a bit overwhelmed by his new job. The commercial
real-estate broker and self-described conservative
says, “I’ve got all these new best friends now.
They all want a piece of the $25 billion.” Elected
in 1996, this year will mark his first time as chair
of a committee. “Some people have been offering
their condolences, given the state of the budget,”
quips Rossi, but he adds with his characteristic
optimism, “I look at it as an opportunity.”
ROSSI HOPES THE BUDGET can be used to
go after those traditional Republican bugaboos:
waste, fraud, and abuse. Meanwhile, he believes,
government should work on improving the state’s