Behind the Curtain: The Secret Nature of Writing a State Budget
03/09/2009

Backroom political deals in smoke–filled rooms may be a thing of the past, but politicians do still meet in secret. In particular, state lawmakers gather behind closed doors to write budgets. It's happening right now in Olympia as the legislature faces down a potential $8 billion shortfall.

On the third floor of the John A. Cherberg building on Washington's capitol campus, there's a windowless conference room. It has beige–green walls, bad lighting and Ansel Adams photographs for decoration.

Sen. Rodney Tom: "This is the inside room that everybody always wants to be in."

It's here that Sen. Rodney Tom spends his evenings hashing out the state's two–year budget. A health nut, Tom comes prepared to fuel his work into the night: A cup full of dates and a questionable green liquid in a bottle.

Sen. Rodney Tom: "It's a little barley grass, wheat grass. It's the magic elixir to life."

Tom is the number two Democrat on the Senate's budget writing committee. Several nights a week, in this conference room, he meets with a small cadre of non–partisan committee staff, partisan Democratic staff and sometimes other key lawmakers.

Reporter: "So what's going to happen in here tonight?"

Sen. Rodney Tom: "Go through the budget, a section of the budget, just go through the numbers and I don't know what section we're going through tonight, but we'll just go through and start making the decisions that need to be made in order to put a budget together."

This is the secret side to lawmaking, the part that isn't done in public committee hearings or on the floor of the House or Senate. As it happens, the legislature's only real obligation is to write and pass a two year budget. But most of that writing is done out of public view by just a handful of people — people who are clearly uncomfortable when a reporter with a microphone comes snooping around. I asked if I could sit in one of these meetings. The answer was no.

Reporter: "Well, I guess I'll let you do your meeting."

Sen. Rodney Tom: "Okay, great. Shut our magic door."

I'm not the only one locked out. Even most members of the legislature aren't invited into these meetings. Earlier, in an interview with Sen. Tom in his office, I ask why he won't let me sit in on a budget meeting.

Sen. Rodney Tom: "We would have been glad to have you in there on an early basis when we were going through, but I think when it actually comes to the decision point basis it would be hard for me to have a reporter in there and tell my own members 'no you can't be in that room either.'"

But what about letting some sun shine on this most important task of the legislature? Tom argues there's plenty of opportunity for the public, lobbyists and stakeholders to weigh–in on the budget: In committee hearings and in meetings with lawmakers in their offices. But he says to open up the budget writing process would interfere with the need for open and frank discussions, especially in a year when lawmakers have to make billions of dollars in cuts.

Senator Rodney Tom: "We got a lot of very difficult decisions to be made, and sometimes you need to have that debate — that is less than politically correct — in a closed room, that you're looking at every possibility and every ramification."

There's also the issue of too many cooks in the kitchen. Budget writing by committee, Tom contends, could drag the process out so that it never got done. The story over in the House is a bit different. Newly elected House budget chair Kelli Linville says she's invited more people to the table this year. She holds meetings in her office at a round table.

Rep. Kelli Linville: "It's kind of nice to have a round table and I got a big round table."

Linville believes with a looming $8 billion deficit, she needs to get early buy–in from a lot of fellow Democrats.

Rep. Kelli Linville: "There is no way that three people sitting in a room can write this budget. You need 50 votes for this budget and we're not going to get 50 votes if people don't really understand the extent of the problem."

Linville says to that end, House Democrats this year created three new budget subcommittees. But ultimately Linville, like Sen. Tom, defends the closed door nature of the process. Besides, she says, voters still get the final say.

Rep. Kelli Linville: "They elect us to do a good job and our job is to listen to them and then our job is to make decisions and every two years they tell us whether they think we did well or not."

So where are minority Republicans in all of this?

Sen. Joe Zarelli: "I think it's fair to say we've never really been at the table."

Senator Joe Zarelli is the ranking Republican on the Senate budget committee. Early on he was invited to some of those closed–door, night–time meetings. But Zarelli says for all the talk about bipartisanship in Olympia, one party Democratic rule is alive and well. He adds if you really want to understand how budget writing works, you have to consider the unseen hands of Speaker of the House Frank Chopp and Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown.

Sen. Joe Zarelli: "Leadership in this particular case with the current majority are the primaries on the budget and that doesn't happen in the public hearing rooms."

Majority Democrats say they do consult with Republicans. Senator Tom, the Senate budget writer, was once a Republican himself before he switched parties. He says the trick is striking a balance between asserting the power of the majority and remembering next time you could be in the minority and what comes around, goes around. I'm Austin Jenkins in Olympia.

© Copyright 2009, KUOW

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