Oregon Public Broadcasting

The Washington State legislature is in the home stretch. The 60-day session is scheduled to wrap up Thursday.

Lawmakers still have to pass an update to the state’s two year budget. But otherwise much of the heavy-lifting is done.

Majority Democrats say they’ve been active, but prudent. Republicans counter that Democrats have spent too much and are punting on big issues. Olympia correspondent Austin Jenkins reports.

The end of session always brings an unbelievable flurry of activity outside the House and Senate chambers. Lobbyists pack the hallways. They huddle, gossip, fret and scribble notes to lawmakers - which are then handed off to security personnel to deliver.

These members of what’s known as the Third House are usually reticent to talk to reporters. But veteran social services lobbyist Nick Federici is an exception to that rule.

I ask him to sum up the session.

Nick Federici: “It’s hard to define, Austin (laughs).”

Federici calls this an odd session. He thinks Democrats are determined not to repeat mistakes made in the mid-1990s.

Nick Federici: “The Democrats were very aggressive about a lot of different things and they got wiped out in the ’94 election. So I think they learned from that and they’ve tried to be much more fiscally responsible, that’s been the watchword for the session, and much more measured in their approaches to the issues.”

This year Democrats have focused on topical issues like mortgage lending reform, campus security, sex offender clampdowns, and flood relief.

House Majority Leader Lynn Kessler acknowledges that election year politics are on people’s minds. But she says Democrats have not been scared into submission.

Lynn Kessler: “We feel confident going into the election that we have been progressing on the issues that the people of this state talk about at their breakfast table in the morning. And I think we’ve been prudent, but not overly cautious as a result of it being an election year.”

Other Democratic leaders say they’ve been prudent because of the weakening economy. Minority Republicans – not surprisingly – see things differently. Richard DeBolt is House Minority Leader.

Richard DeBolt: “I don’t think we’ve done anything for transportation, we’ve punted on all the big issues to ’09 so I think this session is all about the set up to ’09.”

More charitably, you might call this a framework session for next year. Majority Democrats have created the framework for highway tolling, healthcare reform, paid family leave and greenhouse gas reductions.

What’s left to do in the final week is pass the update to the state’s two year budget.

Democrats plan to leave at least $800 million in the bank.