Oregon Public Broadcasting

Nearly half of Washingtonians believe their state is headed in the wrong direction. That's according to a recent public radio poll in collaboration with the Northwest Health Foundation and the polling firm Davis, Hibbitts, and Midgehall.

It's clear political leaders in Olympia are aware of the discontent.

Two years ago, Governor Chris Gregoire called on her fellow Democrats in the legislature to "reboot" state government. But lawmakers from both parties say those efforts have largely been thwarted by special interests. Austin Jenkins reports.

Think of Olympia as a baseball diamond.

That's how George Scarola pictures it. He's an education lobbyist and former aide to Speaker of the House Frank Chopp.

In other words, he knows Olympia inside and out. He says gone are the days of Babe Ruth where one giant towered above all the others. Now all of the players -- on the baseball diamond and in Olympia -- are at the top of their game.

George Scarola: "We're all doing a much better job of making our case in Olympia, but the effect is no one can prevail."

That helps explain why government reform is hard to do.

Scarola is pleased that last year the legislature redefined basic education for the 21st century. But he says the Washington legislature mostly works in the margins -- even in an economic crisis.

George Scarola: "The economy changed and state government didn't. Education has change and the needs for education have changed. Schools haven't. We're lagging what's happening out there in the real world. We don't have the sort of bold vision and the detailed plan to get to that new place."

It's a view shared by other players in the state capitol.

Take State Senator Rodney Tom, a former Republican turned Democrat who's vice chair of the Senate budget committee. He's so frustrated by the pace of government reform he recently voted "no" on his own budget.

Rodney Tom: "Change is always difficult, but when you have a lot of special interests involved in it, it magnifies that difficulty."

Tom says it doesn't matter which party is in power. He believes the majority party caters too much to the interests that helped it get elected.

Rodney Tom: "And in too many cases the question that's not being asked is what really is in the best interest of either our kids or the public."

Tom says state government must reform and resize in the face of ongoing, multi-billion dollar budget shortfalls.

To that end, he's tried to eliminate the state printer, consolidate state agencies and privatize state liquor sales. But all of those ideas died in the face of fierce opposition.

Minority Republicans are even more blunt in their assessment of government reform in Olympia.

Joe Zarelli: "In my mind it's complete disaster F. It's like a score of zero."

Senator Joe Zarelli is the ranking Republican on the Senate budget committee. He helped create Washington's rainy day fund and has been pushing for a constitutional amendment to fill it up. But Zarelli says turning the ship of state is proving to be a Titanic effort.

Joe Zarelli: "Unless you call just reducing spending in some areas a reform in government, there has been no reform of any kind of significant nature. Everything that we've been talking about - regardless of sacred cow or not - if it's been broached, it's been quieted quickly."

Democratic leaders respond that state government reform is happening.

Governor Gregoire has led efforts to reduce the number of state boards and commissions and consolidate state institutions. House Democrats have a three-page list of government reforms its working on. But none of these changes comes without a fight.

Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown knows the public may find it frustrating, but says a representative democracy doesn't function like a private corporation.

Lisa Brown: "We do have a more cumbersome and inflexible process that we have to comes to terms with in order to change. So I celebrate that we are making changes and that we are teeing up additional changes to make. But it is not as quick as a CEO of a company who might be able to come in and make it happen."

Senate Democrats are trying to close McNeil Island prison -- but they face a fierce fight.

They're also calling for a special outside commission to come up with ideas to streamline state government. But critics say with Democrats in control in Olympia public employee unions are able to block most significant reforms.

Greg Devereux heads Washington's largest state employee union. He disagrees his members are barriers to reform.

Greg Devereux: "Government reform is like waste, fraud and abuse. It's easy to sling the term around but when you get into the nuts and bolts, it's a lot more difficult to really find areas you can reform tremendously."

Devereux says government reform is often code for privatization. That plays well politically, but he questions whether it really saves taxpayers money in the long run.

Back to the baseball analogy, the game in Olympia is mostly played by lobbyists and interest groups. The only real giant left is the voting public -- but on most days, on most issues the public is sitting in the bleachers.