Oregon Public Broadcasting

Raising taxes this year is a "moral necessity." Those are the words of one Democratic leader in the Washington legislature.

Lawmakers convene Monday for a short 60-day, election year session. Tops on the agenda: closing a $22.6 billion dollar in the current two-year budget. Majority Democrats say they can't do that with cuts alone, so they plan to raise taxes. Austin Jenkins reports.

There's a tradition in Olympia. Every year legislative leaders pick a theme song for the upcoming session.

House Republican Leader Richard DeBolt and Senate Democratic Leader Lisa Brown depart after a legislative preview session in Olympia.

Last year, Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, a Democrat and pop-culture maven, selected Bob Dylan's "Everything is Broken."

This year the budget is still a mess, but Brown is feeling more upbeat. Thus her song of the session pick: Pearl Jam's "The Fixer."  

Lisa Brown: "The lyrics are: 'When something's dark let me shed a little light on it, when something's cold let me put a little fire on it, if something's old I want to put a bit of shine on it, when something's gone I want to fight to get it back again.'"

Last year, Democrats closed a $9 billion budget hole with about $4 billion in actual cuts. More cuts are on the way. But Brown says Democrats can't in good conscience rebalance the budget by just slashing spending. So, that means they will raise some taxes -- or what they prefer to call revenue.

Lisa Brown: "It's not the desire to raise revenue. It's what we believe is the moral necessity to protect people who are in danger of losing their healthcare coverage, or having school systems lose quality." 

Democrats are eyeing a variety of options to raise revenue. They include everything from eliminating tax breaks for businesses to raising the tax on a pack of cigarettes.

There are proposals to tax sweets like gum, candy and bakery goods. One lawmaker even wants to put a surcharge on bottled water.

All this tax talk infuriates minority Republicans like Representative Gary Alexander of the House budget committee.

Gary Alexander: "And it's counter-productive to me to basically talk about raising taxes to help support government operations when the impact very well may be elimination or reductions of jobs in the private sector and the revenue that comes from that."

Republican leaders nominated a variety of theme songs for the session. Everything from the country tune "Take This Job and Shove It" to "Uprising" by the alt band Muse -- as in it's time for a Republican uprising.

In the words of Muse, Washington legislative Republicans are eager to unify and watch their flag ascend. 

This fall all House members and about half of state senators are up for re-election. Republicans smell blood in the water and expect to gain some seats. But first they need to get through the legislative session.

Senate Republican Leader Mike Hewitt would just as soon stay home in Walla Walla.

Mike Hewitt: "Normally I would say I am looking forward to this session, but quite frankly I am not looking forward to this session."

While the budget debate promises to be fierce, bipartisanship has a better chance when it comes to public safety.

Lawmakers of both political stripes are pledging to take action in the wake of six police officer deaths since Halloween. Governor Chris Gregoire has endorsed the idea of a constitutional amendment to allow judges to withhold bail in more than just capital cases.

Don Pierce heads the Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs. He's part of a group advising the governor on this topic.

Don Pierce: "We believe that there does need to be a constitutional amendment that gives greater flexibility to judges to hold those people who are inherently dangerous without being released prior to trial."

The specific wording of any amendments to the constitution has yet to be worked out. And any changes would have to be approved by a vote of the people.

Other topics like education, healthcare and government reform will appear on the legislative agenda. But ultimately the goal of majority Democrats will be to get in, rebalance the budget and get out with minimal harm to their re-election prospects.