Demos hope for cooperation

Legislative Democrats want to play fair with their Republican counterparts during the 2004 Legislature.

Democrats say they will continue to work cooperatively with the majority party, hoping to somehow enhance the funding for education and human services. They also hope to avoid divisive issues that allow moral grandstanding and could lead to expensive lawsuits.

"We're here to do the state's business and take care of the important issues," House Minority Leader Brent Goodfellow, D-West Valley, said. "Some of the issues coming from the right wing are more of a chance to grandstand."

Among the morality issues addressed in bills that concern Democrats are abortion prohibitions, gay rights, and a slew of child welfare changes inspired in large part by last year's Parker Jensen saga. Ideally, Goodfellow said he would prefer to see a task force to handle the child welfare bills, while avoiding discussion about any morality laws that would be voided by federal law or lead to costly lawsuits.

Senate Minority Leader Mike Dmitrich, D-Price, said that he hopes that legislators focus their efforts on money issues, such as education and road construction, instead of trying to shore up votes by entering into moral debates.

"I hope that this session doesn't get carried away with moral issues and ignore the funding problems," he said.

Education is the top priority for Democrats during this session, especially the funding level for schools. All of the leaders said that an aggressive education spending proposal from Gov. Olene Walker, which would take funding from roads, water projects, and other state programs for schools, while admirable, could prove too difficult to fund.

"Funding's important to all of the legislators, and we support Walker's proposals," Dmitrich said. "But the funding will be a real problem."

Instead, the leaders said they hope that the Legislature will seriously consider Democratic propsals to reduce a variety of tax exemptions to boost education funding. They also hope that the minimal funding for millions of federally-matched dollars could be passed.

The social and human services, such as elderly care, health insurance, will face another tight budget year, although Democrats hope to assist the providers as much as possible. Like education, there are substantial federal funds available, although it would take some matching money from the state.

But the money may be more available this year than in previous years, thanks to a slowly recovering economy, House Minority Whip Brad King, D-Price, said.

"Having some resources to deal with will make it better than the past few years," he said. "We do have some fairly positive trending, but we still have a lot of holes we need to fill before starting new priorities."

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