The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1914-1938, 1927-02-24
COMPROMISE
ON ROAD BILL
Paved Loop Fails Con
troll to be CAS- Is"-No
Money Bills


the budget and control of the high
way department, continue to hold
the stage in the legislature. Just
now it looks as if there will be a
compromise on the size of the
budget, somewhere between fhe
S24,484, 900 recommended in the
Hartley-Hoover budget and the
senate roads committees plan for
S20,600,00O, the visible incomes;
while it is beginning to look as
If Gov. Hartley will succeed, with
veto, to block the Hall-Carlyon
highway reorganization bill that
would take the state highway en-
gineer and highway patrol from
under the governor and place them
under the majority" of the state
highway committee, Treas. Potts
and Auditor Clausen.
This will be read after the house
will have passed the Hall -Carlyon
bill, which is booked for final ac-
tion Wednesday, and the measure
will probably be on its way for
scrutiny by the governor. This bill.
which at one time appeared to be
doomed in the house, is now likely
to muster 81 or 55 votes. due to
the expert handling by Senators
Hall and Carlyon. Hartley, it is
almost sure, will veto the bill and
provoke a bitter veto-fight. Unless
the senate organization pulls
something new to upset the house,
there will probably be enough
Hartleyites in line to sustain the
veto. In that event, highway mat
ters will be Gas is" for two more
years.
The proposed "dustless loop"
about $50 miles of concrete paving
to circle eastern Washington,
seems to be on it's last legs. The
split over the proposed bond issue
is killing the loop, with Represen-
tative Ed Sims and Julius Hubbell
leading the opposing factions.
Sims wanted an $8,O00,0 900 bond is
sue. Hubbell wanted no bond issue.
Both wanted an extra cent on the
gasoline tax. Both introduced their
bills. Both are going to lose.
Everybody wants an extra cent
on the gasoline tax, which would
increase revenues by nearly two
million dollars year, but every
body has different ideas on what
to do with the spoils- there being
no less than five plans for spend
ing the two million. This quarrel
over the spoils threatens to permit
the motorist, heretofore easy pick
ings in the matter of highway tax
es, to escape the extra cent tax
and enjoy laugh on the legisla-
ture.
But compromise may be work.
ed out by ditching all five plans
and agreeing to place the money
on an east-west pavement, con-
Meeting Seattle and Spokane. This
plan seems to be gaining.
Get away from roads,, unless
you consider politics, and this leg
islature is dud, a washout. More
than 400 bills are hidden in COM
mittees, held as clubs or just side
tracked, and are not likely to make
much headway in the remaining
two weeks. Many of the members,
especially new ones, are beginning
to murmer and complain wonder
ing why nobody seems to be con-
cerned about that pet bill. They
are like the losers in the waning
poker game when the winners are
yielding to the impulse to laugh
and exchange funny yarns.
But old man Politics is on the
job, very much; and the legisla-
tive leaders, including the coun-
sellors of Hartley, are almost
cross-eyed from keeping one eye
on things at hand and the other
eye on the 1928 elections. The fact
is, much of the procrastination
and playing around proves that
some of 'the boys" are more in
terested in using the session for
mixing political poison" than for
grinding out legislation.
Consequently it seems that the
rival and dominant republican fac
tions, the Hartleyites and the
crowd that ruled under Governor
Louis Hart, are determined to
fight it out for the nomination
for governor in tthe 1923 primary
The Hartley crowd, you may be
sure, will be on deck with a full
ticket in a drive to oust Land
Commissioners Savidge, Auditor
Clausen, Secretary Hinkle and
others who have declined to knuck-
lie down to Hartley.
Control of the road program anc
highway patrol is, quite naturally
the most powerful political influ.
F. ence to be had in a primary elec'
tiOn. That is one chief reason why
the factions are struggling TO,
control. ~
g. Road control is important be-
cause men work for the crowc
that hands out the road money
The highway patrol. about 40 ac
TCon+inued m, naUa Sl