The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1939-1949, 1945-02-01
Lack Of Budget
Slows Pace Of
Legislators
Solons pass but one
bill in week; repre- -.
sentatives stall ..s.r

OLYMPIA. February 1-Usually
there are about 1000 bills present
ed at a regular session of the state
LEGISLATURE, and about 200 are en-
.cfed into law. Old-timers here
who complain that this session
heats all for slowness seem tC
have comparative figures on thei!
side.
When the wheels began to turn
again Monday-the twenty-secono
dav of the sixty-day Session-only
192 bills had been introduced
and there had been just exactly
four approved. Self-appointed
historians had not been able to
find another modern session that
was travelling at such a snaiIs
pace at this stage of the game.
N Only one bill, routine shift
ling of funds for the grain in
!. spection service, was enacted last
= week. A few standing committees
= had desultory meetings in which
they considered humdrum items
+ Legislators got so bored with
their fifteen-minute daily sessions
that they finally took a day off
and inspected" Fort Lewis.
Things were scheduled to pick
up this week. Governor Wall
gren had given the solons his
idea of a $50 old-age pension
and indicated his liquor-by-the-
drink and veterans assistance
messages would be Forthcoming
soon. f~
But the fact remained that for
three weeks the legislators had
done nothing, and for a very good
reason. Until late last week it had
been given no money plan, that is
to say, no budget. Most legisla-
ton hinges on money, and legis-
lators naturally are delayed in
their ideas of how to spend the
public's money until they have
been given some overall plan or
budget. 81
This sessions bottleneck has
been the budget. Here, for the
first time, is the inside story on
how that bottleneck was created.
The budget was prepared over
several months by former gov
'ernor Langlie, who had every
expectation when he was prepar-
ing it that he would be reelected.
He wasn't. He wrote two letters
and made one telephone attempt
to get Wallgren to meet with him
and discuss the budget with which
~Yallgren and Wallgren's 1egisla-
would have to deal. Former
'governOr Martin gave Langlie
such an invitation four years ago,
and they got along fine. .
Democrats give various YER
sions as to why Wallgren ignored
.Langlie's invitations: Wallgren was
too busy in Washington, DC,
winding up his affairs as United
States Senator; Wallgren, who
takes pride in the 900 per cent
Democratic administration that
the people ordered, didn't want
to be seen working with Re-
publican; Wallgren and his adj
vlsors felt the invitation was some
sort of strap" to discredit Wall
sren. Whatever the reason, Wall
gren didn't attend. .-...ss
Came the inauguration and the
hard task of starting new adj
mlnistration. Wallgren called up
on his advisors. Only two Of
them could claim much previous
experience in state government:
Ed Reilly, former speaker of
the House from Spokane, and
Art Carton of Wenatchee who
knows county government prob
lens fairly well. Confidential
sources report, however, others
IN the cabinet, including Rogan
Jones, Bellingham, and Pat Han
neford, the tax commissioner, set
themselves up as budget eek
perts."
They Tipped through the papers
OF the Langlie budget and noted
that proposed expenditures ap-
parently overran anticipated rev.
enues. They pounced on this fact
and urged Wallgren to say some
~ about it. Wallgren pro-
cceeded to electrify a press con-
terence with a solid whack at
Langlie's oversize budget. He
announced he would have a spe-
cal committee remake the Langlie
budget.
The committee met and got
cold water thrown in it's face. De-
partment heads weren't willing to
trim their budgets. The COM
mittee found that budget for a
large state is something so big
overnight.
Finally, last week, Wallgren
tossed the whole mess to the legis-
iature with the recommendation
mat Langlie's figures for the past
TWO years operation, plus GER
tam salary increases, be used as
a base Of consideration. He also
asked that Langlie's postwar pro-
Jects be Jumped into another ap-
proprlatlon, to be administered by
WallSren six months after cessa-
ton of hostilities.
Walgren, man with Ions
framing in federal affairs but
Win no experience in state adj
iniinlstratlon, and yet man who
sincerely wants to make as fine
d record of his administration as
ne can, apparently was in the
advice. ~ A'eeA
This advice, which criticised
an an oversize budget, didn't take