All Sides Of State Needs Storm Relief

Washington Gov. Mike Lowry toured flooded businesses and neighborhoods in Spokane County on Friday and comforted residents. Don’t worry, the lame-duck governor said, the state budget is healthy. There will be plenty of money to mitigate the damage.

Let’s hope Lowry’s replacement and the incoming Legislature will see it the same way. But there’s room to wonder.

Lowry’s tune was decidedly less chipper last month when he offered only $1.3 million in winter storm aid after the November ice storm. Jordan Dey, the governor’s press secretary, said the state’s budget is squeezed as tightly as it could be. The offer fell far short of the county’s estimated $16 million in damages, and it still had to be approved by the Legislature and shared with West Side counties.

And that was before the latest round of flooding in Eastern and Western Washington.

Money now will be even tighter as residents and county officials bicker over whose disaster was the worst, whose citizens suffered the most.

And, if history repeats itself, East Side residents soon will be frustrated as politicians line up to decry the winter’s horrible onslaught on Seattle. Now that West Side residents have spent a few days in the dark and cold, those politicians will surely feel their pain. Lawmakers traditionally respond more eagerly to problems around Puget Sound because of the voter base there.

Even the media play into Eastern Washington’s neglected step-child status. The nation barely heard about Spokane’s devastating ice storm in November, but media outlets couldn’t get enough of Seattle’s recent storm.

To be fair, the last two months have been harrowing for both sides of the state. Costs will run in the millions to repair public buildings, roads and land ravaged by winter. School children will pay with precious summer days and the psychological toll for everyone will linger.

City leaders now are banking on a federal disaster declaration for partial reimbursement of everything from employee overtime to tree replacement, but the state must come through as well.

Lowry’s initial claim that the budget is tight says more about his priorities than it says about the state’s pocketbook. The state budget has a surplus, and it’s up to the Legislature to decide what to do with it.

This gives Washington’s next leader, Gary Locke, an opportunity to show he’ll be governor for the whole state. As long as both sides of the state are treated fairly, there will be no reason to complain.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Anne Windishar For the editorial board