The biggest fallout from this messy 2001 legislative session will be the loss of some very good people, who are considering not running again because they have lost faith in the system.

Long before the participants threw in the towel the day before they would have tied with the longest session in state history, 164 days in 1977, I jawed with some political junkies over who should be kidnapped by aliens if we were to accomplish in a reasonable time what was expected.

The first people nominated, along with Gov. Gary Locke, which was a given, were House co-speakers Clyde Ballard and Frank Chopp and Senate leaders Republican Jim West and Democrat Sid Snyder. When there is so much hatred between House and Senate that a facilitator has to be hired just to open communications, these four “leaders” have outlived their usefulness.

The old happy-go-lucky Ballard is gone. The new one is bitter and contentious and has lost his vision of what lawmakers are there for, to build for the future. He’s right that Gov. Locke reneged on his pledge to put any tax package before the voters — I heard that from Locke as long ago as last September at the Association of Washington Business meeting at Semi-Ah-Moo. But the risk to both parties would be equal, 25 and 25.

Chopp, who never chaired a committee before he became Speaker, micro-managed committee affairs without listening to any of the chairs, including those who told him time and time again that there was NO state money to build a parallel Tacoma Narrows bridge without private assistance. The bill removing snags from a public-private partnership remained under Chopp’s foot. It could cost us $35 million in damages for breaking a contract, and we’d get nothing for it.

Snyder has been there so long that he has atrophied. Instead of coming up with creative new plans for the state, he’s content to mind the store. West would have to turn around to be a forward thinker. Locke, well, I’ve been on his case before, over his hesitancy to assume a bold leadership stance as he waits for someone else, usually the Legislature, to set the scene.

Too often, he says one thing and does another. He said he wouldn’t let the Legislature adjourn without transportation funding package and an educational accountability bill. Neither was accomplished. He reneged on the tax package coming to a vote. Other than dishonesty, nothing shakes the faith of people in their leaders as much as unpredictability.

Eastern Washington lawmakers are also being blamed for the failure of this session, though they didn’t get what they wanted either. “The thing that is ironic,” one of the tax negotiators told me, “is that it is always difficult to get tax votes out of Eastern Washington, yet they want farm relief every time you turn around. I’m sorry the cherry crop was ruined. It happens every few years. You want to help them. If you continue to add to their transportation costs getting their goods to market, that is not helping them. They want every tax break that benefits them, but when it comes to paying for the infrastructure, they back off.”

It’s too bad the Republicans didn’t run their tax package on 1997 when they controlled House and Senate and had a tax-friendly governor in Locke. GOP leadership told Transportation chairs Sen. Eugene Prince and Rep. Karen Schmidt to see what support they could find for a tax bill. Prince got 25 votes for a 7 cents a gallon on gas plus another cent as an option for cities and counties, and Schmidt was closing in on her 50th when she went to Speaker Ballard with a progress report.

The next thing they knew, state Republican chair Dale Foreman was on the air and in the newspapers trashing the package. It was never brought to a vote.

Oddly enough, Republicans have a history of transportation aid. In 1913, the Taft administration built the Lincoln Highway so the first cars could run on roads instead of horse trails. The Panama Canal was Teddy Roosevelt’s pride and joy. Eisenhower inaugurated the Interstate Highway System.

Those, I guess, were the days when progress mattered more than power.

(Editor’s Note: Adele Ferguson can be reached at P.O. Box 69, Hansville, WA..