It isn’t truthful, you know, to say that the Democrats are in full control in Olympia so just about anything they want goes.

It looks like that; 50-48 in the House, 25-24 in the Senate and two in the governor’s office. I count Monica Locke, who is far more influential in her husband’s decisions than most people realize.

But look at it this way.

The Senate has 24 Republicans, 24 Democrats with a capital D and Tim Sheldon of Potlatch, small d.

House Republicans are two votes short of passing anything on their own, but even though it’s now just plain Rep. Clyde Ballard of East Wenatchee, the ex-speaker and co-speaker vows that there is no way the gasoline tax is going to be increased without a vote of the people, as Gov. Gary Locke used to say until he had a loss of memory or change of heart.

“If they pass one,” said Ballard, “there’ll be a referendum filed immediately. I believe the state of Washington is in serious trouble. If we don’t start treating business and jobs with respect, it’s going to be worse. It’s politically incorrect to say we’re in a recession, but we are in a recession. Too many agencies treat business as the enemy. I’ve talked to a half dozen businesses lately that say it’s a nightmare to deal with government in the state of Washington.

“Gary (Gov. Locke) goes out and says what a great state this is, but we are bleeding jobs all over. In the budget, we over spent to the point we have put the state in jeopardy. Their (the administration) objective was to spend every dollar known to mankind.”

Sheldon, whose regular job is bringing jobs to Mason County and who has publicly pondered becoming an independent, is the last beacon of hope for Republicans that some of the more objectionable stuff can be stopped in the Senate. He’s business oriented; the Ds are the hand maidens of labor.

I asked Sheldon, now that the Democrats are the majority in both houses, whether he would now be a loyal Democrat and stick to the party line, or continue, on occasion, to vote with the Republicans on issues he and they agree on the Ds don’t.

“I an not a very partisan person,” he said. “There’s nothing wrong with a coalition of 25 votes.”

He voted for Sid Snyder of Long Beach for majority leader and would do so again, said Sheldon, but if labor thinks it is going to waltz in and get everything it wants because the Democrats are the majority, and Gov. Locke promised before his election to roll over on anything labor wanted, it has a big disappointment coming.

“Like (Lt. Gov.) Brad Owen said when he was a senator here (and Sheldon’s predecessor), I don’t worship at the labor temple,” Sheldon said. “They’ve got a bill on collective bargaining that would be a giveaway to all state employees. The governor would negotiate with the employee unions on a package and bring it to an up or down vote in the Legislature. That gives away our authority to negotiate.” He won’t be the 25th vote on that one.

Would he support a gas tax increase? “There could be a scaled down, skinnied down tax bill, but it needs to go to the people,” he said. “You can’t expect the collected representatives to vote different from what the overwhelming majority of the people think.”

He is pleased, he said, that the Democratic caucus, during a recent retreat, discussed rewriting the capital budget to take advantage of lower interest rates. He’s for a brief special session to freeze hiring and “take out the pork in the capital budget.”

I doubt much pork will disappear. Bringing home the pork is what keeps lawmakers at all levels in office. You all want, you know that. You just don’t want to pay for it.

(Adele Ferguson can be reached at P.O. Box 69, Hansville, WA. 98340.).