Nobody went home satisfied last week when state legislators finally adjourned after a record 193-day slog.
Jay Inslee said in a news conference statement (more like an understatement).
Failing to pass a two-year capital budget for the first time in memory leaves $4 billion in a lockbox.
This is money that should be building schools and mental health facilities statewide, funds to prevent wildfires and homelessness, investments to boost local economies with infrastructure projects from Algona to Zillah.
First, it should be noted that the U.S. was one of 41 countries that abstained from the historic UN resolution.
Second, a cursory reading of the resolution shows that it focuses on the 884 million people in poor countries who lack access to safe drinking water and the more than 2.6 billion deprived of basic sanitation.
The grim toll: an estimated 1.5 million children under age 5 die each year from water- and sanitation-related diseases.
To equate a global humanitarian crisis with Washington property-rights disruptions shows a clear case of tone-deafness.
Republicans accuse Democrats of running and hiding from a permanent Hirst fix, and maintain that rural landowners are being denied a human right.
Perhaps state lawmakers and their surrogates need time to reflect on how our problems pale in comparison to much of the rest of the world.