14th District candidates focus on Job No. 1: the budget

Next year's state budget crunch was the prime topic of debate as candidates for two 14th District state House seats took the stage Monday night in Yakima.

With a projected deficit of more than $3 billion looming, Republican Norm Johnson and Democrat Vickie Ybarra cited a balanced budget as a top priority.

So did Rep. Charles Ross, R-Naches, and his Democratic challenger, Chris Ramirez of Yakima.

All four candidates appeared at The Seasons Performance Hall in Yakima during a debate sponsored by the Greater Yakima Chamber of Commerce and attended by about 45 people.

"We're going to have to make cuts across the board," Johnson said of the state's financial situation.

The 70-year-old Yakima city councilman and retired educator also suggested doing away with promises previous Legislatures made but that he says the state can't afford to keep. That includes sales tax credits for the poor and government-funded health care for children in families whose income is up to 300 percent of the poverty level.

Johnson said the Legislature should also forgo paid family leave, which was expected to take effect in 2009. Workers would receive $250 a week for five weeks so they could stay home with a new child.

"Nobody offered me paid family leave when my wife was having babies," Johnson said.

Ybarra, who throughout the debate characterized herself as a moderate and not an ideologue, agreed with Johnson that the state budget will have to be balanced with across-the-board cuts. The 48-year-old Yakima school board president and director of planning and development for the Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic has vowed not to balance the budget with new taxes.

"Scrub the budget line by line," she said.

Ybarra differed from Johnson, however, on the promised tax credits for the poor, children's health care and paid family leave. Unlike Johnson, who suggested doing away with them entirely, Ybarra proposed postponing those services until the state can afford them. She described the programs -- particularly health care for children -- as an investment "but perhaps not one we can afford yet."

"We are absolutely going to have to delay some of the things that have been put on the table," she said.

The House race between Johnson and Ybarra has drawn the most attention locally and is considered critical by both state parties, which have contributed money. Democrats statewide see Ybarra's candidacy as a chance to gain a foothold in reliably Republican Central Washington and to come one seat closer to a veto-proof supermajority in the House. Democrats now hold 63 of 98 seats.

With Democrats chipping away at their political strength in the suburbs east of Seattle, Republicans need to retain seats in so-called "safe" districts such as the 14th, which includes Yakima and portions of the Upper Valley and hasn't elected a Democrat since 1992.

The other race -- with Ross as a 36-year-old incumbent facing a 22-year-old political newcomer straight out of college -- does not have the same high level of visibility.

Ramirez, who launched his campaign a month after graduating from Pacific Lutheran University, was humble about his place on the stage. If somebody had said a year ago that he would be on stage at The Seasons with Councilman Johnson, school board President Ybarra and state Rep. Ross, he wouldn't have believed it, he said.

"I would have thought I'd be serving the water," Ramirez said, drawing a round of laughter.

Ross, a funeral director from Naches, is a heavy favorite, and at times seemed to be debating Ybarra on Monday more than he was debating Ramirez. All four legislative candidates shared the same stage and responded to same questions, so it gave Ross an opening to direct his comments at Ybarra.

When she called government-funded child health care an investment, for instance, Ross spoke next and addressed her wording specifically.

"The words 'investment' from a government person typically means expense," he said, in joining Johnson's call to just do away with the unaffordable promises of previous Legislatures.

* Pat Muir can be reached at 577-7693 or at pmuir@yakimaherald.com.

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