Levity was rare as 48th District incumbents and hopefuls discussed the budget deficit, paying for the new State Route 520 bridge and education during the 48th District candidate forum, hosted jointly by the Kirkland Rotary and Chamber of Commerce Monday night at the Woodmark Hotel. The 48th District covers Kirkland, Bellevue and Redmond.

All of the incumbents who participated in the forum are Democrats, including Sen. Rodney Tom, Rep. Ross Hunter in Pos. 1 and Rep. Deb Eddy in Pos. 2. The challengers are Gregg Bennett for Senate, Philip Wilson for Pos. 2 and Diane Tebelius for Pos. 1.

All candidates portrayed themselves as moderate within their own party and said they would attempt to use bipartisanship to get things done in Olympia.

But the challengers characterized the Democrat-dominated legislature’s failure in forethought as the reason for overall change during this election.

“The failure to anticipate leads to these deficits,” said Tebelius.

But the incumbents defended their body of work and cited some big issues that have moved forward, including the replacement of the 520 bridge.

“If Gregg Bennett was your Senator, 520 would not have gotten done,” said Tom, who co-chaired the 520 caucus. “You had to run over (State Senator) Ed Murray to get it done.”

Murray represents residents on the Seattle side of the bridge that had conflicting views of the 520 project. The 520 issue reemerged later in the night as an audience member asked the candidates how they would propose to fund the project’s completion. The incumbents said the way the $4.6 billion project is moving forward, the funding will eventually be in place with tolling on I-90.

“The funding is in place,” said Tom. “There will be enough diversion that people on I-90 will want tolls.”

But challengers for all the seats disputed that the funding is actually in place and getting tolling on I-90 is not set in stone yet.

“This is not a plan,” said Bennet. “The Representative from Mercer Island is not even on board.”

Hunter responded that Rep. Judy Clibborn, who is from Mercer Island, voted for the bill and if the alternate plan did not work she would support I-90 tolls.

Wilson joked that one solution would be to build a mall on Foster Island as that is where the bridge would stop with the funding that is in place.

But all of the issues facing the state have to do with the economy and budget shortfalls.

“In 1995 the (total biennium) budget was $17 billion,” said Wilson. “Now you can just flip those numbers cause it is $71 billion.”

Tebelius stated that she is not against government, but that in the current atmosphere in Olympia the spending is out of control.

“Anyone who wants money gets it,” said Tebelius.

One way that some have proposed to meet budget gaps is with Initiative 1098, which would create a state income tax for those earning more than $400,000. Hunter, who had not taken a public stance on the idea, clarified that he is against the initiative when asked by Tebelius.

Hunter emphasized in his opening statement that he feels a strong education system fuels a strong business community.

Education was a major topic during the forum as all candidates agreed that the system needs to be changed.

However, they disagreed on what change is needed.

Bennett took one of the strongest stances by saying that schools should be funded solely by the state and not by local levies.

Hunter said he was proud of legislation which extended the time it took teachers to get tenure from two years to three, giving more time to evaluate teachers. Many of the challengers pointed out that only half of the Washington State school system’s 100,000 employees are teachers.

“We need principals in control of schools and their budgets,” added Wilson.