Seattle a big step closer to getting WTO money

WASHINGTON -- Seattle scored a major -- and long anticipated -- victory yesterday when a Senate committee approved $5 million to reimburse the city for the cost of subduing protesters during last year's World Trade Organization meeting.

By earning approval in the Appropriation Committee, lawmakers said Seattle is virtually guaranteed of getting federal help in paying the $9 million the city had to absorb for law enforcement during the raucous WTO meeting in November.

The city did not fare as well in a separate matter considered in the House where the Appropriations Committee rejected money for a downtown federal courthouse. Money for the courthouse is included in the Senate version, giving Washington state lawmakers hope that a deal can be worked out to allow the project to move forward.

"It should be done. I'm for it," Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., said of the courthouse. "But we have two United States senators on the Appropriations Committee and they're going to have to figure out a way to do it. We got it in the president's budget. This isn't a problem because of Clinton and Gore. This is because of the Congress saying we don't have enough money in this particular area to fund it."

Aides to Sens. Slade Gorton, R-Wash., and Patty Murray, D-Wash., said they are hopeful the money can be restored later this summer when the House and Senate reconcile the spending bill that pays for courthouse construction.

The WTO money will have to come from a similar effort. The Senate bill provides the money while the House version does not. But state lawmakers are confident an agreement will be reached to keep the money in the bill.

Both actions came as the Senate committee pushed forward a collection of spending bills that had a host of items for the Puget Sound region and the state. Among other things, the bill that contains money for WTO costs also provides $3 million to Washington state to combat the increase of methamphetamine.

The bill provides money for most of the nation's federal law enforcement agencies and courts. Seattle and King County are slated to receive $1 million for community policing. Included as well is $250,000 to put full-time police officers in middle and high schools in King County.

The bill also pays for programs to restore salmon populations and to carry out the Pacific Salmon Treaty, with Washington state getting the biggest cut. The state will receive $18 million.

The WTO money, as well as the $300,000 paid by the Seattle Host Organization, will be divided up proportionately among the city and its neighbors, based on how much they spent on WTO security. Cliff Traisman, Seattle's director of intergovernmental affairs, said the city would get about $4 million.

P-I reporter Kery Murakami contributed to this report.

P-I reporter Charles Pope can be reached at 202-943-9229 or charliepope@seattle-pi.com