THE TWO-STATE SOLUTION

State Senator Bob Morton, a Republican from the Eastern Washington town of Orient (pop. 115), has a crazy idea. It's laughable, really. Unless you've been studiously ignoring our local newspapers in recent weeks (and who could blame you), you've probably heard about it. The senator from Ferry County wants to split Washington State in two. A clean break, along the line of the Cascades. The 19 counties to the west, mostly urban and suburban, with a hefty majority of the state's population and a strong liberal inclination, would become one state. The 20 counties to the east, mostly rural, mostly conservative, would become America's 51st state (or maybe 52nd, but more on that later).

The first things you notice about far-northeastern Washington is that it is poor, big, and empty. The road north out of Spokane, State Route 395, is paved (unlike many roads in the region), a two-lane ribbon of blacktop flanked by scrubby farmland or public forest. Very occasionally you pass through a small town. Stevens County, which runs from just outside of Spokane all the way north to the Canadian border, contains 40,484 people spread over 2,481 square miles, a population density of about 16 people per square mile. (King County, by contrast, has a density of 780 people per square mile.) The county seat, Colville, has 5,000 inhabitants and boasts a few reasonable restaurants, a library, an excellent coffee shop (I'm told), and that universal symbol of nouveau rural culture, a Wal-Mart.

The statistics don't lie. Projections for federal and state transportation funding between 2004 and 2013 show that King County will get back 84 cents on every dollar it provides for transportation funding, Pierce County will get only 80 cents, Snohomish County 88 cents, and Thurston County a mere 59 cents on the dollar. Meanwhile, large rural Eastern counties will get significantly more than they pay in: Stevens County will get $1.56 for every dollar they provide, Pend Oreille County, on the northern Idaho border, will get $2.60, and Ferry County will get a whopping $3.52. A 2001 report for the Senate Judiciary Committee showed that overall, Western Washington provided 82 percent of the state's transportation revenues but received only 78 percent of transportation expenditures; Eastern Washington, providing 18 percent of revenues, received 22 percent of expenditures. Eastern Washington also received more than its share of state K-12 education funding: 12 of the 13 counties that received the least state revenue per student were in the West (the exception was Spokane County).

That was the point Adam Kline wanted to make by supporting Morton's resolution. "We're subsidizing Eastern Washington," he says. "You know something? We don't mind. But what I do mind is that when we pay, and they benefit, they still complain. That's what bugs me. They're bitching about it."

The last quote from the Stranger article exposes the sweet irony that the conservative half of the state, the half that typically votes for lower taxes and fewer social programs, receives regular subsidies from the liberal half of the state. I imagine they would have real trouble keeping their roads in good repair without their bonus funds from Western Washington.

The quote at the end by Adam Kline illustrates the dark side of liberalism found in Ayn Rand's writings. "We'll give them the money they ask for as long as they are appreciate our sacrifice." That's not true compassion; at the least it illustrates a weakness in compassion. (It should go without saying that we are all flawed and weak, so this is to be expected in the noblest of actions.)

If Eastern and Western Washington had been divided during my youth, my life would have likely been very different, and I would have suffered for it. I am concerned for the teenagers like me.

I knew I was a city boy living in the country. I knew I was more liberal than most of my Stevens County peers. I longed for culture, and a neighborhood feeling, and for places I would walk to on a Saturday afternoon. I thought we should let the Spotted Owls have their habitat, since the old growth timber would run out in a few years, anyway.

I went to the University of Washington in Seattle, in part, because I could afford it. Even though I grew up in and around Colville Washington, I paid in state tuition to go to school in Seattle. I had no desire to go to school in Pullman or Ellensburg. I couldn't afford private school, and I couldn't afford out of state tuition. If Seattle had been in a different state, I would have probably bit the bullet and gone to school in Cheney (Eastern), Pullman (WSU), or Ellensburg (Central). These are all rural communities, though Cheney is very close to Spokane. Still, Spokane compares VERY poorly to Seattle in terms if urban culture.

During my school years, I got to know Seattle, and it became my home. I now own a house with my girlfriend and have no intention of leaving. This is my home more than Colville ever was. Colville is a place I visit with fondness, but it is not my home.

What if I had spent those four years in one of the other cities and towns? Maybe I would have made my home in Spokane. Maybe I would have moved to Seattle later. It's not a knowable answer. What is knowable is that the road from rural Colville to urban Seattle would be much more convoluted if the above mentioned rift between Eastern Washington and Western Washington were to become political reality.