The Washington Legislature’s failure to pass a capital budget will have major negative impacts in Pacific County and all around the state if some lawmakers don’t back away from the “game of chicken” they’re playing.

The capital budget, as outlined in our front-page story today, is packed with important money for a host of tangible projects — everything from a new school to help replace the obsolete one in South Bend to funds the Pacific Conservation District uses for pragmatic local work like steps to save the beautiful sandy river beach near the Port of Chinook. The conservation district might have to lay off much of its workforce unless it gets the money its counting on. Numerous other things will be affected in Pacific County.

Around the state, the hit-list of projects that will be stalled without funding is long and crippling. As just one example, right now as summer fire season is reaching its most dangerous stage, lack of capital funds will stall a $15 million effort to remove trees struck by insect blight, disease or drought. Without that funding the Department of Natural Resources said it cannot address the problem unhealthy forests pose for the people of Washington.

“A century of mismanaged forests has clogged our forests with dead, dry and sick trees that make our summer wildfire seasons as destructive as we’ve seen in the past decade,” said Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz. “We need this funding to undo this mess by thinning these trees from our forests. This problem is only getting worse, and the longer we wait the more we’ll pay both for the restoration and for the increasing costs of suppressing wildfires.”

It’s important to note that our three Legislative District 19 lawmakers all are on the sensible side of this issue. In particular, state Rep. Brian Blake led efforts that sought to break the budget stalemate.

The hangup is the Hirst decision, in which the Washington Supreme Court ruled that counties must conduct studies to determine that new water wells in rural areas don’t harm water levels in nearby streams, which could have negative consequences on endangered salmon. This isn’t a bogus issue. Preserving in-stream flows is a crucial part of environmental stewardship, especially as the world warms up.

Nor is concern about the decision misplaced in the Republican-controlled state Senate. Even in rainy Pacific County, the Hirst decision threatens to have near-term repercussions on well-drilling permits and rural homebuilding.

Blake formulated a bipartisan compromise in which well permits would be issued for the next two years, while a longer-range solution was negotiated. Senate Republicans rejected this idea.

Blake’s proposal deserves immediate support. Legislators should agree to it, come back for a final and brief special session in August, and get the capital budget passed. It will be extreme legislative malpractice if capital projects continue being held hostage to a permanent Hirst fix.