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Senate Jabs One Way, House Jabs Another – Abortion, Tax Votes Now on Record

Roach points to the handful of districts that voted against the two-thirds measure in 2012 -- illustrated in orange, "Bronco colors, because they're losers."

State Sen. Pam Roach, R-Auburn, points to the handful of districts that voted against the two-thirds measure in 2012. They are illustrated in orange,”Broncos colors,” Roach says, “because they’re losers.”

OLYMPIA, Feb. 6.—Big abortion and tax measures came to the floor in the House and Senate Wednesday, and while neither bill really stood a snowball’s chance in the Legislature this year, Washington voters can be sure they’ll hear all about them come election season. It was a game of political football that was played just as 700,000 turned out for a Seattle victory parade for the Super Bowl-champion Seahawks. It was just that at the statehouse, no one was really trying to win.

In the House, an abortion-rights measure – the so-called Reproductive Parity Act – was passed on a largely party-line vote, 54-44, Democrats voting yes and Republicans voting no. Now the bill sails on to oblivion in the Senate, where the largely Republican Majority Coalition Caucus says it stands absolutely no chance whatever.

And in the Senate a similarly divided vote took place on a constitutional amendment that would require a two-thirds vote of the Legislature for tax increases. The idea, wildly popular with voters, has been passed at the polls five times. But it takes a two-thirds vote of both chambers to place a constitutional amendment on the ballot, and with all members of the Senate Democratic Caucus voting no, it inevitably failed, 25-21.

Why go to the trouble? Lawmakers naturally say the issues are the acme of importance. But just as important is getting the other team to take a most uncomfortable vote, thus setting up arguments for the 2014 campaigns. Said state Sen. Pam Roach, R-Auburn, sponsor of the constitutional amendment, “I think something that was accomplished today is that we did get on record a number of individuals and people to find out how well they represent their districts when they come here to Olympia. That is the important thing.”

And there was one big irony about that tax vote in the Senate. An amendment requiring a two-thirds vote failed for lack of a two-thirds vote.

Abortion Rears Head Again

While the Senate jabbed one way with its constitutional amendment measure, the House jammed the other with its abortion-rights measure.

While the Senate jabbed one way with its constitutional amendment measure, the House jammed the other with its abortion-rights measure.

Though Washington voters have voted twice over the last 44 years to establish the right to abortion in state law, settling the issue in a way that the U.S. Supreme Court cannot, the issue keeps coming back, year after year, session after session, in a thousand guises and forms. That is because it is a potent matter for at least some voters, and depending on how it is framed, it can make Republicans squirm. The latest iteration, the Reproductive Parity Act, would mandate that health insurance companies providing maternity care also cover abortion.

The case for the measure is a bit obscure – all major insurance companies cover abortion. Nor has any other state passed such a measure. Nor have lawmakers heard an outpouring of complaints from women who have been denied an abortion because their insurance carriers will not cover the tab. Nevertheless, abortion-rights groups and Democratic lawmakers say they are gravely worried employers might offer policies to workers that do not cover abortion, because of personal belief. That danger requires action by the Legislature, advocates say. “Choice belongs to an individual,” said House Health Care Chairwoman Eileen Cody, sponsor of the measure in the House. “It should not be made by your employer or your health insurance company, but by the woman herself. I’m voting yes to leave that choice to the individual woman and her family and her own religious beliefs.”

Debate on the House floor brought the usual impassioned speeches from lawmakers who are personally opposed to abortion – which of course was the point. Said state Rep. Elizabeth Scott, R-Monroe, “Sometimes we are cautioned not to be outrageous, but I am wondering, when is it right to be outraged over the deaths of 55 million babies, over half of whom are unborn women? Is this not a war on unborn women, Mr. Speaker?”

State Rep. Joe Schmick, R-Colfax, ranking Republican on the health care panel, said it was a little hard to understand the burning need for the bill. “In two years of testimony, we have not heard one woman come forward and say I wanted an abortion and it was not being paid for,” he said. But there have been plenty of small-business owners who say they don’t want to pay for a plan that covers abortion, because it offends their personal beliefs – and he said the voice of a significant minority ought to be respected.

After nearly an hour of speechifying the bill won easy passage, but it seems clear the bill will never see the light of day in the Senate. A majority of members apparently favor the bill – they include all members of the Senate Democratic Caucus and pro-choice Republicans from the swing districts of the Puget Sound area. But leaders of the Majority Coalition Caucus say their members are divided and passions run high. Better to focus on issues where there is consensus, they say – jobs, education and the state budget. Those are the things people talk about when they doorbell back home, not insurance mandates, said state Sen. Doug Ericksen, R-Ferndale. “If we can hold the caucus together on those items and not do this one abortion-mandate bill, I think the people of Washington state will be really happy with the results they are getting out of here,” he said.

Two-Thirds for Taxes Goes Down

Sen. Pam Roach, R-Auburn, makes pitch for constitutional amendment on Senate floor.

Sen. Pam Roach, R-Auburn, makes pitch for constitutional amendment on Senate floor.

A similarly partisan-tinged battle played out on the Senate floor as lawmakers debated the two-thirds constitutional amendment. The concept has proven exceedingly popular with voters, passing by ever-larger margins whenever it has appeared on the ballot. The last iteration, Initiative 1185 in 2012, passed with 64 percent of the vote. The two-thirds requirement makes it exceedingly difficult for lawmakers to pass tax increases because a supermajority vote generally requires the cooperation of the minority party in the Legislature. When the rule has been in place it has effectively blocked large-scale tax hikes. Yet after 20 years of enthusiastic endorsement at the polls, the Supreme Court last year finally nixed it, deciding that it violated the state constitution.

It is an issue that makes Democrats squirm in the same way that the abortion issue gives Republicans fits. Virtually every legislative district in the state approved the measure by enormous margins in 2012, 44 out of 49 districts – the exceptions being those districts in liberal-leaning downtown Seattle. Roach brought the point home by distributing a map on the Senate floor that showed just how widespread the support was the last time around – virtually all the state colored in shades of green, — “Seahawk colors,” she said — and the five districts of urban Seattle in orange. “Bronco colors, because they’re losers,” Roach explained.

Some 1.9 million voters said yes to the initiative, the largest yes vote in state history, she said. The two-thirds voting requirement passed even in some of the most liberal districts of the state – the San Juan Islands, the greater Olympia area. “It was a pocketbook issue, it was a populist issue, and it was a popular issue,” she said.

Last year’s court ruling said the only way to impose the rule was with a constitutional amendment. And as lawmakers debated a resolution that would refer the matter to the ballot, Democrats were forced to make a delicate argument. In essence, that the will of the majority of lawmakers ought to prevail in the Legislature, but the will of a majority of the voters ought to be ignored. By voting contrary to the wishes of voters, state Sen. Adam Klein, D-Seattle, said Democrats were showing “real leadership.” He said, “It is easy to fight against taxes. Tax cuts are like candy in a candy store. Every kid wants them. And as parents, sometimes we are in a position of having to say no, for their own good.”

A nuanced process argument, to be sure. Said state Sen. Jim Hargrove, D-Hoquiam, “Let’s suppose we have a big emergency. Let’s suppose we have a tsunami on the coast and our budget is turned upside down because I have cities underwater. We could have people in other areas say we agree we need more money and we need to raise a tax, but only when we do this reform bill, that reform bill. And we have seen that scenario in the not so distant past.”

Republicans made it clear that the vote would not be forgotten at election-time. “Make no mistake about it,” said state Sen. Don Benton, R-Vancouver. “Your vote here today will be recorded as a vote not only on the measure, but more importantly on whether or not you trust the citizens of the state to add this item to their constitution.”

Call it Political Football

"Game of political football": Senate Majority Leader Rodney Tom, D-Medina.

Matter of ‘political football’: Senate Majority Leader Rodney Tom, D-Medina.

When it was all over, lawmakers acknowledged that such votes are the stuff of life at the statehouse. “It is an election year, and you’re going to see a lot of politics on a variety of issues,” said Senate Majority Caucus Leader Linda Evans Parlette, R-Wenatchee. And Senate Majority Leader Rodney Tom, D-Medina said he suspected the abortion issue was raised in the House because the Senate, in a surprise move last week, approved a measure that provides college financial aid for the children of illegal immigrants. The Dream Act — or, as the Senate prefers to call it, the “Real Hope Act,” had been shaping up as an election wedge issue, but the Senate vote took it off the table. Tom noted that House Democrats publicly called it a top priority for the session – they passed the measure a second time in an unusual vote on the opening day of the session, just to drive the point home. But since then, nothing – and now comes an abortion vote.

“We live in a political world, and I think a lot of this is about politics,” he said. “We actually did what we did because it was right for the kids and we gave them a real promise. I think what happened is that it was like there was that political football, and so now they are trying to throw some other political football.”

State Sen. Steve Hobbs, D-Lake Stevens.

State Sen. Steve Hobbs, D-Lake Stevens.

Perhaps a sideline incident puts it all in perspective. When the constitutional amendment came to the Senate floor, three members were absent. State Sen. David Frockt, D-Seattle, was participating in the enormous Seahawks victory celebration in Seattle. State Sen. Michael Baumgartner, R-Spokane, was back home, where his wife is about to give birth. But state Sen. Steve Hobbs, D-Lake Stevens was nowhere to be found. “Maybe Sen. Hobbs was having a baby, too,” Ericksen said.

Hobbs, who was in his office at the time, no doubt had good reason to walk off the field – last week the Majority Coalition took away half his gavel when it made the Financial Institutions, Housing and Insurance Committee a panel that would be co-chaired by a Republican and a Democrat. Hobbs said afterward, “I’m surprised they’re paying so much attention to me.” But he noted that the attention of the state was elsewhere Wednesday. Said Hobbs, “I’m sure that when you look at the papers tomorrow, the only thing people are going to care about is the parade.”


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