OLYMPIA, March 5.—Two days after a historic rout on the Senate floor, Republican Leader Mike Hewitt says he wants to extend the olive branch to the Democrats who lost control of the chamber by a narrow 25-24 vote.
Hewitt says he will offer Senate Democratic leaders the same terms they offered to the Republicans last year, and which they appeared to abandon this session. If the Democrats still want to produce a joint Senate budget, the door is open, he says.
“We’ve been wanting to work together all year long,” Hewitt said.
Of course, it all depends on what the Democratic Caucus wants. There are some lines that can’t be crossed. But that’s pretty much the way it worked last year, back when both parties worked together on a budget but the Democrats were in charge. It’s just that someone else is in the driver’s seat now.
The Senate has been turned upside down by the events of Friday night and early Saturday morning, when three moderate Democrats, frustrated by their party’s insistence on an unbalanced spending plan, bolted and voted with minority Republicans for a budget they maintain is more fiscally responsible. The three Democrats – Rodney Tom, Jim Kastama and Tim Sheldon – joined with a solid bloc of 22 Republican members. That gave the coalition forces a majority in the 49-member chamber.
But it’s still not clear what the “new order” in the Senate is going to look like. Nor is it clear what kind of reception the insurgency will receive in the House, which is under firm Democratic control. The coalition forces still must negotiate a budget with the House, where Speaker Frank Chopp has been thundering, at least in press-release form.
“The Senate Republicans have exercised the worst abuse of power I have ever witnessed in the Legislature,” he declared Friday night in a statement. “It says something about them that the minute they gained power, they abused it.”
That might be overstating things – and if the Republicans were abusing their newfound power, it might be pointed out that the House Democrats under Chopp committed precisely the same offense exactly 24 hours later. But Hewitt acknowledges a cooperative relationship with Senate Democrats could make for more cordial negotiations with the House, and might avoid the formal structured conflict of a conference committee. Hewitt said he has spoken to Senate Democratic Floor Leader Tracey Eide, D-Kent, and will make a more formal approach to Senate Democratic leaders today.
“I want to give tempers a chance to cool down a bit,” Hewitt said Saturday night. “I don’t think they are very happy with us right now.”
What Happened At Midnight
And that certainly is understating things. Panic swept the Senate Friday at 3:36 p.m. when Republican Sen. Don Benton of Vancouver moved for the “9th Order of Business.” That was the motion that set the revolution in motion, allowing a majority of members to vote to move a bill from a committee to the floor. What they called up was an early version of the budget that had been introduced in December by Gov. Christine Gregoire – and then the bipartisan coalition amended the bill, replacing the old language with an entirely new proposal. Ultimately it passed by a 25-24 vote.
That’s a technical description of what happened. But it took 10 hours to get there. First came hours of parliamentary tactics that appeared to have no purpose other than to delay action – including a demand by Eide that the budget bill be read in full, despite the fact that it was the wrong bill, the governor’s bill, and that it would be replaced by the coalition amendment in short order. After an hour of reading by Senate clerks, Democrats admitted defeat, and then came angry speeches, denunciations of the Traitorous Trio, and much invective aimed at Republicans. The final vote on the last of several bills needed to implement the budget came at 2 a.m. Saturday.
The fieriest part of the debate got scant attention in the print media, because it came just as the clock was striking 12, after newspaper deadlines had already passed. Washington State Wire presents the full text of the debate on final passage elsewhere today.
But the whole thing certainly had a bitter taste.
State Sen. Jim Hargrove, D-Hoquiam, explained that the coalition budget will mean more crime in the streets: “I hope you like the sound of sirens, because that is what you are going to get if this striking amendment becomes law.”
Sen. Sharon Nelson, D-Camano Island, said it would cut important social programs. “Working moms will be more stressed and poorer. There will be more pregnant girls, and our state will suffer.”
Senate Ways and Means Chairman Ed Murray, D-Seattle, called it “a narrow extremist agenda that is being shoved down our throats tonight.”
Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, said she had been sandbagged by the Republicans, because they had indicated willingness to negotiate with Democrats earlier. “Well, congratulations, Mr. Minority Leader, you fooled me,” she said.
Democrats offered amendment after amendment to restore programs the coalition budget would cut. Total cost would have been a budget-busting $525 million. The group of 25 shot most of them down. That brought a complaint from state Sen. Craig Pridemore, D-Vancouver: “The response frankly was one finger raised in response.”
And that just scratches the surface.
An Odd Claim
The central motivation for the coup was that legislative Democrats hope to solve this year’s billion-dollar budget shortfall by shifting hundreds of millions of dollars in expenses to the next budget period. That way they can mitigate or avoid deep cuts to state programs. The Senate Democrats’ version would have delayed $330 million in school-district payments by a single day, pushing them into the 2013-15 budget and thus deepening next year’s problem at the get-go. Already lawmakers expect a $1 billion to $2 billion shortfall in 2013, because state spending is outpacing tax revenue. The three rebels have a problem with that.
The coalition version, written by Senate Republican budget chief Joe Zarelli, cuts considerably deeper, but it avoids entirely the shifting of expenses.
Kastama, one of the three rebels, offered a spirited defense on the floor, pointing out the obvious – the Democratic budget didn’t have support from 25 members. The Legislature was headed for stalemate. And while some moderates had been making a push for reform bills, “frankly what these bills intend to do is to make us do what we should already be doing in the Legislature, and I have come to the conclusion that the best reform is to govern.”
Though it was self-evident that the Senate Democrats did not have the votes for their own budget, several angry members insisted the session would have been heading for a swift and happy finish had it not been for the takeover. The said it has ensured there will be a lengthy special session once the regular session reaches its scheduled end on March 8. “We are going to be here a long time,” said state Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island, the Legislature’s most senior member. “Mr. President, what do you think? A month? I say a month.”
It was one of a number of odd claims. Democrats also chided Republicans repeatedly for not releasing their budget proposal well in advance of the floor action, thus giving them no time to prepare amendments. Yet such tactics have been commonplace under Democratic majorities in the House and Senate. In fact, over in the House Saturday afternoon, majority Democrats wrote a new version of a transportation-fee bill and gave Republicans less than five minutes’ notice before the vote took place.
House Minority Leader Richard DeBolt, R-Chehalis, offered a sardonic grin. “Welcome to the minority,” he said.
Bipartisanship Within Bounds
Hewitt said Saturday night that the bipartisan coalition hopes to reach out to Democrats and build bridges. He points out that it was the Democrats’ decision to release a partisan budget, rather than negotiating and compromising with Republicans as they did last year. Essentially it’s the same deal the Democrats gave the Republicans last year, in reverse, when it appeared the Democrats didn’t have the votes to pass a budget on their own.
Some items are not negotiable, he said. There won’t be any shifting of expenses to the next biennium, a Republican plan regarding pension-payment reductions is a must, and last year’s cuts to welfare grants must remain in place.
Kastama, D-Puyallup, said budget negotiations would probably move most quickly if Senate Ways and Means Chair Ed Murray was involved, along with Senate Republican budget chief Joe Zarelli and House Ways and Means Chair Ross Hunter. “I think it’s a great idea,” he said. “I am encouraging everyone to move on to the negotiations as quick as possible and if Ed were to be in those negotiations for the budget, I think that would be an excellent idea. I think between Ed and Joe and Ross Hunter, we can put together a budget and maybe even get out of here on Thursday.”
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