House Ways and Means Committee at work.

OLYMPIA, Jan. 20.—House Democrats took the first crack at the state budget Wednesday night, and took a whack at Initiative 1053 at the same time.

            For all the hosannas of bipartisanship that marked the start of the 2011 legislative session, the first big vote of the year came down to a series of party-line votes on the House Ways and Means Committee, and set the stage for another ordinary battle between Republicans and Democrats on the floor of the state House. House Bill 1086 was approved by the committee on a 16-11 vote.

Among other things, a Democratic amendment in the committee restores the ability of the state Transportation Commission to set ferry fares and bridge tolls without a vote of the Legislature. It is a direct hit on the anti-tax initiative that was approved by voters last November.

The budget bill is the first of a series of measures that must be passed by lawmakers this year as they attempt to whack $5 billion in state spending. And you might call what happened in the committee Wednesday night a minor skirmish on the way to the war. The measure makes a series of relatively minor changes to the 2009-11 state operating budget, which has a little less than six months to run. The bill is expected to reach the House floor on Friday.

The big trouble comes in the 2011-13 operating budget, which lawmakers still must pass sometime in the next few months. And maybe the biggest conclusion that might be drawn is this. Despite all the talk last week of unusual cooperation between the two parties – an effort to roll up the sleeves and work together on one of the nastiest jobs the state has ever faced – there wasn’t much evidence of that on the first important legislative vote of the year.

            Eyman Calls it Sleazy

Tim Eyman, the initiative promoter who scored his biggest-ever success with last year’s I-1053, was furious when he learned that the budget bill took aim at his baby. The main thrust of the measure was to make tax increases virtually impossible, by requiring a two-thirds vote of the House and Senate before a tax increase can be enacted.

But there was another element seen as equally important – a requirement that fee increases be approved by a majority vote of the Legislature, rather than by unelected boards and commissions. The initiative immediately threw a monkey wrench into the plans of the state Transportation Commission to raise ferry fares and impose a new toll on the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge on Lake Washington. A legal analysis by the state attorney general’s office concluded that all rules were reset by the initiative, but lawmakers could pass new bills that delegated their authority once more.

Democrats used the supplemental budget bill as an opportunity to begin the process. An amendment sponsored by state Rep. Larry Seaquist, D-Gig Harbor, allows the state Transportation Commission to raise fees on its own. Like the bill itself, the amendment was passed on a party-line vote of 16-11.

“It’s just sleazy, absolutely sleazy, to overturn Initiative 1053 without any public notice, without any public hearing, and without any chance for the citizens to weigh in on it,” Eyman said. “A lot of the people who supported 1053 would have liked to have expressed an opinion. Why did they have to do it in such a sleazy and below-the-radar way?”

 

            Could Spark Floor Fight

 

Republicans on the committee raised largely procedural concerns about the Transportation Commission amendment, saying that a big change like that one should have been considered in a separate bill. That would allow public hearings and a major debate on the floor of the Legislature. It wasn’t really a budget issue, they said, and transportation issues ought to be considered by the transportation committee. But Ways and Means Chairman Ross Hunter said he believed the amendment was in order.

One possible objection wasn’t raised in the committee. It takes a two-thirds vote of the Legislature to modify an initiative during its first two years, rather than a simple majority. Whether the amendment modifies the initiative isn’t an issue that is addressed in the legal analysis from the attorney general’s office. Should Republicans decide to challenge the amendment on that ground, the proper place for the fight would be on the floor of the state House. Democrats would make the ruling, but an adverse ruling could be challenged in court.

            The View From 10,000 Feet

House Bill 1086 goes part of the way toward filling a $600 million hole in the current operating budget. As amended by the committee Wednesday night, it takes care of about $334 million of the problem, leaving approximately $266 million of work to be done. Democrats say they will deal with that later – presumably after a revenue forecast in March that might give them a little more money to spend. If it doesn’t, they might use a budget trick advocated by Gov. Christine Gregoire – delaying $250 million in payments to school districts by a single day, to July 1, thus pushing the obligation into the next budget.

The House Democrats get there by enacting about $222 million in actual spending cuts, and by once again raiding every dedicated fund controlled by the state with a dime that has gone unspent. That tactic raises $123.8 million.

The budget doesn’t cut as deeply into social programs as the spending plan advocated by Gov. Christine Gregoire. A number of the programs she eliminated outright are preserved by the plan, including food assistance and the state “disability lifeline” program, which provides stipends and medical assistance to the homeless and disabled. Part of the reason the House Democrats are able to do that is that they didn’t finish the job, and the governor did.

            A Swift Approach

During the debate, one of the Republicans referred to an amendment as “a modest proposal,” and Hunter riffed on the idea.

“Those of you who are interested in the original ‘modest proposal,’ I would urge you to look it up in the Internet,” he said. “I believe it came from the 19th century, from Jonathan Swift. Hopefully that does not describe this budget. …

“I don’t think this is quite to the level of eating your own children.”

            Fish And Trees Versus People
 

Amendments approved by the Democrats Wednesday night added money for a few of the programs that had been snubbed earlier, including money for Medicaid interpreters, pediatric medical care, and a few small-scale K-12 education efforts.

Meanwhile, Republican amendments tackled the big picture and gave a hint of the issues they will be raising on the House floor. They argued that more money ought to be spent on education and less on programs like birth control. That’s not so much a state concern but rather a matter of personal responsibility, they said.

And they said they were furious that the budget permits big spending for environmental programs to continue at a time when education and programs for the needy are being slashed. Among other things, they said the state should stop spending money on its “climate change” initiative.

           “We are saying fish and trees are more important than education,” said state Rep. Larry Haler, R-Richland. “This appears to be the case with these votes. The Department of Ecology has skated pretty clean on this thing without any severe cuts, so not all departments are created equal as far as budget cuts go.”