Article by Erik Smith. Published on Thursday, February 11, 2010 EST.

Kill Tax-Revolt Measure Twice – Part of the Year’s Tax-Hike Gameplan 

Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, speaks on the Senate floor Wednesday night.

By Erik Smith

Staff writer/ Washington State Wire

OLYMPIA, Feb. 11.—Senate Democrats hate Initiative 960 so much, they voted to kill it twice.

            The first time, on Tuesday, they suspended the part that makes it all but impossible for the Legislature to raise taxes.

            Then they decided that wasn’t enough, so they came back late Wednesday night to finish the job. On the second try the Senate voted 26-22 to repeal the rest of the initiative. Among other things, that means you won’t see the names of tax-hiking lawmakers listed in the state voter’s pamphlet.

            The repeal measure, Senate Bill 6130, now moves to the state House.

            The entire repeal effort was stretched out over a period of two days, due to a comedy of procedural errors and tricky parliamentary maneuvers. Republicans battled Democrats every step of the way, forcing lawmakers to flip through their rulebooks as they looked for creative ways to overcome rulings from the podium. Debate lasted for hours each time.

            Ultimately the repeal bill passed late at night, at 11:10 p.m., too late to make newspaper and TV deadlines.

            Democrats said they would have voted in the daytime if only the GOP had been willing to cooperate with their plan to raise taxes.

Republicans said it was Democrats’ fault for talking about taxes in the first place.

            “They’re treating the public like mushrooms,” complained a Republican wag in the wings. “They’re keeping them in the dark and feeding them manure.”

            Part of the Plan

            Democrats say a shortfall now estimated at $2.7 billion leaves them with no choice but to raise taxes this year. Exactly which taxes and how much are questions for later. But for now, overturning Initiative 960 is an essential part of the plan.

            That tax-revolt measure, approved by voters in 2007, requires a two-thirds vote of the House and Senate before taxes can be raised. Because the GOP has a little over a third of the seats in the state Legislature, that means tax increases are all but impossible when Republicans stand firm against them.

            But Washington law says initiatives can be changed or overturned by a simple majority vote two years after they are approved. That’s easier – Democrats easily have the numbers to change the rule. Once that is done they can pass new taxes with a simple majority.

            Democrats have such a broad majority that in the Senate Wednesday they were able to excuse four of their members, all of them conservatives or representatives of swing districts where a tax vote might not be taken lightly. The four who voted with the Republicans against the measure were Steve Hobbs, D-Lake Stevens; Claudia Kaufman, D-Kent; Chris Marr, D-Spokane; and Tim Sheldon, D-Potlatch.

            Senate Bill 6130 suspends the two-thirds vote requirement until 2011.

            It also repeals provisions of the initiative that require public notice by email whenever tax-increase proposals are considered, and which use the official state voters’ pamphlet to identify tax-increase supporters by name. A requirement for an advisory vote on tax increases also is eliminated.

            Shocked, Absolutely Shocked

            The debates Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday night gave lawmakers their first chance of the year at a free-for-all debate. Virtually every member of the Senate found reason to make a speech. 

            Democrats said the majority ought to rule, not a supermajority. “Voters sent us here to do what we believe is in the best interests of the will of the people,” said Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane. “We’re in an economic emergency. There’s nothing secret about it. We intend to bring a balanced budget to the floor of the Senate, but it won’t be an all-cuts budget.”

The idea of an initiative imposing voting requirements on the Legislature is absurd, said Sen. Ken Jacobsen, D-Seattle. He called himself the last of the true republicans – because he believes in a republic. That means elected representatives get to make decisions. “If you don’t like their decisions, you don’t reelect them,” he said. “I kind of like that system,” he said.

            Republicans zeroed in on the fact that the Democrats were repealing provisions that provided public notice and public information regarding tax proposals.

            “I would never try to hide how I voted on those measures, and I don’t understand this,” said Sen. Janea Holmquist, R-Moses Lake.

            Said Sen. Pam Roach, R-Auburn, “The majority party is saying they don’t want the voters to know what we are doing here.”

            Sen. Don Benton, R-Vancouver, fulminated in outrage. “We’re not here to rule the people. We’re here to represent them. Well, how can we represent them if we don’t care what they’re thinking? This is appalling! The coverup of the coverup of the coverup. This is just unbelievable, Mr. President. I’m shocked. In my fifteen years in the Legislature, this really takes the cake, the way that we are just ignoring the citizens in this entire process.”

            Praise for the Press

            Whatever lawmakers do this year, it’s not going to be a secret, said Sen. Jim Hargrove, D-Hoquiam. So there’s no reason for government to provide official notice about tax votes. “We don’t give the people any credit for following what’s going on down here,” he said. “We have TVW – I think I’m on TVW right now – Hi! – and we have a press corps that does a good job of informing people what’s going on. And you know, I am pretty sure that every single one of your campaign pieces will tell them what we have done. So I’m basically suggesting that we privatize this function and let the private sector do it.”

            The Senate debate over I-960 stretched over two days because of a series of tricky parliamentary maneuvers. A bill originally passed the Senate on Tuesday, but it didn’t repeal the initiative’s public-notice requirements. Republicans forced a ruling from Lt. Gov. Brad Owen that would have made it impossible for the House to restore those provisions. Senate Democrats decided repeal of the notice requirements was critical and decided to start all over again with a new bill. Senate rules impose a waiting period before a vote can be taken, and Republicans were not willing to waive them. And so the debate dragged on into the night.

Your support matters.

Public service journalism is important today as ever. If you get something from our coverage, please consider making a donation to support our work. Thanks for reading our stuff.