Senate moves forward with bill to bring back majority rule to the Legislature

This evening the Senate voted 26-22 to suspend Tim Eyman's Initiative 960, which unconstitutionally requires supermajorities to raise revenue. The Senate's action clears the way for House to follow suit and return fiscal sanity to Washington state.

The roll call was as follows:

Voting Yea: Senators Berkey, Brown, Eide, Fairley, Franklin, Fraser, Gordon, Hargrove, Hatfield, Haugen, Jacobsen, Kastama, Keiser, Kline, Kohl-Welles, McAuliffe, McDermott, Murray, Oemig, Prentice, Pridemore, Ranker, Regala, Rockefeller, Shin, and Tom

Voting Nay: Senators Becker, Benton, Brandland, Carrell, Delvin, Hewitt, Hobbs, Holmquist, Honeyford, Kauffman, Kilmer, King, Marr, Morton, Parlette, Pflug, Roach, Schoesler, Sheldon, Stevens, Swecker, and Zarelli

Excused: Senator McCaslin

SSB 6130's passage was preceded by a lengthy debate and the rejection of several ill-advised Republican floor amendments. Not much was said that hadn't already been said during the debate over SB 6843 (the Senate's first attempt to neutralize Initiative 960, which contained the wrong language).

Initiative 960, which was narrowly approved in 2007, unfairly and undemocratically calls for two-thirds majority to raise any taxes (in violation of Article II, Section 22 of the State Constitution) and has hamstrung the ability of the Legislature to adopt responsible fiscal policies that balance budget cuts with revenue enhancements.

Although the Democrats do have a majority in both chambers of the Legislature, it is not enough to clear the two-thirds hurdle. Republicans, of course, don't want I-960 neutralized because I-960 gives them veto power over the Democratic majority.

Republicans stood up one after another to complain that “the will of the voters” was being overridden, in spite of the fact that many of them had previously endorsed the suspension of initiatives that passed with even larger margins than I-960 did, including:

• Initiative 728 focused on reducing class-sizes in Washington schools, and was passed by 72 percent of the electorate in 2000.
• Initiative 732 provided automatic cost of living adjustments to teacher salaries, and was passed by 63 percent of the electorate in 2000.

Republicans had no problem overriding “the will of the people” by suspending those initiatives when they were in the majority back in 2003.

Now, however, they’re singing a different tune, and Sen. Jim Hargrove (D-Hoquiam) called them out on it:

"While I respect the will of the people, I find it a little disingenuous to suggest one side of the aisle upholds the will of the people and the other side does not," he said. "Initiatives are taken seriously."

SB 6843 now goes to the House of Representatives – let’s hope Democrats there have the courage to follow through and send it to the governor.