Senate Works to Suspend I-960's Supermajority Requirements for Two Years. Twice.
Olympia, WA - Posted 2/13/2010-
(from WA State Farm Bureau newsletter)
On Tuesday morning, the Senate brought SB 6843, sponsored by Sen. Margarita Prentice (D-Renton), to the floor for a vote. After hours of debate and more than twenty proposed amendments, the bill was voted out on a slim 26-23 roll call vote.
Soon after this, Senate leadership realized it had made an error. While the majority intended to suspend all of the components of Initiative 960 for two years, the bill they voted out only applied to the two-thirds majority requirement for tax increases.
Missing components included suspending the requirement of an advisory vote of the people for tax increases and inclusion in the voter's pamphlet of a list of the tax increases passed and the legislators who approved them.
Democratic leaders admitted that there was miscommunication with staff, which led to a vote on the wrong version of the bill.
Under normal circumstances, the Senate probably would have asked the House to fix the bill before passing it. Unfortunately for them, this was not possible. The adopted amendment to SB 6843 also amended the title, making the title so narrow that it would have been hard for the House to get the desired language in the bill.
So on Wednesday, they did a "redo" with SB 6130, also sponsored by Sen. Prentice. This time the Senate worked late into the night to pass SB 6130 with the language suspending all of the requirements under I-960 for two years.
This story illustrates the complexity of lawmaking, and what can happen in a hurried process. More importantly though, it means that the legislature is likely on its way to raising taxes. The House Finance Committee will hear SB 6130 on Saturday morning, probably moving it to the House floor for a Sunday vote.
Happy Valentines Day!