Peninsula Daily News
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OLYMPIA — The state House now takes up a bill to temporarily suspend Initiative 960 — a move that will make it easier for legislators to raise taxes.
The suspension means taxes can be increased by a simple majority of 50 percent-plus-one vote, much easier than the two-thirds majority that Tim Eyman’s I-960 requires.
The state Senate passed the suspension on a 26-22 vote Wednesday night.
Voting yes was Jim Hargrove, who represents Jefferson and Clallam counties in the Senate.
The North Olympic Peninsula’s two representatives in the House, Lynn Kessler, D-Hoquiam, the House majority leader, and Kevin Van De Wege, D-Sequim, are expected to support what the Senate passed.
Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, said Democrats need the power to raise taxes in order to close the state’s $2.6 billion budget deficit.
Democratic lawmakers plan to increase taxes and cut spending, but they don’t have enough members to get a two-thirds vote in either the Senate or House.
Hargrove, D-Hoquiam, said he doesn’t take tax increases lightly, but “this is a crisis.”
“This is a very, very difficult session,” he said. “We need a little flexibility to get it done.”
A public hearing on I-960’s suspension has been scheduled Saturday morning before the House Finance Committee.
The changes to I-960 must clear the House and be signed into law by Gov. Chris Gregoire before lawmakers can move ahead with tax-raising votes.
Gregoire is expected to approve the Legislature’s plan.
Minority House Republicans see the bill as “one of the most critical of the entire session,” said Rep. Gary Alexander, R-Olympia, a ranking minority member on the House Ways and Means Committee.
Republicans don’t have the votes to stop the bill — but they plan to spend a lot of time on the floor explaining to the public how the bill “robs them of their rights,” Alexander said.
“We are going to be talking loud and long about what’s wrong with the passage of this bill,” he said.
The Senate vote Wednesday night was the second attempt to amend the initiative, approved by voters in 2007, and came a day after majority Democrats said they accidentally voted on the wrong version of the bill.
In addition to requiring two-thirds of the Legislature to approve any tax increase, a significant hurdle compared to the simple majority approval needed for other bills, I-960 included other tax reforms as well.
Lawmakers can amend initiatives with a simple majority vote after they’ve been on the books for two years, making this the first legislative session that Democrats can suspend I-960.
The Senate endorsed suspension of I-960 until July 2011, when the next two-year budget cycle begins.
Republicans argued that suspending I-960 was disrespectful to “the people” legislators represent.
“Last night, Democrats went after your wallet; tonight, they robbed you of your voice,” said Sen. Janéa Holmquist, R-Moses Lake, during debate on Wednesday.
Democrats had to scramble to fix their Tuesday vote, which only removed the two-thirds vote requirement, but accidently left in several other provisions, including a requirement for a public advisory vote on tax increases that are deemed an emergency by lawmakers and extensive public notices about legislative bills.
Republicans weren’t happy with the bill when it just removed the two-thirds requirement and debated why removal of the other provisions, including the nonbinding public advisory vote, was necessary.
Four Republican amendments were rejected Wednesday, including one that would have restored the requirement for e-mail notifications to be sent to the public on tax measures and another to restore the advisory vote requirement.
“If we don’t allow this voter-approved method of forced transparency to go on, then we will not only be thwarting the will of the people, we will be putting a dimmer on public activism,” said Sen. Pam Roach, R-Auburn.
Hargrove said he was certain voters were well aware of all that was taking place in Olympia, and if not, “I’m quite sure that every single one of your campaign pieces will tell them what we’ve done.”
Half of the Senate is up for re-election in November.
Hargrove next faces voters in 2012.
Eyman, the conservative activist who sponsored I-960, said that the goal of the initiative is to make sure lawmakers are following the law and keeping people informed of what they are doing, and notification provisions were important to keep the spotlight on lawmakers.
“With transparency, you get less sneaky stuff being done,” he said.
