OLYMPIA — Do-it-yourself legislation and a Twittering constituency helped send the 2015 legislative session into triple overtime, Sen. Jim Hargrove says.
Voters last November passed an initiative to limit public school class sizes, but this fall they might approve a measure to cut the state sales tax by 1 percent (and revenue by an estimated $1 billion) or a constitutional amendment requiring legislators to muster two-thirds majorities to raise taxes.
The Republican-controlled state Senate already adopted such a supermajority rule for its current session, dooming Democrat-dominated House proposals to raise new revenues.
The push-me, pull-you predicament was familiar, with initiatives producing unforeseen results as social media polarized politics, Hargrove said, as they had two years ago.
“This is the second biennium of divided government,” the veteran state lawmaker said.
Legislators almost shut down state government this summer by maintaining partisan positions until they barely met a June 30 deadline to pass a budget.
That reprised their last-minute performance two years ago, when they still failed to pass a capital outlay.
Partisan positions were hardened, Hargrove said, by 140-character position papers on Twitter and by Facebook entries that afforded none of the nuances that U.S. mail brochures and newspapers can offer.
“Frequently, they’re very simplistic looks at complicated situations that go out through those kinds of sources,” he said, noting that electronic social media and partisan-polarized radio talk shows have marked the biggest changes to his 30-year political career.
Hargrove, who lives near Hoquiam, and state Reps. Steve Tharinger and Kevin Van De Wege, both of Sequim, represent the 24th District that encompasses all of Clallam and Jefferson counties and much of Grays Harbor County.
All are Democrats.
Despite his party affiliation, Hargrove seldom assails Republicans
“A lot of what causes the disagreements — I guess that is a nice, safe word to use — is that they just don’t get the other side’s priorities,” he told Peninsula Daily News last week, saying he was weary from another all-night negotiating session.
“It seems like the past two months I’ve spent most of my time trying to explain one side to the other.
“Both sides are suspicious that the other side wants to shut down government, but I’m convinced that each side wants to get the best deal they can.”
The biennial budget draws a hard line between Republicans and Democrats, Hargrove said.
“I think that the budget still tends to be the philosophical stamp of each party.” Hargrove said, “so they start out with exactly what they want their philosophical stamp to be.
“Neither side starts out looking for compromise.”
They’d probably still be feuding if economic forecasters hadn’t predicted the state will collect an originally unforeseen $400 million in taxes, he said, and if closing some tax loopholes hadn’t added an additional $200 million.
And even after two full 30-day special sessions, legislators had yet to approve bonds to back their transportation and capital budgets, he said.
Thus, another 30-day term.
What’s needed, according to Hargrove, is an agreement to agree on common positions in a main spending plan, then agree to disagree over separate, supplemental appropriations.
“It may sound easier than it actually works,” he admitted.
Moreover, while they met the voters’ requirement to reduce class sizes, they hadn’t yet freed schools from their dependence on local tax levies, as they’ve been ordered to do by the state Supreme Court.
“They [justices] asked for that, and I don’t think we really gave them a plan,” Hargrove said.
Legislators have until the close of the third special session, set for the end of July, to avoid sanctions for contempt of the court’s order in the McCleary decision.
Hargrove, however, said he was pleased that the Legislature had cut college tuition, restored cuts to Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), appropriated money for appropriate care for mentally ill offenders, and “made a historic investment in quality early learning” by funding all-day kindergarten.
“If kids succeed in school,” Hargrove said, repeating a favorite theme, “they’re less likely to have criminal-justice issues.”
Asked what his constituents could do to avoid future government lockups, he recommended they be wary of what initiatives they approve.
Often, he said, proponents of successful initiatives later tell legislators they’d never intended to wreak the results of their ballot measures, saying, “‘We really didn’t mean that. Our intent was this.’”
While it’s messy, the legislative process that sends bills across the floors of both chambers and finally under the governor’s scrutiny produces sound laws, he said.
Meanwhile, proposed initiatives for the November ballot include measures to repeal all sales taxes, fuel taxes, real estate excise taxes, the Business and Occupation Tax, and the state use tax; to cut property taxes by 25 percent; and to cut annual vehicle licenses to $30 per tag.
Mixed among them are initiatives requiring law enforcement officers to wear body cameras while on duty, to tax judges’ salaries based on the number of grievances against them, and to prohibit traffic-ticketing cameras.
One initiative even would double the current 10 months in which petitioners must gather sufficient signatures to put measures on the ballot.
For this year’s crop, the time ran out July 2. Now the secretary of state must verify their signatures.
They’ll include Kent resident Larry “Johnny” Walker’s initiative to legalize brothels “in the outskirts of the county’s [sic] in towns with less than 20,000 people . . . so we end up with Nevada-type brothels in Washington state.”
Hargrove urged voters to understand the possible consequences of each initiative.
“If you are in doubt,” he said, “vote no.”
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Reporter James Casey can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jcasey@peninsuladailynews.com.