It seemed as though state lawmakers had rounded third base and were heading for home plate, but in the wee hours of the morning on Wednesday, July 1, things in the Washington State Legislature began to fall apart.
Narrowly avoiding a partial government shutdown, Governor Jay Inslee signed a $38.2 billion two-year state operating budget just before midnight on Tuesday, June 30. While the budget included teacher pay increases, more money for mental health services and pay increases for state workers, there were numerous other details that needed finalization, including an additional 16-year transportation investment package and a bill to suspend Initiative 1351, which mandates smaller K-12 class size.
House Bill 2266 to suspend I-1351 was a crucial part of the budget negotiations. The bill suspends the citizens' initiative, passed in 2014, for a period of four years. The decision to suspend was made after initial cost estimates indicated the initiative carried a $2 billion price tag.
It was agreed in both the House and the Senate that legislators would vote to pass the four-year suspension.
"That was the agreement. Not eliminating it, but just suspending it,GÇ¥ said 39th District Representative Elizabeth Scott (R-Monroe). "Because we don't have the money for it.GÇ¥
Additionally, the transportation package, known as Senate Bill 5987, still needed to complete the legislative process. Separate from the actual transportation budget, the transportation package includes an 11.9 cent gas tax increase over the next two years, imposes a vehicle weight fee, a studded tire fee and more. Meant to fund transportation projects across the state, the bill also establishes criteria to aid in the prioritization of certain projects.
Problematic to House Republicans was that when the transportation package passed through the Senate on June 29, it contained an emergency clause. Per the Washington State Constitution, when an emergency clause is added to a bill, it ensures that the measure can become effective immediately after it's signed by the governor.
The clause also ensures that the bill cannot be subject to referendum, which gives voters the opportunity to either repeal or accept the law. This means that neither citizens nor the legislature can attempt to revisit the tax-hike via a vote of the people.
House Republicans attempted to pass an amendment to remove the emergency clause and replace it with a referendum clause, which would have placed the tax hike on the ballot in November, but the amendment failed. Debate then ensued over how to record the amendment vote.
Several Republicans in the House spoke out passionately against the transportation package, specifically protesting the addition of the emergency clause that negates the opportunity for citizens or the legislature to initiate a referendum. They urged House Speaker Frank Chopp and the other members of the House to vote the bill down.
They also protested passing such a measure in the dead of night.
"Our people have no idea that when they wake up, they are going to be saddled with the biggest gas tax in our history,GÇ¥ said 18th District Representative Liz Pike. "We used to do it better, Mr. Speaker.GÇ¥
Scott addressed the speaker at 1:20 a.m., speaking out against the transportation package.
"People are saying this is a regressive tax, that's going to hurt the poorest the most,GÇ¥ Scott said. "We are kidding ourselves if we think that this isn't an additional burden on people and that it won't drive up poverty and throw more people out of work.GÇ¥
She urged Speaker Chopp to put the vote down, but the transportation package bill passed 54 to 44. It was discouraging, said Scott, but she was glad that she spoke up.
"I was sitting there thinking, "If I don't stand up and speak, tomorrow I'll wish I had,'GÇ¥ Scott said.
The passage of SB 5987 means that the price of gas will climb 7 cents per gallon as of August 1, and will increase another 4.9 cents as of July 1, 2016.
After the middle-of-the-night brouhaha over the transportation package, the situation worsened. At approximately 3:30 a.m. when members of the House became concerned about the fact that no bills had come over from the Senate chamber for a period of time, they sent a bipartisan envoy to find out the cause of the delay.
The next day, 13th District Representative Matt Manweller posted the following allegation on his Facebook page:
"Due to a combination of immaturity, too much alcohol, and a lack of respect for the process and keeping your word, the Senate Democrats went back on their word and blew up all three budgets GÇô operating, capital, and transportation,GÇ¥ Manweller wrote.
Manweller clarified that he never saw alcohol on the Senate floor. But he told MyNorthwest.com editor Stephanie Klein that he had concerns about the conduct of the Senate Democrats and concerns about their refusal to suspend I-1351.
Prior to Gov. Inslee signing the operating budget, House Democrats, House Republicans, Senate Democrats and Senate Republicans all agreed to suspend I-1351 via HB 2266. The House passed the bill on June 29 with a 72 to 26 vote, but when it came time for the Senate to vote on the bill, it failed, 27 to 17.
In order to pass, the bill needed a two-thirds majority in both the Senate and the House per state law regarding the suspension of citizens' initiatives.
"That blows a $2-$6 billion hole in the budget that the Governor just signed,GÇ¥ Scott said. "Which means that we're not done and we've got to find between two and six billion dollars. Plus we've got to bring back the capital budget and find more money for that.GÇ¥
This is because in order to implement I-1351, money needs to be dedicated to not only hiring new teachers to facilitate the smaller class size, but also to accommodate the expanded infrastructure. It's not that the legislature doesn't support smaller class sizes, Scott explained. The legislature has been in the process of reducing class size for kids in kindergarten through the third grade, which is fully funded as of the 2015 GÇô 2017 budget.
"We've already funded K through third lowering the class sizes,GÇ¥ Scott said. "We started that four years ago and we did it in thirds.GÇ¥
The legislature chose to focus on K GÇô 3 because that is when it is known to have the most impact. She said that once students get beyond the third grade, the impact of having a smaller class size isn't as definitive.
"The studies are inconclusive about whether it really makes a difference to have smaller class size,GÇ¥ Scott said. "There's other things that make more of a difference, like a quality teacher for example.GÇ¥
A teacher by trade, Scott has a master's degree in teaching English as a foreign language. She taught ESL courses for 10 years both in the United States and overseas.
Legislators will head back down to Olympia this week to try and achieve the finalization of the bills necessary to implement the budget. While frustrated with the way things ended last week, Scott is happy about the session's successes. She was able to pass HB 1422, which will help small business owners across the state, and she was instrumental in the passage of SB 5887, which will create new jobs in Skagit County.
She worked to keep "gun-grabber billsGÇ¥ at bay, and has continued to advocate for property rights. She made progress on repealing common core testing standards and will dive right back into that issue at the start of the 2016 session.
"Overall I feel good about our wins but it is frustrating to have things still up in the air on the Fourth of July,GÇ¥ Scott said last week.
For more information on SB 5897, please visit: http://app.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/summary.aspx?bill=5987&year=2015. For more information on HB 2266, please visit: http://apps.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/summary.aspx?bill=2266&year=2015.
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