Senate flubs I-960 vote; do-over tomorrow?

posted 08:06 PM 02/09
Permanent Link.

You read that correctly. Sen. Margarita Prentice, the Democrats’ budget chair in the Senate, says her colleagues voted to approve the wrong version of a bill suspending Initiative 960 today. Spokesmen for Senate Democrats are blaming a "miscommunication" between lawmakers and staff.

As if Republicans didn’t already have enough fun accusing Democrats of “gutting” the so-called Taxpayer Protection Act. Now Democrats say they didn’t mean to merely suspend the two-thirds vote requirement for tax hikes.

They really meant to suspend the entire initiative -- including advisory votes in November on any tax hikes approved in the Legislature and also the publication of all tax votes and pro-tax lawmakers’ names.

Here is the statement Prentice put out tonight as she fired up the Senate Ways and Means Committee for evening action:

A Senate Democratic Caucus spokesman said the hope is a bill with a broad title can move from Ways and Means tonight to Rules, where Democrats can pull it to a vote on the floor as soon as Wednesday. If Republicans won’t allow an expedited vote, the Democrats would vote on Thursday.

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UPDATED: Senate votes to suspend I-960's tax-vote limit

posted 07:54 PM 02/09

A divided state Senate voted today to suspend the two-thirds-vote requirement of Initiative 960 for tax increases until July 2011. This moves the Democrat-controlled Legislature another step closer to raising taxes with a simple, 50-percent majority vote.

UPDATE: GOP readies for floor fight on I-960

posted 12:28 PM 02/09

Minority Republicans know the Senate Democrats have plenty of votes to rework the two-thirds vote requirement for tax increases that was part of Initaitive 960. So they are bringing a light touch to this morning's pending vote.

Gregoire considers tax on toxics, oil

posted 05:35 PM 02/08

Gov. Chris Gregoire said today she doesn’t believe industry warnings that a tax increase on toxic substances such as oil must lead to a boost in gas prices.

Gregoire wants clarifications on K-12 funding ruling

posted 02:59 PM 02/08

More than 30 House lawmakers have signed a letter circulated by Rep. Ross Hunter, asking that Gov. Chris Gregoire and Attorney General Rob McKenna not appeal last week’s King County court ruling on school funding.

State revenue collections up a bit

posted 12:56 PM 02/08

That’s what Gov. Chris Gregoire said today in a meeting with reporters — collections were up 3.6 percent in December compared to the previous year, and higher than the 2 percent expected.

Gregoire wants looser cash flow to small banks

posted 12:31 PM 02/08

Gov. Chris Gregoire said today she has corresponded with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and asked for federal help in making it easier for local or community banks to obtain money for loans. But she did not seek help for any specific failing state banks.

How South Sound lawmakers voted this week

posted 05:33 PM 02/05

Here is the third roll-call vote report for South Sound lawmakers, courtesy of WashingtonVotes.org. It was released today [Friday] and includes lawmakers from the 22nd, 20th, 35th, 2nd and 28th legislative districts (it doesn't have results from today's floor action):

Lewis County Democrats pick Heck in 3rd

posted 09:32 AM 02/05

Lewis County Democrats have informally endorsed Denny Heck in the 3rd Congressional District race, the first such vote by a county party in the district representing southwest Washington.

Evergreen students, some faculty to protest cuts

posted 07:10 PM 02/04

Students and faculty members from about five classrooms at The Evergreen State College plan to walk out of class Friday morning in protest of pending state budget cuts.