Senate’s two-thirds rule for taxes isn’t helpful
Senate Republicans’ vote to require a two-thirds supermajority vote for passage of tax increases gave us pause last week as the Washington Legislature opened its new session.
The foremost challenge in the 105-day session is to fully fund K-12 public schools, which could end the unconstitutional practice of using local voter-approved levies to subsidize teacher pay and benefits.
There is a marked lack of unanimity about how much is needed, let alone how to pay for it.
By putting the two-thirds-vote roadblock in place, the 25 members of the Senate Majority Coalition Caucus could well gum up legislative action and thwart the majority’s will later in the year — that is, if their action on the two-thirds rule is even legal.
Two years ago, Brad Owen, then the Democratic lieutenant governor and Senate’s presiding officer, gave an opinion on another of the Senate majority’s two-thirds-for-taxes rules, calling the maneuver unconstitutional. Owen said a two-thirds vote threshold for tax increases was contrary to past state Supreme Court’s rulings.
He also noted there is a constitutional right of the majority to pass ordinary legislation, and said the two-thirds rule could keep a bill from the floor.
Newly sworn in Lt. Gov. Cyrus Habib, a Democrat and skilled lawyer, might very well throw out the rule again. He should. But Habib says he won’t prejudge the issue and wants to follow precedent, giving the rival Senate caucuses continuity and predictability.
Habib says his “ultimate goal is that the Senate is functional” and that “the majority can move an agenda.” That sounds a lot like what Owen said.
With that in mind, one interpretation of the Senate’s action is that the Majority Coalition Caucus was showboating. Another is that it hoped to draw a line in the sand for the purpose of negotiating with the Democrat-led House and governor on an eventual budget and school-funding deal.
Certainly, Gov. Jay Inslee threw down a marker in the other direction. The Democrat laid out a budget proposal in December that would increase state taxes by a net $4.4 billion over two years. Most of that would go to pay the state’s legally appropriate share of teacher salaries, for which Inslee’s budget would provide some $2.9 billion.
Inslee’s plan also reduces the local levy collections now earmarked for schools and avoids slashing the social safety net.
It is clear to us that an increase in state spending for K-12 staff salaries is a necessary step. That is because local school levies have been subsidizing the payments for salaries, which the Supreme Court has judged unconstitutional. In effect, the system creates unequal funding district to district.
Reducing levies and replacing them with state dollars can hardly be done without either deep cuts to existing programs or raising taxes.
The Republican majority is slender — 25 members in the majority and 24 in the Senate Democratic caucus. The Republican bloc includes Sen. Tim Sheldon of Potlatch, who votes with the GOP but calls himself a Democrat. One defector could give Democrats more voice on the budget.
But any budget agreement will require bipartisan cooperation. Lawmakers can better serve themselves and the public by keeping options open rather than putting up roadblocks.
This story was originally published January 18, 2017 at 9:51 PM with the headline "Senate’s two-thirds rule for taxes isn’t helpful."