Legislative Commentary

At the beginning of this session I and other leaders of our Senate majority announced our intention to complete the Legislature’s work for the year on time and on budget. Keep reading to find out how we’re still on that track. Because last week was so focused on the budget – and as Senate Republican leader in addition to being a member of the budget committee, I was knee-deep in it – there wasn’t as much time to see visitors from back home.

Also, I was glad to welcome folks from the Tri-Cities who came Thursday for the Senate’s observance of the National Day of the Cowboy; it coincided with the annual Washington Cattlemens’ Association barbecue.

Speaking of home, I headed to Adams County and the farm late Friday – probably for the final time until the Legislature adjourns. For those of us who live so far from the Capitol, it helps that the days are getting noticeably longer. Spring is just three weeks away!

Session calendar says: less than two weeks to go

The deadlines that help keep a legislative session moving are coming up quickly. Friday our Senate policy committees had to wrap up their work on bills sent to us by the House of Representatives.

Monday was the final day for the Senate’s two budget committees to act on House legislation. The full Senate then has four days, through the end of the week, to vote on House bills. If all goes according to plan, the session will conclude less than a week later, on March 13.

Senate budget bodes well for Washington – and ending session on time

I was half of the Senate budget-negotiating team in 2011 and 2012. That first year the then-majority budget leader invited us to the table, but in 2012 we were on the outside looking in. That didn’t sit well with many senators who had appreciated the bipartisanship of the previous year, and it helped lead to the March 2012 formation of the Senate’s first bipartisan coalition – the forerunner to Friday’s Senate Majority Coalition Caucus.

Last year our budget-committee leaders, now in the majority, invited their minority-Democrat counterparts to help develop the new two-year budget. The result was a Senate budget that passed with a 30-18 vote, and a final budget that won support from more than 92 percent of the senators voting.

We did the same this year, asking the Senate minority’s budget negotiators to join ours at the table from day one. The result of this cooperation was a lopsided 41-8 vote in favor of the budget they helped produce.

As I explained in last week’s newsletter, what the Senate approved Thursday is not a brand-new budget but a supplemental budget. It is only meant to make adjustments to the two-year operating budget adopted in 2013. These are in response to expenses that can’t be predicted, changes in caseloads and any cost associated with policy bills passed by the Senate already this session.

Also, this is the Senate’s supplemental budget proposal; the House came out with its version Wednesday. Once the House passes a budget, the two chambers will negotiate a final agreement. In other words, there are still a couple steps to go before there is a final budget.

While we wait for a final proposal from the House, we can compare the Senate’s supplemental budget to Governor Inslee’s corresponding proposal. The difference in support for education really stands out: approximately 78 percent of new spending in the Senate budget would go toward education, compared to 17 percent of the spending in the Inslee budget.

Also, Inslee wanted $252 million in new spending, mostly due to proposed policy changes, which would mushroom to a $746 million increase by 2015-17 and put the state budget out of balance by more than $400 million. In that sense, Inslee’s approach is illegal – because the balanced-budget requirement adopted in 2012 now requires the budget to balance not only against the anticipated revenue for the current budget cycle but the following budget cycle.

Our Senate budget, meanwhile, would bump spending upward by less than half of what the governor wants. The overall budget would remain in balance, and we’d finish out this two-year cycle with close to $400 million left in reserve.The focus on education makes it good for students and families; because it doesn’t require tax increases to balance, it is good for families and employers. 


I’m especially pleased that the Senate approach would freeze tuition for a second straight year. That’s huge, because all the work we’re doing to provide for basic education means more if we can keep tuition costs stable for the students who want to further their educations after high school. Also, during the budget debate day we shot down an amendment that would effectively undo the balanced-budget requirement.

The Legislature arrived in Olympia last month without a budget shortfall over its head, which confirms that our Senate majority has our state on the right track by keeping spending within the available revenue. With less than two weeks left in the 2014 session, the stage is set to finish the people’s work on time.