I was in the state House of Representatives and not school from mid-January to late June, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t learn a few things during the interminable legislative sessions that altogether lasted longer than most college semesters.
Here’s my personal list of the Top 10 lessons from the 2013 Legislature, offered with brutal honesty by yours truly, a progressive House Democrat. Apologies in advance for any egos bruised.
1) The Senate’s Majority Coalition Caucus (MCC) held it together and ended up meeting their core interests:
- No new taxes (they actually went down, overall, with the expiration of the business and occupation tax surcharges);
- $1 billion for basic education;
- A bipartisan 2013-15 budget in the end (passed with 125 total votes in House and Senate, the most in recent history)
2) House Democrats fended off some of the worst policies ever introduced in the Washington Legislature. Proposed by the MCC, they included:
- Further cuts in benefits to seriously injured workers;
- A lower minimum wage;
- To flunk more 3rd- graders (template legislation from the conservative, corporation-bankrolled American Legislative Exchange Council);
- To put letter grades on schools (also ALEC template legislation);
- To suppress local bargaining rights of teachers despite six years without COLAs;
- Lesser health-care benefits for part-time state employees; and
- Expansion of harmful payday lending that preys upon those living paycheck to paycheck.
3) The Tea Party fringe of the Senate forced the Senate moderates to act more right-wing than their districts’ voters:
- They shut down reproductive parity that would ensure comprehensive health care for women in the new health-care exchange plans;
- They shut down the DREAM Act to that would have provided all Washington high school graduates (including immigrants) an equal shot at college financial aid;
- They rejected reasonable tax-loophole closures; and
- They stopped a $10 billion investment in our transportation infrastructure because they didn’t want drivers to pay $5 more per month on average for gas.
4) The House never really recovered from the seven caucusing Democrats who voted for the original April 5 Senate budget. The MCC claimed bipartisanship for months following that vote. That Senate budget added tax loopholes, included many egregious fund transfers and invested only $1 billion in new K-12 dollars (the House was aiming for $1.4 billion).
It turns out, that is almost exactly the budget we ultimately passed, but without so many gimmicks thanks to a favorable June revenue forecast and a better array of investments inside the K-12 and human services sections of the budget.
The House negotiators made the budget rational in the end, but the major elements (good and bad) were nearly cast in stone when seven Democrats (not including MCC charter members Rodney Tom and Tim Sheldon) voted for the original Senate budget all the way back on April 5.
5) Gov. Jay Inslee was rock solid on values and it made all the difference in striking a balance. Having served in the Tea Party Congress, Gov. Inslee knew the tactics, attitudes and degree of brinksmanship that the Senate MCC would bring to the budget negotiations.
The governor was willing to wait them out because panicking early would have meant adopting damaging long-term policy tradeoffs. It was entertaining that the far right was critical of him for not being more like his predecessor, Gov. Gregoire, in cutting deals earlier (even a recent poll shows that not cutting the quick deal hurt his image among voters).
Gov. Gregoire never dealt with the kind of conservatism brought forth by the MCC. Inslee played it just right in the end and the best possible deal was struck given how solidly the MCC held together their one-vote Senate majority. The governor put his values and reputation on the line to get the best deal possible.
The media won’t give him credit, because they evaluate success only by calendar days in session and not long-term impacts. Gov. Inslee was steadfast and resolute when prior governors would undoubtedly have cut a harmful deal to win more favor with the public and the state’s business elite.
6) Transparency took a step backwards. Members of the House and Senate voted on a toxic-pollution cleanup bill on June 13 that wasn’t publicly available until after the votes.
As it turns out, the bill had flaws and a second bill was needed to correct them — flaws that would have been identified in advance had more experts and the public had thorough time to review the legislation. And let’s not forget that the final budget was adopted just hours after the documents were available online.
A July 1 deadline was looming and most of the major elements had been aired in prior budget versions, but let’s be clear, last-minute deals make for quick votes but often negative long-term impacts.
7) Drama wins headlines. In the face of complicated budget and policy tradeoffs, an inappropriate amount of press was dedicated to the Columbia River Crossing saga, including the personal war between two senators whose language and antics were worthy of an HBO original alliteration series: “Clark County Conservatives Could Care Less about Cooperation.”
8) The Legislative Building’s common areas were roasting by June! While the House and Senate chambers were comfy, the marble floors, occupied daily by lobbyists, advocates and the public, were almost unbearable.
To get done earlier, perhaps that comfy equation should have been reversed. Fear not, lobbyists: I did see a capital budget item for some HVAC improvements to the Legislative Building.
9) TV news is almost finally obsolete in delivering information that actually matters regarding state government. The print media, blogs and one-sided on-line publications actually covered the complexity of the session with depth and understanding, including the potential July 1 shutdown of state government had no budget agreement been reached by then.
But TV news — just days before July 1 — was airing 60-second summaries of legislative events, and only after the first commercial break and long after the Paula Deen and Aaron Hernandez scandals had been covered at great length.
I don’t know what news is any more, but apparently the rise and fall of a tabloid-friendly chef outranks the impact of greater (or lesser) investments in schools, colleges, roads and public safety.
10) Both sides learned that we are in a new era of politics. Democrats know that rational budget negotiations in the face of those who sign anti-tax pledges and actively seek to discriminate against gay and lesbian couples probably require a new approach (or at least a starting position that is more progressive).
And the Republicans learned that one chamber led by conservative ideology can’t run over the other and a Democrat in the Governor’s Mansion at the same time (one, maybe, but both? Not likely). To avoid future ballot outrage, both sides will have to drop their visions of absolute victory much sooner in the process.
11) Yes, a bonus No. 11. The state Supreme Court ruling in February that set aside the requirement for a two-thirds legislative approval for taxes played a huge role in the session, and nobody in the media really talked about it.
The return to a simple-majority vote to raise taxes and close tax preferences/loopholes allowed the House Democrats to put their values in the lap of the MCC. The MCC could not hide behind Tim Eyman’s ballot initiatives that had sought to impose the unconstitutional two-thirds rule: The MCC had to defend their anti-tax positions on pure merit.
The voters now see both caucuses’ and all members’ votes on tax increases, tax cuts and loophole closures. Under the two-thirds requirement, none of those votes would have been taken in the Legislature – they would have been futile — and none of that information would have been revealed.
The voters win because the republic is functioning again!