OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) - Senate Democrats said Thursday they will try to force a vote on a bill related to local school levies unless the Senate Republicans, who have temporarily lost their numerical majority, work with them.
Democratic Sen. Marko Liias, minority floor leader, announced Thursday that Democrats would take to the floor Friday with all 24 of their members. The Senate Republican majority, which includes a Democrat who caucuses with them, is currently down to 24 members because one of their senators resigned this week to take a job with President Donald Trump’s administration.
Another Republican senator has also accepted a temporary position with Trump and is currently in Washington, D.C., leaving Republicans with only 23 members available to vote this week.
While Democrats just need a majority of those present to move something to the floor Friday, they still need at least 25 votes to pass it, which means that unless they convince a Republican to break with their caucus, they won’t succeed. Under Senate rules, the lieutenant governor, who is a Democrat and presiding officer of the Senate, can only have the deciding vote when the Senate is equally divided on “questions other than the final passage of a bill.” However, former Lt. Gov. Brad Owen had previously cast a tie breaking vote on final passage of a bill, citing one section of the state constitution, saying that it supersedes the chamber rules. Current Lt. Gov. Cyrus Habib has not yet made a ruling on how he would operate in case of a 24-24 tie in the chamber.
Friday is listed as a “pro forma” day, which means that technically, no votes are scheduled. Republican Sen. Joe Fain, the floor leader, is usually charged with determining whether that changes. Liias said that he announced Democrats’ intention a day early as a courtesy to the Republicans, in hopes that they could come to an agreement.
“It is not our first choice to circumvent the rules and procedures as Sen. Fain would like them to be,” he said. “We want to work with the majority to avoid all that.”
At issue is a bill that delays a deadline for a reduction in the amount of money school districts can collect through local property tax levies. The measure passed the Democratic House on a 62-35 vote Monday.
School districts had faced a reduction in the amount they could collect through local levies starting next year, but House Bill 1059 pushes that deadline off until 2019.
One of the issues the Legislature is dealing with this year is resolving the reliance on local levies to pay for teacher and school staff salaries. Lawmakers are working to comply with a 2012 state Supreme Court ruling that they must fully fund the state’s basic education system. Lawmakers have already put more than $2 billion toward the issue since the ruling, but the biggest piece remaining of the court order is figuring out how much the state must provide for teacher salaries. School districts currently pay a big chunk of those salaries with the local property-tax levies.
Some Republicans argue that the final plan the Legislature ultimately approves will negate the need for the measure. But Democrats note that Republicans have yet to put forth a plan. Fain has said that plan will be made available within the next week.
Fain rejected the idea that they are currently in a tie in the chamber, noting that a Republican replacement will be selected soon for the seat of former Sen. Brian Dansel, who resigned Tuesday to take a job as special assistant to the U.S. secretary of agriculture.
“If the case is that we are truly in a tie, which we dispute, how does one caucus have more power over another caucus?” Fain asked Liias.
Liias noted that currently, Democrats outnumber Senate Republicans because Republican Sen. Doug Ericksen, who has accepted a temporary position with the Environmental Protection Agency, was in Washington, D.C. Ericksen was named communications director for Trump’s transition team at EPA, but has said he doesn’t plan to resign his seat in the state Senate, and instead will fly back and forth to the state as needed during the state’s 105-day legislative session.
“At this present time, the Senate Democrats are in the majority, functionally,” Liias said.
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