I have wanted to write a legislative update for some time. It has been difficult to find my bearings lately. Things are strange and overwhelming. Judging from all the traffic I’ve seen on Facebook, others are struggling to make sense of things too.
There is the situation in Washington D.C. It is amazing to watch the new administration unfold. This is the most extreme attack on government institutions we have ever seen. Not least among those institutions is the Department of Education. The Trump administration is attempting to kill the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, and with it the Department of Education. In addition, they are contemplating legislation to force states to adopt voucher programs if they are to receive federal aid. The big picture, it is easy to see an overall agenda that follows the traditional Republican wish list: Lower taxes on the wealthy, reduce regulations on industry and increase military spending. These policies have long been the hallmark of Republicanism. They are also demonstrably ineffective.
I recently read a Heritage Foundation white paper on the benefits of reducing taxes on the wealthy along with regulations on industry. They talked about the ideology – give money to the job creators, and so forth. And then, they cited actual instances in which these policies had been implemented. Their first citation was the economic boom that resulted from reduced taxes and regulations in the 1920’s. Yeah. That went great all the way up to 1929.
All the while, xenophobia, dalliances with the Russians and sniping at the press have become mainstays on the front page.
The net result is a national stage in which hyper-partisanship is the rule. We are truly party before country these days.
While these issues are captivating, it is important to notice that a bunch of rich guys have taken over the country, and are implementing policies based solely on their getting richer. That is the true agenda. They aren’t satisfied with owning most everything. They want everything. They want all of your money.
Here in Washington State, we should do better. We are under a court order to provide ample funding for public education. We already have the most regressive tax system in the country, so to fund McCleary, it is necessary to look toward more progressive tax structures. Plus, it just makes sense. You should tax where the money is. Surely, we can agree on that.
Well. Perhaps not.
Governor Inslee has put together a really good plan to provide new funding for education through a series of progressive taxes that don’t touch the middle class.
House Democrats have put together a funding package which, while better than times past, doesn’t go far enough toward McCleary.
The Senate budget strips bargaining rights from our union, expands charter schools, takes over our health care. Here is a nice side-by-side comparison. LINK
But, it is the tone of the debate that I have found most noteworthy. Every vote about education and funding in both chambers has followed strict party lines.
In the Senate, there is a 25-24 Democratic majority. But, Tim Sheldon (D?) has crossed the isle to caucus with the Republicans so that he can be President Pro Tempore, which gives him a giant office. He likes his office, I hear. So make that 25-24 R. I was in Olympia earlier this month, when the Senate was contemplating a bill to extend the levy cliff (link), Doug Ericksen (R Whatcom County) was busy in Washington DC as a member of the Trump team charged with helping to dismantle the EPA, making the floor count 24-24 if a vote were to go on strict party lines. By rule Lieutenant Governor Cyrus Habib (D) would break any ties, so Republicans didn’t want to vote until they could get a majority. They blocked the vote until, toward the end of the day, a member of the democratic caucus (Mark Mullet (D) from Issaquah) left to attend his son’s birthday party. As soon as he left the floor, the Republicans held a 24-23 majority on the floor, so they rushed the levy cliff bill to the floor for a vote, where it failed.
The next day, Ericksen’s flight was canceled, so they went into recess until Ericksen could get back from DC, giving the Republicans the majority. As soon as Ericksen made it back, the Republicans brought their “Education” bill to the floor for a vote, which passed, 25-24.
And so it goes.
To date, all significant pro-education bills have passed the House with a party-line 50-48 vote.
All pro-education bills have failed in the Senate by a party-line vote. All the bad bills have passed by the same margin.
Except the levy cliff. In the House, there was a reasoned debate, and a subsequent vote that ended the levy cliff until replacement revenues could be found. In the Senate, no such luck. Education lobbyists have tried to help the Senate understand that the levy cliff needs to be averted now, to avoid pink slips being sent to educators.
The Senate response is varied from “We’ll get to it,” to “We need to levy cliff to help us be motivated to pass a budget.” The latter claim is a nice way of saying the levy cliff might be useful as a bargaining chip to extract other concessions from the Democrats. Seattle’s budget is complex enough that they have to plan further in advance than most districts. Their pink slips will go out if the levy cliff isn’t solved by Feb 28th. (That deadline will pass before this article is posted.) Locally, the deadline for pink slips will vary by District. We can expect to see the first of them mid-March.
I have never seen the Republicans so confident in their power. In personal conversations, there has been no interest in give and take. I was told by one the Governor had not put a budget forward, because it had no revenue attached. When I pointed out where the revenue was, his response was there was no revenue attached because they wouldn’t vote for it.
For now, the Democrats seem to be holding ranks. The Republicans are awaiting their concessions.
I suspect that, if there is a deal to be done, it will be one that reduces or eliminates bargaining rights in exchange for funding. This is not acceptable, but it seems to be what the signals portend. My belief is also that this budget doesn’t get done on time. It doesn’t get done in overtime. It gets done after a government shutdown. And, under that stress, it gets done badly. And, badly done, it will be time for the court to weigh in with stronger sanctions and more forceful directives. My guess is, this will wind up being a constitutional crisis.
Like the rest of the nation, we are caught up in a party first attitude. Party before nation. Party before state. So long as we are stuck in this mentality, nothing will get done.
This is a stupid way to govern.