Legislative committees vote to sue Gov. Inslee

Two bi-partisan committees in the Washington state Legislature have voted to sue Governor Jay Inslee.

Committee leadership says Inslee’s veto of six single-sentence provisions in the state’s transportation budget was illegal.

Republican Senator Mark Schoelser says it’s a huge overstep that sets a dangerous precedent.

“They can veto sections and I think it’s a good check and balances in our system, but getting down to sentences, we believe, is clearly unconstitutional,” Schoelser said.

“The legislative process is undermined when the executive branch decides on its own to ignore the constitution and legal precedent,” said Senate Republican Caucus Chair Randi Becker, R-Olympia. “These constitutional provisions exist to protect the integrity of the process. As legislators, we have a responsibility to check and balance the governor’s misstep.”

The Legislature has only sued a sitting governor twice before — Gov. Mike Lowry in 1997 and Gov. Gary Locke in 1999 — also over line-item vetoes.

Inslee issued the following statement on Thursday:

“We don’t believe this issue has been addressed by the courts and we understand the Legislature’s desire to settle the question about important institutional powers.

“The language was vetoed because it indirectly amends an existing statute through the transportation budget. Our Constitution does not allow laws to be changed indirectly. The language would have prevented the Washington State Department of Transportation from considering clean fuels as a factor in the grant selection process of nearly $190 million in multimodal grant funding, contradicting that statute’s mandate to consider ‘energy efficiency issues’ in the grant selection process.

“This is a respectful difference of opinion, and we look forward to forthcoming guidance from our courts.”

This is a developing story. Check back later for KIRO Radio reporter Hanna Scott’s updates.