Washington’s budget breaks down in Olympia in wake of governor signing it

Washington’s capitol erupted with controversy Wednesday morning as budget talks broke down, leaving legislators in an ongoing heated battle, despite previous notions that all was good in Olympia.

“It’s disappointing. We could have brought the entire legislative session to a close last night if people would have stuck by their word and kept their agreement,” Republican Senator Michael Baumgartner told KIRO Radio’s Dave Ross and Colleen O’Brien on KIRO Radio’s Seattle’s Morning News.

Listen: Everett Herald political reporter explains what happened in Olympia

“We do have a budget; it now has a $2 billion hole in it,” he said. “It is an illegal budget. The state will run out of money and the state now has a big problem that will probably take at least a month to resolve.

“It’s very shameful behavior this morning by the Senate Democrats,” Baumgartner added.

But Senate Democrat Jamie Pedersen of Seattle has a different perspective. First, the budget is done, not illegal. It just doesn’t “balance.”

“There is a budget. There isn’t a shutdown. The budget is done,” Pedersen said.

He said that, unlike previous years in the Senate when both parties worked on the budget, Republicans took a different approach and did the budget themselves this time.

“They decided that they were going to negotiate with the House Democrats and not the Senate Democrats,” Pedersen said.

The main issue of contention centers on the voter-approved Initiative 1351, which involves class sizes in Washington. The Senate was set to vote on House Bill 2266, which would suspend the initiative as it is not currently funded for in the budget.

Baumgartner explained that there was an agreement between the two parties to suspend the initiative. Not suspending the initiative adds another $2 billion to the budget. To do that, the Senate needed a 2/3 vote; both parties would have to come together. Baumgartner said many on the floor were surprised when some Democrats didn’t follow through Wednesday morning.

“Senate Republicans can’t do that on their own. We all voted to suspend it last night, per the agreement,” Baumgartner said. “Half the Senate Democrats kept their word, the other half decided to play politics. There was a huge fight among the Senate Democrats on the floor…and the whole thing broke up.”

Republican Senator from Redmond Andy Hill shares that outlook. He argued on the floor that the budget was passed, with Democratic approval, with the idea that the initiative would be suspended.

“People here that speak against this voted for the budget,” he said on the Senate floor Wednesday. “When you vote for the budget, you are voting for the whole thing, to make it work.”

“And to pull the carpet out at this point and to put our budget at risk, I think it’s just not the way we do things around here. It is not the way we do things in the Senate,” Hill said.

“P.S. If we do this, we are done,” Hill added before ending his speech on the Senate floor.

But Pedersen maintains that there was no previous agreement between the parties.

“No one had approached our caucus with a question about how many votes we could bring or any question on what it would take to get them over the 2/3 requirement,” Pedersen said.

When the bill came to the floor, the votes weren’t there, according to the Democratic senator, who voted against the suspension.

Other senators such as David Frockt (D-Seattle) and Cyrus Habib (D-Bellevue) backed Pedersen up on the Senate floor Wednesday morning and voted ‘no’ on the bill, arguing that the people’s will should be honored and stressed the value of small class sizes.

“They brought the bill to the floor and I think they tried to call our bluff, and assuming that there would be nine or more votes in favor of suspending the initiative,” Pedersen said, noting that six Senate Democrats do support suspending the initiative, short of the nine the Republicans needed.

“It’s mystifying to me that Senate Republicans would assume, without any negotiations or counting of votes, that at the last minute they would get nine Democrats to agree to vote to suspend this initiative for four years,” he said. “It’s just not responsible governance.”

But all Senate Democrats don’t agree with how things went down. Sen. Jim Hargrove (D-Hoquium) is one Democrat who stands apart from Pedersen. He said on the Senate floor that he was instructed to bring the Senate’s concerns to the House to vote on. The suspension passed in the House.

Hargrove said that Initiative 1351 has never been on the Senate’s list of priorities to fund throughout budget discussions. He argued that stalling over the initiative would place safety net funding at risk.

“It was in every budget,” he said of suspending the initiative. “It wasn’t something hidden from anybody…So now we have 1351 &#8212 every single budget that came out had that line in it. Every single proposal the House came out with, which I was told go to work with the House, support the House position, don’t undermine the House position as I was negotiating.”

“So I feel very strongly that if we don’t pass this bill, this session, we will end up playing Russian roulette with the social safety net next session,” Hargrove said. “Because there is not going to be $2 billion in new taxes unless there is an awful lot of 502 product passed out on the Senate floor and a lot of potato chips to go with it.”

Baumgartner said that he hopes Governor Jay Inslee can help solve the problem and talk with his own party.

“Hopefully, we’ll get some leadership out of our governor on this issue, and we’ll be able to get home,” Baumgartner said. “I have to drive Snoqualmie Pass once a week during this nonsense and, frankly, I’m tired of it and the state deserves better than what happened last night.”

On the other side of the aisle, Pedersen said that completing the budget is largely in the hands of the Republicans.

“The Republicans are in control … and they control the Senate. They control what bills come to floor and they control the entire agenda. They run the show,” he said. “The fact that we haven’t completed work on a transportation revenue package &#8212 that’s the Republicans to own. The fact that we haven’t completed the capital budget and the bonds associated with that, that’s the Republicans’ decision.

“Both of those things would have passed, by the way, if they had been brought up,” Pedersen said. “But they didn’t because they instead chose to jam us on suspending Initiative 1351.”

The Senate has adjourned until noon on Friday, according to the Associated Press.