Whether in Washington, D.C., or in Olympia, Wash., they say that getting Democrats to agree on anything is like herding cats. This is an insult to cats.
We suspect achieving the near-impossible fusion of feral felines would be much easier than trying to scratch out any progress in the state Legislature. The special session is almost two weeks old and, as of press time Thursday evening, with little hope of any meaningful breakthroughs in resolving the state’s $2.8 billion budget deficit. What makes this $18,000-a-day impasse even more frustrating for taxpayers is that it’s not Democrats battling Republicans. It’s Democrats arguing with each other, the political equivalent of herding cats with a bunch of argumentative wranglers.
Senate Democrats want to raise the state sales tax by two-tenths of a cent. House Democrats and Gov. Chris Gregoire oppose a sales-tax increase, preferring instead to close tax exemptions and gouge service businesses for more money.
Here’s how this meandering of strays was described in a statement by Sen. Janéa Holmquist, R-Moses Lake: “The second week appears to only have become worse. On the ninth day of the special session, the Senate majority went into session at noon, didn’t try to pass a single bill, and then adjourned four minutes later until noon the next day.” Intransigence in the face of party strife would be one thing, but Democrats hold a 61-37 advantage in the House and outnumber Republicans 31-18 in the Senate. You’d never know it by all the special session wheel spinning, though.
We should’ve seen this coming back during the homestretch of the regular session. Seattle Times columnist Kate Riley wrote about two Democrats on March 11: “Senate budget writer Rodney Tom thinks the revenue package he helped write is a stinker and voted against it. House Majority Leader Lynn Kessler blamed (Democratic) colleagues safely ensconced in uber-liberal districts for railroading moderates into an irresponsible budget plan. Tom’s and Kessler’s candor is refreshing. They are right, but I’d be more impressed if they each had tried harder to bring their tax-loving, reform-spurning, status-quo-maintaining colleagues to heel.” In other words, the cat wranglers should’ve done a better job.
Lost in all of this intra-party conflict is the fact that, according to the Times, the current two-year budget of about $30.9 billion would still increase by about $200 million under proposals in both chambers. This has led Tom to conclude: “If you look at corporate America, they are making those tough choices. They are slashing their payrolls 10 to 30 percent.”
Meanwhile, minority Republicans are left with little recourse other than to grumble. Occasionally they crank out a few statistics: One week’s special session could pay for 47 college needs grants to the state’s community colleges, for example. As for the Democrats, we can’t remember such a solid majority bloc putting that advantage to so little good use. Yet. Maybe they’ll get the cats herded sometime soon. But even then, it likely will be without any attention at all to a concept that was abandoned weeks ago: serious reform of the delivery of state programs and services, in ways that make the system more efficient.
“I don’t know what we do,” Kessler said earlier this week. “We’re all frustrated.”
From their legislators, Washingtonians want to hear meaningful solutions. Instead, all we hear is constant, insufferable meowing.
