Levy failures don't sway GOP senators who are blocking attempts to change supermajority rule
Thursday, February 5, 2004 8:10 AM PST
By M. L. Madison
Printable version
E-mail this articleA school levy in Longview and others across Washington state failed by just a few percentage points Tuesday, but local legislators remain divided along party lines about whether supermajority requirements should be changed.
The Democrat-controlled state House of Representatives passed legislation last month that would allow school levies to pass with a simple majority vote, rather than the 60 percent that's required now. Democrats said Wednesday they hoped some in the Republican-controlled Senate "would change their minds," but GOP lawmakers said that wasn't likely.
The legislation must be passed by the Senate and then submitted to voters for approval, because it would require a change in the state's Constitution.
Longview's levy, which received a 57 percent "yes" vote, failed for the first time in 30 years. Several other levies in Eastern Washington and Lewis County received more than 55 percent of the vote and also failed, according to news reports.
"I hope it changes some peoples' minds," said Sen. Mark Doumit, D-Cathlamet, of the levy defeats. "I'm always hopeful, but there's still the discussion (in the Senate) of a 'this bill for that bill' kind of thing. ... People aren't comfortable trading one thing they don't like for one that they do like."
Doumit, who sponsored simple majority legislation when he was in the House, said he believed that "57 percent of the vote is a substantial majority."
"I think that if the majority of the voters think that (levy) is what it takes to run a school, we should honor that," he said.
Sen. Joe Zarelli, R-Ridgefield, said he was willing to negotiate, but wasn't comfortable with the idea of a simple majority vote.
"In Longview, traditionally, they've been blessed with those businesses that carry a lot of that property tax burden," he said. "As those jobs are lost and businesses are gone, it hits the homeowners harder."
In the House, Democrats pointed to the failed levies as evidence that a simply majority ought to be in place.
"You make lemonade out of lemons here, and maybe it will cause some of the senators to rethink some of their votes," said Rep. Brian Hatfield, D-Raymond. "The bottom line is, we have to have the schools. If you don't pass (the levy), you start picking and choosing things to eliminate."
Rep. Brian Blake, D-Aberdeen, said the Longview vote "reinforces the fact that we need to give citizens the choice" of changing the supermajority to a simple majority vote.
"I think that 50 percent plus one, in our day and age, is an adequate hurdle. ... If we are able to get that on the ballot, I will be voting yes," Blake said.
But Rep. Ed Orcutt, R-Kalama, said he was concerned that approving a simple majority might open the floodgates for other levy districts.
"If we offer a simple majority for levies for schools, are we going to have to offer it for everybody else?" he asked.
He said the Longview levy failure "doesn't change my mind" about simple majorities, which he voted against last month.
Orcutt supported it last year, but said he changed his mind because he "hadn't taken into account that a levy could be an increase" in taxation.
"If levies were not increases, if they were replacement levies, 50 percent is something I think might be reasonable," he said.
Rep. Tom Mielke, R-Battle Ground, voted against the simple majority bill last month, but could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
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