This little slide show attempts to describe what just happened in OIympia, and what might happen next!

1. Created by Rep Deb Eddy * 4 March 2012
What just happened in the Senate?
In the Senate, there are 27
Democrats and 22 Republicans.
There are 5+ moderate
Democrats who have been
calling for actions that will
* balance the budget responsibly,
with the fewest “tricks”, and
* begin to move the future cost-
curve down,
so that the 2013 legislature will
not start its work with another
billion dollar shortfall.
On Friday night, on the 53rd day
of the 60-day session, with no
serious reforms yet passed,
those Democrats took action to
move the Republican budget to
the floor.
27 22
LEFT RIGHT

2. Why did they DO that?
In the view of many observers, House Senate
the House and Senate Democratic Democratic
DEMOCRATIC budgets both tilt Budget Budget
too far to the left, using
accounting tricks and
assumptions, a bit of political
favoritism … at the expense of
core priorities like education.
While course corrections for
future sustainability have been
proposed, there’s been little to
no movement on those
measures.
If the Senate adopted the
proposed Democratic budget,
then the starting point for
negotiations is far to the left …
and there’s no commitment to
the reform actions needed!
This is not sustainable
… and it’s tilting in the
wrong direction!

3. After Friday, the R budget is in play.
Wearying of the waiting, and
fearful that delay, Sens.
Kastama, Tom and Sheldon
joined with the Republicans on
the Senate floor to bring the
Senate Republican budget to a
vote.
sing a procedure known as the
Ninth Order (no “trickery”, just
parliamentary procedure), they
by-passed the Democratic-
controlled committee process
and brought the question to the
entire body.
So, on Friday night, 25 senators
voted to move the Republican
budget forward. The other 24
senators, all Democrats,
vehemently objected.
25 Aye
Senate
24 Nay Republican
Budget
LEFT RIGHT

4. So now what?
Okay, now … here’s where it
gets interesting. House
Senate
Based on Friday night’s action, Republican Democratic
the negotiation process should Budget Budget
now begin between House W&M
Chair Ross Hunter and Senate
W&M Chair Ed Murray AND
Ranking Member Joe Zarelli.
The beginning point of
negotiation is now slightly RIGHT
of center, as opposed to the
slightly LEFT of center opener
created by using the House and
Senate Democratic budgets.
This is the most responsible way
to proceed.
Okay, that’s
better. Let’s
get to work!

5. Usual Fix: “Buy” 2 Votes Back.
But, of course, this is politics. So
the Democratic leadership of the
House and Senate, together with
the Governor, will try to shift the
balance of power back in their
favor.
Past practice has been to
capture votes by promising either
policy bills or budget “adds”.
Given the ridicule that has been
heaped on Sens. Kastama, Tom
and Sheldon, it won’t be easy to
recapture their vote, but Chopp
and Brown will try.
If that doesn’t work, then the next
step will be to try to pick up a
renegade Republican or two …
And if that doesn’t work, then
maybe we’ll get down to work
and deliver a bipartisan budget.
24 25
LEFT RIGHT

6. The Best Policy Outcome
Of course, the best policy
outcome would be for the (2) Agreeing on closure of some
negotiations to move to the tax exemptions to fund critically
middle, based on a House needed services that cannot be
DEMOCRATIC budget and a sustained on existing revenue.
Senate REPUBLICAN budget,
leaving open the possibility of This would involve compromise,
of course, collaboration by the
(1) Passing some significant less-ideological among us. We’d
fiscal reforms that begin to bend save some things that
the future cost curve down, and Republicans don’t want to save,
……. we’d reform some services that
Democrats don’t want to reform
25 in the … but the result would be a
better budget and a better future
middle!
for Washington.
If this little slideshow helped you
understand what’s going on,
recommend it to a friend …
Rep. Deb Eddy
deb@debeddy.net
Follow me on Twitter!
LEFT RIGHT