OLYMPIA -- Two Republican senators are suggesting an "end-around" to the state Supreme Court ruling that says a constitutional amendment is needed to require tax increase be approved by two-thirds majorities.

Sens. Mike Baumgartner of Spokane and Doug Ericksen of Ferndale want majority Republicans to change the procedural rules of the Senate to require a two-thirds vote to bring any bill with a tax increase to the floor for a final vote. That would cover bills with new taxes or fees, raises in existing taxes, and reductions or elimination in tax exemptions, sometimes known as loopholes -- unless they had a referendum clause that was sending them to the ballot for voter approval. (Note: An earlier version of this post said fee increases also would need a super majority but Baumgartner said they' could pass with a simple majority.)

Voters have approved initiatives requiring super-majorities to raise taxes, but the state Supreme Court said such a change requires an amendment to the state constitution. Such amendments can't be passed solely by voters, and must start in the Legislature with super majorities in both chambers.

“What the Supreme Court took away, the Legislature can return – and it’s about time we did it," Baumgartner said in a press release announcing the proposal. "The Supreme Court can make its rulings in its chamber. The Senate makes its own rules in ours.”

Without getting too deep into the parliamentary weeds, the changes involve steps before a final vote. Technically a bill should receive three "readings" before coming to a final vote. But full bills are never read completely. A clerk starts on the text and before he or she needs to take a breath the presiding officer usually calls "last line", meaning the reader skips to the final line of the legislation, whether  it's at the bottom of that page or 1,000 pages later. 

The second reading is usually skipped in a procedure called a "suspension of the rules" that allows the bill to jump forward for a final vote. Baumgartner and Ericksen want to change that rule to require a two-thirds vote to  move a bill forward for the final vote. They also want to change another bill requiring that super majority when the Senate agrees to a bill that comes over from the House for final passage after being batted back and forth for changes.

Whether the proposal will fly is unclear at this point. The rules are usually carried over from one year to the next and approved as one of the first actions on the first day of the session. That vote is usually non-controversial, and often unanimous. But the rules only need a simple majority, and Republicans hold a majority in the chamber, so if they all agree, with a simple majority they could force a super majority for tax votes onto the chamber. But that decision won't be  made until they meet in caucus on Monday before the session starts. 

If they agree to the change, it would mean that 17 senators could stop any tax increase or exemption reduction.

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