OLYMPIA -- With no votes to spare, the Senate mustered the super-majority needed to suspend parts of Initiative 1351 and require smaller classes only for kindergarten through grade three.

The bill needed 33 yes votes, and passed 33-11, but only after Sen. Don Benton, R-Vancouver, switched his vote from no to yes.

Last Wednesday, the Senate locked up over the bill, which is tied to the 2015-17 operating budget. Republicans said it was part of the agreement to get a budget signed before a partial government shutdown occurred. Democrats said doing something about I-1351 was part of the agreement, but they never signed off on a four-year delay.

Today some Democrats who had voted no last week voted yes. Senate Minority Leader Sharon Nelson, D-Maury Island, switched from a week ago, but only after saying the state will eventually need to find new money and "I'm hoping when we come back in 2016, that will be part of the discussion."

Sen. Mike  Baumgartner, R-Spokane, said the vote wasn't just about smaller class sizes, but "on how the Senate works" with compromises and co-operation that goes with governing." He said he's voted for bills in the past that he didn't agree with, such as Medicaid expansion, because it was part of a negotiated agreement.

All five Spokane-area senators -- Republicans Baumgartner, Brian Dansel, Mike Padden and Mark Schoesler and Democrat Andy Billig -- voted yes on the bill.

It then approved, on a 39-5 vote, a two-year delay on a requirement for high school seniors to pass a biology assessment test to get their diplomas. Billig, Dansel and Schoesler voted yes; Baumgartner and Padden voted no.

They then moved quickly to approve $2.3 billion in bonds for projects in the capital budget approved last month, the last piece of significant legislation remaining on its schedule. Some members will return Friday for the formal adjournment of the Legislature after the House votes on the assessment test bill and two bills connected to the 11.9 cent increase in the gas tax.

 

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