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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Spin Control

WA Lege Day 31: Calling Oscar Rogers. Sen Dems bring up I-960 bill again to fix it

OLYMPIA -- Senate Democrats are due to return for an evening session to address the big "oops" moment so far this session.

They reportedly are working on a bill that will do what they said they intended to do Tuesday: Suspend all aspects of Initiative 960 through July 1, 2011. What they did, however, was suspend only the "supermajority needed for any tax increase" portion of I-960. That left in place such requirements as public advisory votes on any increase and financial statements on any bill that has a fiscal impact.

Apparently when the Democratic caucus decided to swap the bill that went through committee hearings for a "simplified" version, the staff thought simplified meant one thing and the senators thought it meant something else.

Strangely enough, the Republican senators seemed to understand exactly what they were voting on, and even commented on how the version that passed was not as bad as the version that went through the committee hearing.

At 7:50 p.m., Democrats were starting to come out of caucus...one can only hope they have a plan, and a bill...that they've read. And that they will, in the words of that great Saturday Night Live character Oscar Rogers: "Fix it. Fix. It. Fix it."



The Spokesman-Review's political team keeps a critical eye on local, state and national politics.