Tax Cuts Dancing To Political Music Will There Be A Veto? An Override? Officials Aren’t Willing To Tip Their Hand

The Democratic Senate on Tuesday sent the Republican House a $224 million cut in business and property taxes a day after the House sent the Senate a similar package.

Sounds simple, but the action is yet another scene in an increasingly tangled tax-cut melodrama playing between the two chambers, both of which have members running for governor this year.

The saga, which began Monday, the opening day of the 60-day session, is complicated by Gov. Mike Lowry’s promised veto of the Senate package, and questions about whether the Senate would vote to override.

Republican House leaders indicated earlier Tuesday they would vote to send the business and occupation tax cut, worth about $132 million, to the Democratic governor, and vowed to override any veto. But Senate leaders said they did not want to speculate on whether their chamber might muster the required two-thirds vote to follow suit.

The property tax cut faces House amendment, leaders there said. Such a vote would send the $92 million measure back to the Senate, at least delaying a Lowry veto and a decision on whether to override it.

Senate Republicans reluctantly approved the tax cut package. They preferred the House version sent Monday to the Senate, where it was shuttled off to the Budget Committee after Democrats declared it flawed by outdated language.

That package contains one huge difference from the Senate proposal: It is veto-proof. That’s because Lowry already vetoed it last year. The House overrode the action Monday with a two-thirds vote and demanded the Senate do the same.

House and Senate Republicans fear Senate Democrats really don’t want the tax cuts, but prefer to let Lowry veto them. Senate Democrats scoff at the notion, saying they sincerely want reductions in the face of a $700 million budget surplus and a strong economy.

Senate Minority Leader Dan McDonald, R-Bellevue, sought assurances from Senate budget chief Nita Rinehart, D-Seattle, a gubernatorial candidate, that if Lowry does veto, the Democrats will join Republicans in an override.

Rinehart declined, saying Lowry’s veto was “hypothetical.”

Senate Majority Leader Sid Snyder, D-Long Beach, also refused to promise an override, but told McDonald that citizens will get tax cuts before the session ends.

The Senate voted 46-3 to approve the business and occupation tax cut, and 38-9 for the property tax cut.

Voting against the B&O tax cut were Sens. Karen Fraser, D-Lacey; Dwight Pelz, D-Seattle and Dean Sutherland, D-Vancouver.

Voting against the property tax cut were Sens. Fraser; Jean Kohl, D-Seattle; John Moyer, R-Spokane; Pelz; Eugene Prince, R-Thornton; Ray Schow, R-Federal Way; Sutherland; Dan Swecker, R-Rochester; and Joseph Zarelli, R-Vancouver.

Republicans voted against the measure on grounds it offered little to property-tax payers. The average homeowner would enjoy a cut of about $20 a year under the measure.