Peninsula Daily News news sources

OLYMPIA — The House of Representatives became a house divided Tuesday night as opposition Republicans attempted to delay a suspension of tax-limiting Initiative 960.

Debate continued past 11 p.m., but the Democrat-controlled House defeated the attempted delay by a 52-46 vote at 11:20 p.m.

That defeat paves the way for the chamber to vote today on suspending I-960, which would hand the Democratic majority in both houses the ability to raise taxes with a simple majority vote rather than the two-thirds majority that the initiative, passed by voters statewide in 2007, requires.

The state Senate has already suspended I-960, and with the expected House approval, the measure goes to Gov. Chris Gregoire.

Gregoire has already expressed support for suspending the initiative and is expected to sign the bill.

The North Olympic Peninsula’s two state representatives, Kevin Van De Wege, D-Sequim, and Lynn Kessler, D-Hoquiam, the House majority leader, are expected to vote yes to suspend I-960.

The Peninsula’s state senator, Jim Hargrove, voted with the majority last week to suspend the initiative until 2011.

Making full use of their limited power Tuesday night, the GOP minority unsuccessfully asked to postpone action on suspending I-960, a move that allowed each legislator up to 10 minutes of speech time.

The House currently has 61 Democrats and 37 Republicans.

“This bill completely guts taxpayer protection in this state,” said Rep. Jaime Herrera, R-Camas. “I think there is no greater thing we can do than to respect the will of the people.”

Majority Democrats said they needed to make Legislative decision-making easier to patch a budget deficit now pegged at $2.8 billion.

Democratic lawmakers plan to increase taxes and cut spending to balance the deficit, but they don’t have enough members to get a two-thirds vote in either the Senate or House.

“I believe that my voters want me to have a balanced view of how I look at our budget and our responsibilities here,” said Rep. Ross Hunter, D-Medina.

Lawmakers can amend initiatives with a simple majority vote after they’ve been on the books for two years, making this the first legislative session that Democrats can suspend I-960.

But critics of the plan said it would be a mistake to raise taxes while Washingtonians try to recover from the worst recession in decades.

“The bill before us would raise taxes during one of the worst economic downturns of our state,” said Rep. Doug Ericksen, R-Ferndale.

As it stands, the I-960 suspension bill would still allow e-mail notifications to be sent to the public about proposed tax increases, including 10-year cost projections of the measures.

But the rest of the measure would be suspended, including a requirement for a nonbinding advisory vote by the public on taxes passed by the Legislature.

House debate on the issue today can be seen online at www.tvw.org. The legislative floor debate is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m.

________

Associated Press writer Rachel La Corte contributed to this report.