“Ghost” Bill Part II: The Execution

Calling Drs. Venkman, Stanz, and Spengler. Expertise in paranormal phenomena is needed in Olympia, Wash. to contain Senate Bill 6853 – the “ghost” bill – that is still working its way through the legislative process despite having no material form.

SB 6853 was introduced Tuesday as a title-only bill pertaining to the investigation of tax preferences, placed on the Ways and Means agenda for the afternoon, and by early evening had cleared committee without so much as a verb, noun, or other defining language added to indicate what its sponsors intended to do to the state’s tax system.

Anyone coming in after the initial 45 seconds of the Senate Ways and Means’ hearing on SB 6853 would also miss the committee’s vote waiving the rule requiring that bills be made public for at least five days prior to any executive action. After a single witness – Association of Washington Business representative Amber Carter – gave a cover-all-the-bases statement for the record, the bill of potentially limitless effect was passed out of committee during the executive session.

The Politburo did not work so efficiently as did Sen. Rockefeller’s committee. Jason Mercier, the Washington Policy Center’s government reforms director, assembled a real-time video album of the young life of SB 6853. Even if you’re on a tight schedule, the entire process of how a Washington state bill reaches the Senate floor can be viewed in less than a few minutes. In the implication that the public is again being kicked out of the room when their representatives craft laws that will affect them, Mercier’s clips should be sent for consideration to SyFy’s Ghost Hunters.

Perhaps SB 6853 will become to this legislative session what the Flying Dutchman is to nautical myth, a ghostly vessel doomed to sail forever and never come home. Methinks we shan’t be so lucky. Shutting down public comment on a bill is a pittance compared to the cavalier manner in which the state Senate cast aside the will of the people by voting to “suspend” Initiative 960’s requirement for a two-thirds vote by the legisalture to increase taxes. In fact, Senate lawmakers were so excited to trample on the voters that in their haste they voted to pass the wrong version of their amending legislation.

There’s no cause for panic, however. Their error was noted and will almost certainly be corrected forthwith.

Democrats let loose “ghost” tax bill in Olympia

While Tea Parties and concerned citizens focus their energies on changing the dysfunctional legislative process that is the status quo in the other Washington, lawmakers in Olympia are ignoring widespread voter demands for transparency into the sausage mill of lawmaking. The State Senate is entertaining discussion about a bill – Senate Bill 6853 – that could have dramatic effects on state residents and business owners. What effects, you ask? Therein’s the rub, as the bill lacks all of the detailed language that would ordinarily be required to begin deliberation over its contents.

As reported Tuesday morning by the Washington Policy Center blog, SB 6853 was introduced with only a header naming the bill’s sponsors (an all-Democrat squad), the required statement of purpose – “creating the legislative review of tax preferences act of 2010” – and no enacting language.

“This bill may make major changes in the tax code, and could result in a significant increase in the tax burden state lawmakers place on citizens, so it would be nice to know what the bill actually says,” WPC vice president Paul Guppy writes. “[I]t is hard … to make a fair assessment of a major bill when the public has no idea what it says, or how it may affect our lives.”

The bill was also scheduled onto the Senate Ways and Means committee calendar for Tuesday’s 1:30 p.m. meeting at which time it could be moved quickly to a Senate vote bypassing the body’s own five-day sunshine rule. It also lacks a fiscal note containing dollars and cents associated with enactment.

TVW is scheduled to webcast the Ways and Means Committee meeting LIVE.