By Sharon Nelson
When the Legislature adjourned on time without a special session for the first time in four years, I know I joined many others in breathing a satisfying sigh of relief.
In 60 days, the Legislature passed more than 300 bills. Major legislation funds improvements in mental and behavioral health care, reduces gun violence, protects net neutrality, closes the gender gap in equal pay, prevents oil spills, increases access to the ballot box. And that’s just for starters.
What’s more, those bills all passed with bipartisan support.
When Democrats took control of the House and Senate this year, we sought out collaborative and productive working relationships with the Republican minorities — and bipartisanship flourished. In fact, just seven bills that passed the Senate — approximately 2 percent — were along party lines.
Just look at the journey of the $4.3 billion capital construction budget. A frustrating remnant from 2017, the budget fell hostage to then-majority Republicans who kept it from coming to a vote in an attempt to resolve a contentious water rights ruling.
By the time we arrived in Olympia in January, the refusal to pass a capital budget had led to layoffs and project delays across the state. But in just the first two weeks of the new session, Senate Democrats forged a bipartisan agreement and, in return, Republicans provided votes to help us create thousands of jobs and projects.
This was just the beginning. Senate Democrats had spent years perfecting common sense measures in the minority, hoping to one day see these good ideas become law.
In 2018, having won back the majority in a special election last fall, we came prepared to move our state forward.
It was a needed change from 2017, when the session dragged well into summer and a government shutdown loomed, prompting fear among state workers and angering campers who had Fourth of July reservations at our parks.
At the time, Republicans, who controlled the Senate, argued for a state property tax increase, while Democrats preferred options like closing tax loopholes or creating a capital gains tax on the stock sales of the wealthiest 1 percent of Washingtonians.
If you’ve seen this year’s property tax bill, you know how that story ended. Unwilling to shut down the government, Democrats relented to avert economic chaos and let Republicans pass the biggest state property tax increase in history.
This year, when Democrats found a way to both comply with our education obligations and provide $400 million in property tax relief, I really hoped we had found a compromise that would win the support of my Republican colleagues. Instead, rhetoric heightened and, in the end, we passed the first general tax cut in recent memory even though all Republicans voted against reducing the tax burden on working families.
I value the members from both parties with whom we’ve worked closely for the better part of a decade to improve school funding. I’m disappointed, however that Republicans locked up against our education bill this year and we couldn’t complete the final piece of the McCleary challenge together.
That frustration aside, I’m proud that Democrats were able to make the 2018 session one of hope, opportunity, prosperity and bipartisanship.
We made a historic commitment to our schools and property tax relief next year. We finished our work on time with a balanced budget that leaves $2.4 billion in reserves, giving our state the largest insurance policy in state history against an unpredictable economy.
When we return for 105 days next year, Democrats will again offer bipartisan solutions that put people first.
We’ll leave the gridlock to the other Washington.
Sen. Sharon Nelson, D-Maury Island, is the Senate Majority Leader.
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