We all know what bad legislating is. I posted on that over the weekend (for all you non-stopping by RNS on the weekend types, hit that link and be offended).
On the other hand, we Washingtonians had some good legislating in the second half of last week.
It all started a few weeks back when the Washington State Supreme Court decided that Washington Voters were too stupid to know that when we voted (a 58% majority) in favor of a one-percent cap on property taxes, that we knew we were voting in favor of a one-percent cap on property taxes, and they struck the law down.
This led to a hue and cry amongst the unwashed such as myself (no postings because I was on vacation at the time). After a couple weeks of this our (Barely) Governor Gregiore remembered it was an election year and that the guy she had to use King County to beat in 2004, Dino Rossi, was going to challenge her for the seat again.
Also, her fellow Dems have been enjoying a rather wide majority in both houses of the legislature these past couple years and they wanted to do everything they could to keep it. What with receiving phone calls at all hours of the day and night to reinstate the cap, they were begging for a solution.
She quickly called for a special session of the legislature to write and pass a piece of legislation that would reinstate the 1% cap.
And verily, it was law again. With a vote of 39 yeas to 9 nays. Total time in session: 12 hours.
Voting against reinstating the cap was one of RNS’s favorite liberals, Senator Adam Kline. I’m sure you all remember Senator Kline from when he attempted to ban ATV’s even though there is no where in his very urban district that anyone can legally ride an ATV. He is also one of the leading sponsors of the failed bill to mandate gun show sales through FFL’s only. Fellow gun show hater, Jeanne Kohl-Welles, also voted against the cap.
All in all, not a bad round of legislatin’. Now if only they take that 12 hour time frame and institute it for every session in the future, I might be able to stand those bastiges.
Now if only we could get the state and federal legislatures to read the bills and stick to one law per bill all the time, we might stop having crap sneak into funding bills.