Sneaky shell game not a good look for Washington state legislators. In 2020, they should stop playing
Washingtonians have high expectations for honest packaging and truthful labeling. They expect it of food in their pantries, prescriptions in their medicine cabinets and gifts under their Christmas trees.
They also expect to see it in the work conducted by their state government. It’s no accident that Washington has one of the strongest public-disclosure laws in the nation, adopted by voters in 1972.
The public expects the legislative process to operate in the open according to bedrock principles of no-surprises, no-deception. Washington citizens and their elected representatives may not like every bill signed into law, but at least they always have a chance to be heard during public comment, committee hearings and floor debate.
That’s what we were taught in civics class, anyway.
It turns out some loopholes remain deeply embedded in the system. One of them is known as the “title-only” bill — an instrument of subterfuge, disingenuous packaging and backroom deal-making that veteran politicians in Olympia know how to exploit.
We encourage the 2020 Legislature to pass a law banning title-only bills — or at a minimum, to add guardrails so this tactic isn’t abused in the closing days of a legislative session.
A title-only bill is an empty shell introduced to the Legislature with brief, vague wording — for example, “an act related to tax revenue.” Leaders sometimes wait until the 11th hour to fill in the details, then advance the bill to a final vote with little or no public input. Rank-and-file legislators don’t always have time to read and understand it.
No gift receipt, no 30-day return policy. The public is stuck with it, like the last white-elephant gift unwrapped at a holiday party.
In recent years title-only legislation has sometimes been wielded as a blunt instrument. In 2015, Pierce County lawmakers used it to force Ruston city officials to the bargaining table with Tacoma over the Point Ruston retail-housing development. In 2013, legislators used it in a last-minute effort to eliminate traditional payday loans.
An exceptionally bad case happened this year, when a title-only bill was used as a trojan horse for a tax increase that surfaced at the end of the legislative session. It nearly doubles the amount of B&O tax paid by large, out-of-state financial institutions.
If done right, a tax hike on big banks might be a reasonable way to help balance the state’s two-year, $52.4 billion budget. But Democratic leaders rushed this one to the governor’s desk in less than 48 hours. That wasn’t enough time for legislators to debate it, the public to respond to it and Department of Revenue experts to do their customary analysis of it.
No wonder the Washington Bankers Association and the American Bankers Association filed suit in November, alleging the tax violates the state Constitution and the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution.
The title-only temptation is hard to resist for whichever party holds majority power. During the last two years in Olympia, Democrats have been in control. Not surprisingly, Republicans are now proposing Senate Bill 6042, which would prohibit title-only bills.
“It goes back to rebuilding public trust,” Sen. Hans Zeiger told our Editorial Board Monday. He noted that trust is at a low point right now because of the ongoing fight over public transportation funding, $30 car tabs and Initiative 976.
Zeiger and Sen. Steve O’Ban are co-sponsors of SB 6042. Both are Pierce County Republicans.
But title-only bills are a concern that should supersede party loyalties. Brian Sonntag, the Pierce County Democrat and longtime state auditor (1993-2013), tried to stop the practice as part of his career-long quest for government accountability.
By ending this shell game, state leaders can show they’re committed to accountability, transparency and a good-faith public process — and that they won’t make exceptions while trying to beat the clock down the stretch.