Camden: Inslee wastes no time signing capital budget, water bill

“I’m really pleased at the really rapid progress this Legislature is making,” Inslee said.

He signed the capital budget and the bond bills in a standard ceremony in his conference room, serenaded by Senate pages who have formed a ukulele band. The song’s chorus, which lauds legislation with a chorus of “They change the world, one bill at a time” might be worth inscribing over the entrance to the Legislature, Inslee said.

The governor skipped a public signing ceremony for the water rights bill, known generally as the “Hirst fix,” after a state Supreme Court ruling. He signed that one without fanfare in his office earlier. Some of his allies in the environmental community, and many tribal leaders, have criticized it for not doing enough to protect the state’s water resources.

Unlike the capital budget bills, which had near unanimous support in both chambers of the Legislature, the vote on the Hirst fix was mixed, with some of the more liberal and conservative lawmakers voting no.

Signing it in private is just as effective, Inslee said. Asked if there were things he didn’t like about the bill, he replied that is “largely moot” because it’s now law.

It will have a positive effect on the state’s water resources, has more protections for in-stream flows and will spend some $300 million over the next 15 years to improve water supplies, he said.

Voting rights, and wrongs

Although much attention was given last week to the capital budget and the Hirst fix, the Senate also passed another of the Democrats’ Holy Grail bills — the Voting Rights Act.

It’s designed to give minority groups equal opportunity to participate in local elections in cities, counties or other government entities through such things as redistricting or dividing at-large districts into smaller sections of the electorate. If more than 5 percent of those residents speak a language other than English, it also would require those local governments to send out information in that language.

When they were in control of the Senate, Republicans blocked previous efforts. This year, they didn’t have the votes, but they did manage a parliamentary maneuver to stall it for a couple days.

Republicans failed in several efforts to amend the bill, saying it would lead to lawsuits and gerrymandering. Sen. Rebecca Salda?a, D-Seattle, and others argued it would generate fewer lawsuits.

“I think we currently have right now, over the last census, gerrymandering throughout Washington state,” she said.

That brought a rebuke from Senate Minority Leader Mark Schoesler, R-Ritzville: “I want to correct the gerrymandering comment from the relatively new member of the body. In our state, all four caucuses appoint their negotiator. It is virtually impossible for us to gerrymander our state’s boundaries legislatively.”

Schoesler is right, to a point, but the state is not completely free of gerrymandering for legislative and congressional districts. And the bill doesn’t deal with legislative or congressional districts, but local governments.

It eventually passed 29-19 with some GOP support.