Fed up Dems cry foul over WA Gov. Inslee’s startling veto. Good for them | Editorial
Gov. Jay Inslee’s power is in his pen, and this week he wielded it in such a way that even members of his own party are upset with him.
Several Democrats say they are going to take the governor to court for overstepping his authority, believing he illegally vetoed a portion of legislation linking carbon-reducing bills to the future passage of a transportation package.
They are right to pursue this.
Inslee has been accused of abusing his veto power in the past, and legislators can’t let his latest questionable act go unchecked.
Lawmakers say the cap-and-trade and low carbon fuel standard bills made it to Inslee’s desk only because their implementation hinged on the condition that a major roads and infrastructure bill be approved at a later time.
Inslee, anxious to get going on his environmental agenda, severed the negotiated “Grand Bargain” by removing the proviso on transportation legislation, saying at a recent news conference that the state “needs to have action this day” on the “mortal threat” of climate change.
Inslee called the connection to the transportation bill a “poison pill” that could delay the carbon-reducing plans until the “12th of never.”
He likened it to the Legislature designing the sleekest, fastest sports car, then putting it in the basement of a garage, throwing a tarp over it and saying, “You can’t drive it until you get around to it.”
While many people may agree with Inslee’s reasoning, the complaint against him is that he didn’t have the authority to do what he did — and that’s an important claim that needs settling.
Senate Majority Leader Andy Billig, D-Spokane, said in a statement that: “This veto is an overstep of executive power. The governor has attempted to create a power for his office that simply does not exist. The constitution is clear that the governor is permitted only to veto a full section of a bill. In this case he has vetoed a subsection.”
He added that Inslee’s veto undermines “the legislative compromises that allowed these bills to reach the governor’s desk in the first place. A key part of the legislative process is the negotiation and compromise that allow us to arrive at a version of a policy that can earn the votes to pass the Legislature … I am concerned that undoing good faith negotiations will severely hurt our ability to reach agreement on important policies in the future.”
And that’s the crux of our concern too.
It could be very tough for the Legislature to agree on controversial bills in the future if lawmakers can’t be sure the governor won’t undo their negotiations. That’s not how the checks and balance system is supposed to work in our state.
Back in 1974, Washington state citizens approved a constitutional amendment that put a limit on the governor’s veto authority in an attempt to rid the state of “one-man lawmaking.”
One of the arguments in the 1974 Voters Guide stated that, “Representative government is designed to have decisions based on the majority, not by one man.”
Another argument in the guide said that limiting the governor’s veto power “prevents one person from changing behind closed doors … bills which are the product of an open hearings process, accessible and visible to all citizens.”
Lawmakers took Inslee to court in 2019 for vetoing specific sentences in the transportation budget and a Thurston County Superior Court judge ruled in the Legislature’s favor. As it happens, the case is supposed to be heard by the state Supreme Court next month.
The timing couldn’t be better.
Inslee has called this latest controversy a “healthy disagreement” between the legislative and executive branches of government.
Sorry Governor, but this goes beyond a disagreement. This is a power struggle that will determine how much authority you really have and how the Legislature will negotiate bills in the future.
It’s going to take the third branch of the government — the courts — to decide whether you went too far with your veto pen. Lawmakers are wise to push for a legal answer.