Republican house leader Rep. Richard DeBolt

This morning's Fizz about freshman state Rep. Laurie Jinkins' (D-27, Tacoma) bill to repeal a bank tax break on first mortgages and redirect that $83 million (plus $60 million from her tandem provision to end the out-of-state-shopper sales tax break) toward K-3 class size reductions, noted that the Democrats were out to embarrass the GOP with the vote: putting the Republicans on record as being for banks and against kids.

The house Republicans, who have criticized the budget for cutting education funding, addressed the political trap head-on.  A visibly piqued Rep. Charles Ross' (R-14, Naches)  said he was voting "no" on the legislation "not because I don't love the children of this state, but because I cannot support a new tax," echoing the Republicans thematic objection of "living within our means" rather than defending the bank exemption itself.

The Jinkins bill, introduced by a coalition of progressive freshman, was also mocked by Rep. Bill Hinkle (R-13, Cle Elum), who said, "if our freshman did a class project, it wouldn't be raising taxes."

Hinkle, struck down by the speaker Frank Chopp for questioning other members' motives, said that the legislation was an attempt to "[dig] deep into other people's pockets." [pullquote]Unfortunately the debate tonight was more about making a political statement and less about prioritizing education needs.—Rep. Richard DeBolt[/pullquote]

But quips aside, the GOP was clearly angry about the Democrats' assertion that the GOP was hating on kids. Rep. Jinkins certainly provoked them.  "This bill means something for kids," Rep. Jinkins began as she introduced the bill. And she continued:

If you care about high school dropouts, then you care about those early years If you care about the achievement gap, then you care about those early years. If you care about giving every child ...  a great education ... a better life than you had... then you care about those early years. I care. .. We've said that we care on both sides of this aisle over and over again this year. This is one of those rare chances in a year of horrible budgets where we can do something positive for young children. I'm frustrated that it's going to take 66 votes to help our kids, but I'm asking for the vote of every single person in this body... Wall Street banks don't give us anything in return [for the tax break] not lower mortgage rates, not easier mortgages, nothing. We can do something with that money. We can save the jobs of 1300 teachers in this state. We can make a difference for tens of thousands of children.

After the 52-42 party line vote (it needed a two-thirds majority, so it failed), Republican house leader Richard DeBolt (R-20, Chehalis) sent out an emphatic statement trying to short-circuit the Democrats' maneuver:

The political theater we experienced tonight with House Bill 2078, which would increase taxes on home mortgages, sums up why lawmakers are still stuck in Olympia on the eve of the 30th day of the special session. Debating legislation to increase taxes on home mortgages and claiming it would solve our state’s shortfall in education funding is disingenuous. If the majority party was truly serious about funding education they would have made it a priority in the $32 billion budget that passed today without driving up the cost of housing on first-time home buyers.

“Unfortunately the debate tonight was more about making a political statement and less about prioritizing education needs. The operating budget passed out of the House earlier today, without clear priorities. Increasing taxes to make up for those bad budget choices breaks faith with the voters who were clear in their directive last fall - balance the budget without increasing taxes.”