On Monday, the Washington state Senate rolled out its plan for governing itself.  The reason this is newsworthy is the role that two moderate Democrats are playing in the reorganization.  Senators Rodney Tom and Tim Sheldon are two fiscally conservative Democrats who have been at odds with their Senate Democratic colleagues on spending and tax issues for a couple of years.  Both have been preaching fiscal discipline inside and outside of their caucus.  They had been largely ignored until the early spring of this year when they and Sen. Jim Kastama, (now retired, broke ranks and sided with Senate Republicans on a supplemental operating budget.

After the recent election that kept a Democratic majority in the Senate by a 26-23 margin, Sens. Tom and Sheldon made rumblings about governing differently.  Customarily, the majority party runs the show in terms of chairing legislative committees, determining which bills are voted on by the whole body and other arcane rules of running a legislative body.

But in this case, Tom and Sheldon teamed up with the Senate Republicans to form a “Senate Majority Coalition Caucus”, http://www.senaterepublicans.wa.gov/news/2012/joint/121012MCC.htm that puts the two Democrats in the top positions in the Senate (Majority Leader for Sen. Tom, Senate President Pro-Tem for Sheldon) and shakes up the committee structure to give several key chairmanships to Senate Republicans.  Six committees are to be chaired by Democrats and three will be co-chaired by a Democrat and a Republican.  See this link for the breakdown:

http://www.senaterepublicans.wa.gov/mcc/Coalition%20Committees.pdf

This of course has riled Senate Democrats who were assuming they’d be in charge of running the Senate.  And it is a major departure from how the legislature is traditionally run.  But maybe it is time for change like this to occur, even if it shakes things up.

For business interests, this is a very welcome development.  For too long, businesses have been at the mercy of lawmakers who have little business knowledge and are philosophically prone against business.  Business groups have been warning for years that the state was spending too much, not saving enough and regulating too often.  There was no “backstop” to stop ill-advised legislation.

With chairmanships of key committees going to Republicans, there is at least a hope that business won’t be over regulated, that budgets will be sustainable and that higher education will stop the budgetary hemorrhaging.

The budget and tax committee, Ways and Means, will be chaired by Sen. Andy Hill, the K-12 and Early Learning Committee will be headed by Sen. Steve Litzow and the Health Care Committee will be guided by Sen. Randi Becker.

All three of these folks are reasonable and intelligent.  They are committed to doing a good job and will keep business interests in mind when legislating.

The House of Representatives remains firmly in the control of Democrats with Rep. Frank Chopp as Speaker.

The House Democrats announced their committee structure for the 2013 legislative session:  http://housedemocrats.wa.gov/news/house-committees-chairs-approved/#more-5200.  Most committees remain chaired by those from last year.  The House Ways and Means Committee has been broken up into a spending/budget committee, Appropriations, chaired by Rep. Ross Hunter and a revenue/tax committee, Finance, chaired by Rep. Reuven Carlyle.

So, stay tuned to this column as the legislature deliberates beginning Monday, January 14, 2013.  Regular legislative updates will be posted.  There is sure to be as much drama in Olympia next session as on any “reality” show.