Add The Olympian editorial board to the list of title-only "ghost bill" detractors.
The newspaper chided Democratic leaders in the state Legislature today for their lack of transparency, noting both the title-only bill that Sen. Phil Rockefeller, D-Bainbridge Island, introduced last month, and the surprise introduction of an income tax proposal in the Senate Ways and Means Committee.
Regarding Senate Bill 6853, the newspaper wrote: "Introducing the title-only bill was reprehensible. The sponsoring senators should be ashamed of themselves for allowing their names to be used in this sham."
Regarding the income tax proposal, the paper noted that no one had seen it before the hearing on it.
Earlier, the Seattle Weekly called title-only bills a "strange way to run an open government."
As a group, newspaper editorial boards have been harsh in their critique of the Legislature.
Over the weekend, The Columbian said legislators were apparently "exhausted from smearing lipstick on their budget pigs" during the 60-day regular session, and The Seattle Times said lawmakers had shunned major reform and were leaning instead on taxpayers.
The News Tribune noted ominously that the House's appetite for spending and the Senate's willingness to tax could be a "match made in taxpayer hell" during the special session.
But the TNT offered a bit of hope, as well.
"Democratic leaders still have time to listen to the moderates within their own party who want to see more reliance on cuts and less on tax increases," the paper said. "The next seven days should be about state government getting by on less, not lawmakers getting away with more."
