from Seattle Times: OLYMPIA — If there was ever an odd couple in the state Legislature, it would be Sens. Ed Murray and Joe Zarelli.
(excerpted)
They are polar opposites. Murray’s a liberal, openly gay Democratic lawmaker from Capitol Hill who supports creating a state income tax. Zarelli’s a Republican from rural Clark County who opposes gay marriage and once got a perfect score from the Washington Conservative Union.
…………Murray, 55, is chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee and works part time for the University of Washington planning department. Zarelli, 49, is the ranking Republican on the panel and works as a business consultant.
Yet during the past three months, the two (Senate leaders) met day after day to hash out the first truly bipartisan budget that anyone in Olympia can recollect. The Senate approved the proposal, which makes $4.8 billion in cuts, by a 34-13 vote last Monday. Now they have to negotiate a compromise with the House and governor’s office.
…….Traditional Democratic supporters call both budgets “immoral” and chide lawmakers for not closing tax breaks to raise money. Business groups largely support the austere budgets — and the bipartisan cooperation in the Senate in particular.
….the two aren’t exactly close friends. Both have been in the Legislature since 1995, and in all that time they’ve socialized once, enjoying drinks with other lawmakers one evening this year. (Nonetheless) Murray estimates they spent a couple hundred hours working on the proposal in meetings that at times lasted up to four hours. They would debate the points, take nothing personally, having checked any personal differences at the door.
Although the budget is being heralded as a bipartisan success, only nine Republicans voted for it. Zarelli said more would have but some members were absent.
Sen. Don Benton, R-Vancouver, voted against the budget but said he had no regrets about working with Democrats. He ended up opposing it, he said, over concerns about double-digit college-tuition increases included in the proposal.
All this begs the question of whether this cooperation between the parties is an aberration or a sign of things to come.
Murray and Zarelli say they don’t know. … Murray also cautioned that the Legislature still hasn’t negotiated a final budget as it heads into a special session this week. There’s no guarantee Republicans will vote for the final product.
“We’re not done,” Murray said.