The Senate revived on May 1 a proposal to require owners of off-highway to pay for an annual sticker.
But the story behind the scenes is the lone effort, albeit a failed one, of one lawmaker to stall any attempt to bring the bill, H2443, back to the floor.
At the center of the drama is Sen. Ron Gould, R-3, who, at every turn, has tried to stop the bill’s passage. During the last two weeks, he has argued, pleaded and threatened his colleagues if they voted for the measure, sponsored by Rep. Jerry Weiers, R-12.
On April 30 he effectively used Senate rules to force one goal — which was to stop the Senate from reconsidering the bill, at least for one night.
That afternoon Sen. Robert Burns, R-9, made a motion to reconsider H2443, which had failed by a 14-13 vote on April 26. A bill needs 16 votes to pass.
Gould, who saw the bill as another tax increase, was prepared. With the rulebook in his drawer, he made a substitute motion to adjourn, teaming up with Sen. Rebecca Rios, D-23, who seconded the motion.
Then he did a deliberate thing — he held off voting on his own motion, bringing business to a halt.
According to rules, every lawmaker on the floor “shall vote on every question put.”
At intervals, he complained that reconsideration of bills should not be done so late when many senators had already left for the day.
“We set a pattern over the last couple of weeks. We do our business in the morning and the floor is left open for messages from the House. But now we’ve decided to make a procedural maneuver, where we have members that aren’t here to vote on the maneuver. They aren’t here to vote on the bills that are being reconsidered and I don’t think that that’s fair,” he said.
Eventually, a deal seemed to have been struck. Gould finally voted on his motion, which failed by a close shave. But Burns also withdrew his motion.
The bill was finally reconsidered May 1, after the Senate suspended a rule, 13-A, which limits a motion to reconsider to the same session or the next succeeding session.
Again, Gould tried a last-ditch effort to stop the move. He made a substitute motion to suspend this rule for the remainder of the session. But no one seconded his motion and it went nowhere, so senators went ahead and voted on Burns’ motion. Gould called for a division of the house, and by a vote of 14-13, the Senate approved the Burns motion.
Burns then made the motion to reconsider H2443. Again, a division was called, and it carried by a 15-11 vote.