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House passes bill that guts
I-601’s two-thirds vote requirement
Stripping away the
two-thirds majority requirement for the Legislature to raise taxes is
something taxpayers have clearly said they do not want, Reps.
Glenn Anderson
and Jay Rodne said today. Both legislators voted against Senate
Bill 6078, which would suspend for two years the I-601 two-thirds
requirement for tax hikes and make it easier to raise the state's
spending limit. Democrats, which control both houses of the Legislature,
have built new taxes into their budgets – but don’t have a two-thirds
majority in either the House or Senate. Therefore they must repeal the
two-thirds vote requirement in order to implement their budget
proposals.
This is the second time in
four years that Democrats have voted to temporarily suspend the I-601
two-thirds vote requirement to raise taxes.
“At this point it seems to be a habit with the Legislature to
deliberately abandon the intent of I-601,” Anderson pointed out today.
He noted that Initiative
884, which would have raised taxes to fund education, failed by 60
percent. That made it clear, he said, that the public has concerns about
additional taxes, even for the best of purposes.
“Keeping the two-thirds
requirement to raise taxes is a good idea for many reasons, one of the
biggest being that it forces bipartisan collaboration in determining the
priorities of the state,” Anderson said. “Allowing a simple majority to
raise taxes makes it entirely too easy to ratchet up spending without a
thoughtful, bipartisan discussion and agreement.”
Rep. Rodne agreed, saying the emergency clause Democrats put on the bill
simply makes it easier to raise taxes this year and prevents citizens
from filing a referendum to put the matter to a vote.
“Where is the emergency in
this issue?” Rodne asked. “I guess if you think we absolutely need to
raise taxes this year, then you could see an emergency in this event.
But we don’t. Just two years ago, the state was in a much worse economic
situation, but members from both sides of the aisle joined together in a
“philosophical majority” to craft a state budget that did not raise
taxes. This year we’re in much better financial shape, with nearly $2
billion more in additional revenues due to our improving economy. There
is no emergency here, just a desire on the part of some to find any
means they can to raise taxes. That’s something we just don’t need to do
and, to make matters worse, it will hurt our economic recovery.”
The measure passed the
House by a vote of 50 to 43. Since the House amended the Senate bill
significantly, it will now go back to the Senate for concurrence. Both
legislators called on Gov. Gregoire, when the bill gets to her desk, to
remember her campaign pledge not to raise taxes and reject signing a
bill that makes it all the easier to do so.
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For more information, contact:
Bobbi Cussins, Public
Information Officer - (360) 786-7252
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