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House passes bill that guts
I-601's two-thirds vote requirements
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:
John
Handy, Assistant Director: (360) 786-5758
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