Voters need to put Legislature back on a leash
March 9, 2010
By Contributed
NEW — 3:23 p.m. March 10, 2010
By Tim Eyman
I was disrespectful of Governor Gregoire when she signed Senate Bill 6130, gutting voter-approved Initiative 960.
I attended the public bill signing wearing a suit and tie, and standing beside her, I held my nose with one hand and went thumbs down with the other for the official photo. Some found it offensive, others funny, some heroic. To me, it was just my way of peacefully protesting an enormous injustice.
The voters have three times approved initiatives requiring either two-thirds legislative approval or majority voter approval for tax increases.
Yet, despite working for years to install these protections, the governor and the Democrats took it away after a few hours of debate and several dead-of-night votes.
That stinks. And I’m not alone. KING TV just released a statewide poll and the results are striking: 68 percent thought it was the wrong thing to do, 24 percent the right thing, 8 percent undecided.
When asked should tax increases require a two-thirds vote or majority vote, a whopping 74 perecent said two-thirds.
Voters want tax increases to be an absolute last resort.
Gregoire’s refusal to retain I-960’s transparency provisions was particularly galling.
Besides the two-thirds, I-960 provided greater legislative transparency and public participation in the process. Many asked Gregoire for a partial veto, salvaging at least those widely supported policies of I-960. She refused.
Here’s what it did: under I-960, when the Legislature jacks up taxes and then slaps on an emergency clause, removing the people’s constitutionally-guaranteed right to run a referendum undoing the tax, then the people at least get two pages in that November’s voters pamphlet listing how legislators voted on the tax increase and how much it’ll cost us. Gregoire took that away too.
I-960 also allowed voters to express their opinion on such “emergency” tax increases with a non-binding advisory vote.
Their opinion.
Here’s Gregoire’s explanation for not allowing the voters to express their opinion on tax hikes: “The public should expect when they say something, the Legislature and the governor will respond. To ask for an advisory vote and then to not follow it, I think would add to the cynicism of the people of this state.”
The audacity, arrogance, and shamelessness of that statement is stunning.
She’s saying that no matter what the voters’ opinion is, she and the Democrats will not follow it, so why ask!?
Expressing your opinion and having it ignored doesn’t create as much cynicism as preventing the people from expressing their opinion in the first place.
For two years, I-960 worked exactly as voters intended. I-960 protected struggling taxpayers and our fragile economy from higher taxes. I-960 worked –- it can work again. Help us give voters their fourth opportunity: this year’s Initiative 1053 resurrects I-960’s protections for another two years. It’s clear it’s needed.
As for my holding-my-nose moment with Gregoire, it was disrespectful; but my disrespect for her won’t cost taxpayers anything. But her disrespect for the voters by overturning voter-approved I-960 will cost taxpayers billions of dollars in higher taxes.
To me, that really stinks.
Tim Eyman is co-sponsoring I-1053, and can be contacted at 425-493-8707 or tim_eyman@comcast.net. For information, visit www.VotersWantMoreChoices.com.
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