The League of Women Voters of Snohomish County and The League of Women Voters of Washington oppose Initiative 1366 and we urge you to do the same. The League takes great care when making decisions on issues put before the electorate. We do our research and weigh the pro and cons. Upon deliberation, we found there are only cons to I-1366.
I-1366 is the latest attempt by Tim Eyman to wreck our legislative process, while threatening our K-12 education system, our higher education system and many services on which Washington families depend. His initiative would require a two-thirds majority vote, instead of the constitutionally mandated simple majority.
If we don’t defeat I-1366 in November, the Legislature will have a Hobson’s choice — the necessity of accepting one of two equally objectionable alternatives: a constitutional amendment to be put before the voters that would require all future tax matters a two-thirds approval of both houses or according to I-1366, if we do not vote to change the constitution, an automatic reduction amounting by $8 billion over six years in state revenue will go into effect. The legislature can do nothing to stop it.
In our research we found it is unlikely the Legislature will have enough votes to send the required constitutional amendment to voters, so our state will automatically lose that $8 billion, a 13 percent reduction in sales tax revenue! That means drastic cuts to our already underfunded K-12 education system, cuts to our higher education system, cuts to our police, fire and many other services on which the most vulnerable depend.
We question I-1366’s constitutionality. The state Supreme Court has already deemed the idea of a super-majority as unconstitutional, so as a result Eyman’s new idea is to just change the constitution. But the constitution cannot be changed by initiative, either directly or by threat. We like our constitution as it is. The blatant and undemocratic change to a two-thirds super majority would give 17 legislators out the 147 control of the budget process. We’ll never see real tax reform, decreases, increases or even the closing of loopholes.
After all of our analysis, the League of Women Voters has concluded that I-1366 is politics at its worst — a scheme from Eyman and his cronies that undermines our constitution and threatens hard-won gains for our kids and communities. Voters should join the League and the bipartisan coalition of other state leaders and organizations in sending a clear message by voting a resounding “No” on I-1366. No Hobson’s choice for Washington state!
Lynn Carpenter, an Edmonds resident, is president of the League of Women Voters of Snohomish County.
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