Voters in south Snohomish County and the rest of Washington will face two advisory votes on the November ballot, These are non-binding advisory votes on tax measures that the Legislature has passed — one on eliminating tax breaks for large banks and one on eliminating taxes on petroleum products.
A state elections official said two weeks ago that the cost of printing the advisory votes on ballots and in the voters’ pamphlet, plus translation where needed, was about $120,000.
Tim Eyman of Mukilteo, who sponsored the initiative that forced the advisory votes, said Monday that the cost was worthwhile.
Eyman sent me the following statement:
“Voters approved the initiative that required advisory votes, because if the Legislature is going to raise taxes and isn’t going to let the voters vote on them, then the voters want to know how much these tax increases are going to cost them over the next 10 years ($170 million and $27 million are the 10-year costs for this year’s two tax increases) and how legislators voted on them and their contact information. As the initiative stated in its intent section:
“‘The people find that, if they are not to be allowed to vote on a tax increase, good public policy demands that at least the Legislature should be aware of the voters’ view of individual tax increases. An advisory vote of the people at least gives the Legislature the views of the voters and gives the voters information about the bill increasing taxes and provides the voters with legislators’ names and contact information and how they voted on the bill. The people have a right to know what’s happening in Olympia.”
Evan Smith can be reached at schsmith@frontier.com.
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