The 2008 legislative session has provided future Legislatures with an abject lesson in how not to follow the provisions of voter-approved Initiative 960.
The policies, purposes, and intent of last year’s taxpayer protection initiative were clear. But rather than abiding by the voters’ mandate, majority Democrats schemed all session to sidestep it. Olympia’s effort to game the system has led to enormous frustration by the voters. It’s not like the citizens haven’t been clear in their repeated approval of initiatives with the same message: “Spend more effectively the money that taxpayers are already providing, don’t take any more.”
But just in case Olympia is ignorant, and not just arrogant, about how to follow the policies in I-960, here’s what the voters want:
n If you’re going to raise taxes, both the House and Senate must receive at least a two-thirds vote. The voters approved this tougher-to-raise-taxes policy in 1993. In 1998, the Legislature and the people re-enacted and re-imposed it with Referendum 49 and two Legislatures re-enacted and re-imposed it upon themselves in 2002 and 2005. Last year’s voter approval of I-960 put an exclamation point on it and illustrated the people’s continued support. It’s a policy the citizens clearly want and it’s a vote threshold that you’ve proven you can follow. You know and we know that you can comply with the voters’ clear mandate to get at least two-thirds approval for any tax increase. Rather than suing the voters, representatives should simply comply with this voter-approved law.
n Whether a tax hike is approved with a majority or two-thirds, I-960 requires that any tax increase unilaterally imposed by the Legislature be put on the next general election ballot for the voters to vote on. Two pages will be provided in the voters’ pamphlet listing the cost of the tax increase and how legislators voted on it. The only way for legislators’ votes to not be publicly identified in the voters’ pamphlet is if Olympia puts the tax increase on the ballot for the voters to decide. Circumventing the public’s support for two-thirds-for-tax-increases only poisons the well of trust you’ll need to gain the voters’ support at the ballot box.
n On fee increases, you really blew it. A $100 fee costs just as much as a $100 tax so you need to take it just as seriously. The language of I-960 makes it clear that the people want the Legislature to treat fee increases the same way county councils and city councils treat them: just like any other bill. Hiding them in one mega-bill and demanding one up-or-down vote by legislators is totally contrary to the law. Tucking huge numbers of fees in the end-of-the-year budget blocked the state budget office from giving the public and the press the advance notice required by law. In the future, fee increases need to be in the same bill as the policies funded by them.
Given the tremendous number of fees imposed by state government and its agencies, it’s irresponsible to put them all in one bill. It provides taxpayers with no feeling of confidence that each fee was scrutinized and individual judgments were made on each one. I-960 does not require each fee increase receive a different bill, but come on, it’s total crap that you stripped policy bills of their funding sources so you could avoid accountability and transparency and public input. Each fee increase deserves a thorough examination and justification. At a minimum, there should be one bill for each state agency’s fee increases. The people do not want you to rubberstamp state agencies’ fee requests. The Legislature must treat state agencies just like any other special interest group: Just because they’re asking for it, doesn’t mean you automatically give it to them. Most importantly, I-960 makes it illegal to delegate to state agencies your authority to set fee amounts — the voters said they don’t want unelected bureaucrats to decide, they want their representatives to decide.
Stop shirking your responsibility by saying “here, you guys increase them.” That’s illegal under I-960 and totally contrary to what the voters approved last November.
The 2008 Legislature did everything it could to sidestep I-960’s policies. But it is a set of laws that the voters clearly want you to follow. And really, is it that much to ask for? To calculate how much tax and fee increases cost, notify the people and the press about it, hold a hearing, and take citizen testimony and recorded votes.
The good news is that you have nowhere to go but up when it comes to complying with I-960’s requirements. And the best news is we’ll keep offering voters additional initiatives until you finally accept that you are employees of the people, not their employer. You’re elected to represent us, not rule us.
Tim Eyman heads up Voters Want More Choices, a grassroots taxpayer-protection organization — 425-493-8707, tim_eyman@comcast.net, www.ReduceCongestion.org.
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