Clearing the Way for Tax Increases

As expected, Democrats yesterday moved to remove the boulder blocking the path to tax increases. In the Senate, they introduced SB 6843, which "temporarily suspends" the 2/3 supermajority requirement for tax increases. It does a lot of other stuff, too, but for their immediate purposes that's the critical provision. Andrew Garber summarizes nicely in his story for the Seattle Times.

Senate Bill 6843 suspends the two-thirds requirement until July 2011, which would allow simple majority votes on tax increases next year as well. But it also makes permanent changes, such as stating any future tax increase that goes toward a voter-approved initiative only needs a simple majority vote.

That's a key provision. The Legislature, for example, has slashed several hundred million dollars in funding from the class-size reduction initiative, I-728, during the recession. The proposed change would make it easier for lawmakers to raise taxes for that initiative in the future.

Exactly. And that provision strikes me as setting up a strange dynamic. Advocates can campaign, as I-728 backers did, that the initiative costs nothing. Back in 2000, when voters approved it, the treasury was full and the economy robust. Under the proposed Senate bill, lawmakers can drop back to a simple majority, saying simply that they want to do the people's will, though the people were never asked how they felt about the tax hikes. The double standard makes no fiscal sense.

Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown continues her campaign to eliminate the supermajority requirement, setting out her arguments in this lengthy blog post supporting 6843. It's worth reading in its entirety, but here's the crux:

... the will of the people is determined by listening to the majority’s voice. In the Legislature, a bill that earns the support of a majority of the people’s elected representatives is said to reflect the people’s will.

... To those who say overturning I-960 undermines the will of the people, I’ll respond by saying the minority rule enshrined in I-960 undermines the will of the people.

She took that argument to the state Supreme Court, which decided against her last year.

Senate Republican leader Mike Hewitt was quick with this response:

I am incredulous that Democrats are setting the stage for raising taxes in this economy. People are terrified right now. Everybody knows someone who’s lost a job. Working families and employers are just trying to survive in this economy. They should not be asked to bail out poor state spending decisions through higher taxes.

House Democrats, who released some tax proposals yesterday, write in their blog:

It just so happens that the  changes proposed in the House plan require changes to I-960, Eyman's initiative requiring a 2/3 vote of the Legislature for any bill that would increase state revenue. The Senate introduced its bill to do just that today.

It just so happens??

Funny how that works out.