Oh look, here’s a press release from Representative Katrina Asay. Enjoy.
Last fall, voters overwhelmingly approved Initiative 1053 (I-1053), which requires a two-thirds vote of the Legislature to approve tax increases. Voters in the 30th Legislative District approved I-1053 by more than 66 percent.
Yes. I think it was a mistake. Did voters realize what would be cut if the legislature passed a no new taxes budget? Did they make a guess about the revenue forecasts that have come in since then? Would they vote for the kinds of cuts that Republicans (and too many Democrats) want if those cuts were on the ballot? I’m not a fan of the initiative process, but I think we do need to respect the will of the people. However, I don’t think we can divine the will of the people about this budget by any Tim Eyman initiative. And I certainly don’t think we can figure out the will of the people with regard to local tax revenues.
Voters have approved the tax constraints found in I-1053 several times, most recently with Initiative 960, which was thrown out by the majority party last year. This allowed the majority party to increase taxes with a simple majority vote, or 50 plus one. In no mood to be taxed even more in this battered economy, voters in November quickly repealed a host of tax increases put in place by the majority party in the 2010 legislative session.
I know what Rep. Asay means, but that first sentence seems to imply that I-960 happened after 1053. Also, the will of the people is Democratic control of both houses of the legislature. Has been for a decade. Yet, oddly I don’t see Republican press releases demanding whatever Democrats want in the legislature.
That’s why I was so disappointed when majority Democrats in the House passed an amended version of Senate Bill 5457, the so-called “congestion relief bill.” Despite the catchy title, I voted against this bill because, as it was changed in the House, it does an end-around the voter-approved two-thirds vote requirement to increase taxes.
1053 didn’t say anything about counties or municipalities. We’re now divining the will of the voters based on things they didn’t vote for or against. That simply wasn’t on the ballot. In fact, King County was pretty close to evenly split. I’d bet Seattle and some suburban cities opposed it. Does that mean that their city councils should have majority rule like the framers of the state constitution envisioned?
Senate Bill 5457, as amended, would authorize a simple majority of King County Council members to impose up to an additional $20 in annual car-tab tax to help maintain Metro transit service. From all reports, the King County executive, once the bill is signed into law, will ask for the full amount of the tax. This would raise an estimated $25.5 million for each of the two years the tax will be in place.
Awesome. As a King County resident and a car owner, I’ll gladly pay my share. If enough people don’t like it they can either try to block it at the ballot like many of the state taxes last year, or if they don’t like it but not enough to do that, they can vote out the people who agree to the taxes. Democracy. Awesome.
What makes Senate Bill 5457 so offensive to me is that while the voters approved I-1053 to ensure any tax increase would be required to receive a two-thirds supermajority vote to be approved, the measure violates the will of the people by allowing a simple majority on the King County Council to approve the additional tax.
Again, NOBODY VOTED ON IF KING COUNTY SHOULD HAVE A 2/3 MAJORITY TO PASS ANYTHING. It wasn’t on the ballot. You can’t call the will of the people on an at best tangentially related question. This is crazy.
I see this as a way for the majority party to raise the ante when it comes to how many shenanigans voters will put up with when it comes to how new and increased taxes are approved. I feel as though they are basically telling citizens that while voters clearly and unequivocally directed the Legislature to have a supermajority consensus to increase taxes; they can snub that directive with a simple majority vote of legislators. Now, we are faced with a bill that could allow local governments to skirt the newly-approved mandate from last fall.
Local governments aren’t skirting anything. The mandates were to the legislature. And they were dumb. But even if they were the most sensible policy ever, they have nothing to do with King County.
If there is a good case to be made for higher taxes, let those who are asking for them convince others to support the idea. It’s that simple.
You mean like a majority of the King County Council, the King County Executive, enough voters not to sign a county wide referendum or initiative on that, or if there is a referendum to vote on it? You mean convince those people? Because there are already plenty of checks and balances in the system.
Additionally, and not to be lost in this debate, is that voters approved Initiative 695 specifically to ensure car tabs would cost no more than $30. Whether you like the idea or not, it’s what the people of this state approved. However, each year the Legislature has offered local governments the opportunity to add $20 here and there, weight fees and now this. Senate Bill 5457 is another example of why voters again decided to put such strict standards in place to raise taxes.
695 was ruled unconstitutional. So basically, we have to uphold the will of the people to support one unconstitutional thing, possibly another unconstitutional thing (the previous 2/3 rules have all been on standing, not on the merits). Also, 695 failed in King County. So by this logic, the will of the people is that they have higher car tabs. Why do you hate the imagined will of the people based on something that they didn’t really vote on, Katrina Asay?
This bill is a bad deal for taxpayers and breaks faith with voters. Because the House amended a Senate bill, it must now go back for the Senate to approve or reject the change. For all of our sakes, I can only hope the bill is set aside. It’s the right thing to do to maintain the integrity and spirit of I-1053.
It gives the voters plenty of say. As does every question before a legislative body in Washington. And it helps Metro get through tough fucking times.
This bears repeating as many times as it takes to get the message across:
Washington residents have received a mammoth state tax cut over the last three years.
Don’t believe me? Then just compare state revenues now with then. Do you see the state hiring more employees? Expanding programs? Reducing class sizes? No. The state has less money to spend now, and that means more money is staying in taxpayers’ pockets.
This didn’t come about through legislation or initiative. Washingtonians gave this huge tax cut to themselves by not spending (at least, not on stuff subject to sales tax). To the tune of billions of dollars a year.
Sure, incomes are less, but taxes are way more less. Even after taking into account the drop in personal incomes caused by the REPUBLICAN DEPRESSION of 2007 – ?, tax revenues have fallen more than incomes, which means Washington consumers are richer thanks to the tax cut they gave to themselves by not consuming. That’s money they can use to pay off debts, save for their kids’ college, or buy stocks.
Well, guess what, their kids’ college is gonna cost a lot more because the state can’t afford to subsidize it anymore. In fact, as I type these words, local A students — and even valedictorians — are being turned away from the U-Dub because there’s no room for them. Now that we’ve all-but-privatized our biggest state university it has to fill those slots with nonresidents, who pay three times as much tuition. So, if you thought your kids could get ahead by you not paying state taxes, you just screwed yourself … and them.
BTW, that was only the will of the minority of voters who voted in an off-year election.
Gots to love the title of her press release (incorrectly labeled as an op-ed)
For what looks like a photo copy, where there should be an Excel file, break down of the 2010 election by legislative district go here:
http://wei.secstate.wa.gov/oso.....ces(fixed).pdf
Republicans are awfully inconsistent on this.
They argue that Seattle (or Washington State) can’t refuse to enforce pot laws, or set up a dispensary system in opposition to federal laws.
They argue that the federal government can’t impose the recent health care reforms on any state which disagrees with it.
They argue that California can’t impose a stricter emmissions standards than the federal government.
And here, they argue that Seattle or King County can’t vote to tax themselves, unless it is in compliance with what they assert are the super-majority rules applicable to the state legislature (assuming it’s Constitutional, which it is not).
The short summary: Whatever right wing winguts say is the law, regardless of the actual wording, constitutional issues, or majority rule. Corrolary: only former Confederate states have State’s Rights.
@2,
It was an even numbered year, and my memory was we had decent turn out. It’s pretty consistent with those types of initiatives. Sometimes initiatives make dumb law, and we live in a state where that’s true.
@3,
I never know if I should include titles in metacommentary pieces. Obviously it’s different if it’s a press release versus an opinion column, because the later who knows who write the headline/title/etc. It often breaks up the flow, so I usually don’t unless it’s meant obviously as the first sentence of the piece as well.
@5
Forget the op-ed piece, look at the ridiculous crap our Secretary of State is fobbing off on us.
http://wei.secstate.wa.gov/oso.....ces(fixed).pdf
Did the cut the budget back so far we can’t download an Excel file?
@6,
That is difficult to read. It also took me quite a while to find the KC outcome for 695, but I’d assumed that was just because it was a while ago.
@1
Hey stoopid, those same people of washington state have also taken a huge pay cut as well….did you dumb ass ever think of that?
asshole.
Why does Carl hate democracy?
@7
OFM, WSDOT and everyone else at the state have joined the modern age and have data available as spreadsheets. Guess we should expect backwards shit like this from a Republican, though.
@9
Um… It looks to me like it’s Rep. Asay hating on democracy.
How the hell would she know what’s on voters minds – she’s one of those state representatives (predominantly Republicans in swing districts) who only hold “virtual” call-in meetings and never hold true, in-person Town Hall Forums.
Almost every Republican in the South Sound hides from their constituents like this. The Tacoma News Tribune actually promotes these shams in advance (http://bit.ly/gB4Tr7) but never bothers to “attend” on themselves and report on how bogus they are.
As long as a few voters agree with their asinine beliefs, Republicans will claim that they know what voters want — what percentage of the voters they will leave out or claim that their statement was not meant to be factual.
We are still ‘slouching toward Bethlehem’ — mainly because we don’t have that socialist high speed rail.
Why can’t a certain “iranian oil buying” moron read well enough to save his miserable ass?
I’d be scared for my life in any building this dope had anything to do with.
LOL, it looks like we have a new clueless troll (@8 & 9).
It’s funny how trolls can completely miss the point of a well-written and insightful post that discusses true democracy in action in detail and accuse the poster of hating democracy.
Carl, nice post.
@14
you couldnt afford any of the buildings I am involved with, so your comment is moot.
16 – “lmfao..”
“stoopid” indeed..
15 – He’s not “new” by any stretch..
He’s been here spewing the same old brain-damaged views for a long time.
Will we ever see anything from a GOP leg member about new sources of revenue? Eliminating tax breaks for companies that send jobs out of Washington? ANYTHING, that would actually GENERATE revenue, or are their salaries the ONLY thing for which the state SHOULD be paying?
No, it’s the idiotic mantra of “NO NU TAXZ.” We’ve enabled people on the right-wing who blatantly lie and misdirect or just vilify Dems for the sake of vilifying Dems.
19 – Never. That conversation is always shutdown in the GOP.
And besides there’s really not THAT much of a need for it. There’s many billions just waiting to be collected.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....47741.html
Some backroom deal could bring quite a bit of this money in but of course all the vicious attack dogs like Grover Norquist and the Club for Growth and many others will fight to their last breath to keep this from happening.
Funny that when a Dem politician or political appointee is caught tax dodging we hear all kinds of noise from the right about “law breakers” but all these other tax dodgers?
It’s another kind of noise about the “damn gubmint stealing” or something like that..
Ooops I guess I was talking about the other washington. Sorry.
Yeah we need a huge tax reform in this State but I’m convinced it will never happen. It’d be a miracle if it did.
Many people move here as they have to Texas and Florida to escape taxes.
It’s the “leave me alone” crowd. They all take government services for granted but violently hate paying for them. They’re basically adult children.
Why They Call GOPers ‘The Idiot Party’
A new NYT/CBS poll reveals that 47% of Republican voters believe President Obama was born in a foreign country.
I always wondered why so many in this country for the longest time believed Saddam Hussein had anything to do with 9/11.
I distinctly remember Limbaugh “suggesting” he did within days of the towers collapsing – “the hand of Saddam Hussein” were his words.
And sadly too many more than just Republicans believed that tripe.
@8 Really? Who, besides the unemployed, have taken a “huge pay cut”? Certainly not bankers, CEOs, or cops and firefighters — the latter are getting the same union pay and benefits they did before. Oh, maybe there’s a mortgage broker here and there who used to make $2 million a year now getting by on $50,000 a year …
Let’s examine the idiocy you posted @8 — with, of course, no facts to back it up. It’s true that Washington residents’ aggregate personal income has fallen a bit since the BUSH DEPRESSION started — but state revenues have fallen much more. The reason for this is because people aren’t buying big-ticket items like cars which are subject to he sales tax. They have the money, but it’s being used to pay off debts, or is being squirreled away by super-cautious consumers worried about keeping their jobs.
State revenues are closely tied to retail spending on goods, and when consumers pull back on discretionary purchasing during a recession, it’s NOT because they don’t have the income anymore. Retail spending is tied to consumer psychology and mood much more than it is to income.
All of this, of course, flies right over the pointy head of a fucking simpleton like you.
@23 It’s pretty much the same crowd.
@23 (continued) Both of these points illustrate why we need a Republican Party in this country. It’s simple. These people are too stupid, ignorant, and gullible to be Democrats. We don’t want them polluting the Democratic Party. They need their own cage.
Roger Rabbit at 1 said:
“Washington residents have received a mammoth state tax cut over the last three years.”
Which is good because we’ll all need extra money to buy gas and food! Let’s cut some more!!
So, taxes receipts are down due to consumers not spending money that their money on things they don’t need. Those evil consumers! How dare they be cautious with their money!
If you all remember, back in 2006 or 2007 I advised everyone on this blog to get out of debt, especially credit card debt. It turns out my advice was correct. Debt is like a poison that, when used very sparingly, might help a person’s finances. Too much debt leads to financial death. Everyone should do themselves a favor and avoid spending money on frivolous purchases. It’s better to pay off all debts first! Then you can be frivolous if you want.
I would add that folks on the county level were forced to this position due to “the will of the voters” on 1053. What did they think would happen? If you can’t get the revenue generated over a wide base (state wide) then it has to come from a more concentrated base. Its not like the needs go away.
# 10: Sometimes data in a spreadsheet is presented as a .pdf file in order to avoid having someone change the numbers and circulate it under the guise of the state agency’s spreadsheet.
I know I sometimes do this within my own company – some departments you can trust, others you can’t.
# 24: Exactly. Which is why it is such idiocy for Washington to be so reliant on sales tax revenue, and ignore an income tax so completely.
A better approach would be to have modest taxes resting on all four prongs of a chair: sales tax, personal income tax, corporate income tax, and property tax. Heck, as far as I’m concerned you can even adjust the different rates among the four legs so it’s revenue-neutral (assuming you can agree on what level that revenue is). The main point is that it avoids the roller-coaster ups and downs you get with each economic cycle.
@31,
The problem is that they’ll never reduce any of the other taxes to get an income tax. They’ll keep sales taxes, for example, at the current rates. After all, the government always claims to need more money. Then we’ll be stuck with a high sales tax to go along with all the other taxes, including a hypothetical income tax.
Simply put – it is impossible to give government enough. It will always “need” more. for those that disagree, hey, put your money where your mouth is a send the Department of Revenue a nice check.
so? 1053 passed statewide by less than 2/3 of the vote (and considerably less than 2/3 of eligible voters). Not only requiring a super-majority is undemocratic (and unconstitutional) but relying on less than a super-majority to decide that only a super-majority will do is beyond stupid.
Ensign’s out!
“As a King County resident and a car owner, I’ll gladly pay my share.”
As a matter of principle, I don’t like car tab taxes, because they unfairly discriminate against retirees on fixed incomes who do very little driving. For example, Mrs. Rabbit and I drive less than 2,500 miles a year, yet we have to pay the same vehicle tax as a commuter driving 50 miles per day. And that commuter has far more income than we do. This is yet another example of Washington’s penchant for extremely regressive taxes. However, 20 bucks a year isn’t that big a deal; this was more of a problem when car tabs were several hundred dollars a year. But, as a matter of principle, I feel taxes on vehicles should be based on how much people use the roads. Senior citizens who only use their vehicles for grocery shopping and occasional trips to the doctor shouldn’t be forced to pay the same vehicle taxes as car commuters.
@27 “Let’s cut some more!!”
No. I want the public services our taxes buy. I don’t want my burrow broken into and robbed by some guy who was released from prison because you’re too fucking cheap to keep him locked up.
Roger, Roger, Roger DUMB Rabbit, the recession started when Pelosi got hold of the bank book in January 2007. Her first act was to scream at the oil companies and within 2 months gas went to $3.43
I hope you King Countyites keep adding additional taxes to yourselves. It proves you are the blue county of WA State.
Not too progressive are ya eh Roger Dumb Rabbit? It’s only fair when it’s spread on everyone!
NLRB Says Boeing’s S.C. Plant Is Illegal
This story — the lede in today’s Republican Times — is a great big deal and I’m surprised nobody here has picked up on it.
“Boeing was retaliating illegally against its largest union when it decided in 2009 to put a second 787 Dreamliner assembly line in a nonunion plant in South Carolina, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) charged in a complaint filed Wednesday. To remedy the alleged violation, the complaint says, Boeing should be ordered to operate the second line at a union plant in Washington.”
http://seattletimes.nwsource.c.....ton21.html
Roger Rabbit Commentary: This is why we have to re-elect Obama, even though he’s another spineless blob whose “hopey-changey thing” turned out to be Republican-lite, because these charges would never have been filed under a Republican president.
We can’t afford to forget how much Bush politicized federal boards and departments — and filled key appointments with incompetents whose only qualification was the ability to regurgitate GOP ideology by rote.
If Bush were in charge right now, the NLRB would be staffed by kids who graduated from Liberty University Law School* three months ago who don’t know squat about labor law. They didn’t have to; under Bush, their job was to do nothing while businesses ran roughshod over consumers, workers, and the economy in general.
It could happen again — this wasn’t just Bush (he was simply the worst), Republicans in general have no respect for the rule of law and aren’t interested in enforcing laws, especially laws that protect consumers’ or workers’ rights. When Republicans are in power, government is simply there to protect their friends from … government. Then the standarding orders of the day are look the other way, do nothing, see and hear no evil. And the rest of us are utterly at the mercy of corporate executives hellbent on robbing us.
@35 But, as a matter of principle, I feel taxes on vehicles should be based on how much people use the roads. Senior citizens who only use their vehicles for grocery shopping and occasional trips to the doctor shouldn’t be forced to pay the same vehicle taxes as car commuters.
They do, its called gas tax and we pay more in
Washington than most states, per gallon that is.
Court OKs Light Rail On I-90 Bridge
The state supreme court has rejected an attempt by Bellevue developer Kemper Freeman to block light rail across the I-90 bridge, but Freeman’s attorney says the legal fight isn’t over yet.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.c.....er22m.html
Betcha This Guy Is A Republican Dep’t
I say that because this is the kind of stunt a typical Republican would try to pull.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.c.....11;_s.html
@39 You completely missed the point, which is that it’s unfair to make a person who drives 2,000 miles a year pay the same vehicle fees as a person who drives 50,000 miles a year.
Let’s illustrate this with a concrete example. Let’s hypothesize a guy who lives in Bellevue and travels on business all over the state in a Porsche that costs $120,000, racking up 50,000 miles a year, and let’s say he makes $400,000 a year — and pays $100 a year in vehicle tab fees.
Now let’s take a retired couple who drive 2,000 miles a year in a Ford worth $20,000 and they live on $28,000 a year of Social Security — and pay $100 a year in vehicle tab fees. If you also factor in vehicle value — which is how most excise taxes on property are calculated — the senior citizen is paying 150 times as much tax as the high-mileage, Porsche-driving, rich guy.
How the fuck is that fair? Under this system, the low-income senior citizen is paying 25 times as much tax, on a per-mile basis, as the rich guy.
Sure, the guy who drives more pays more gas tax. But I’m not talking about the gas tax. I’m talking about flat-fee per-vehicle taxes, known around here as “car-tab” taxes. What I’m saying is those taxes are regressive as hell and grossly unfair to vehicle owners who do very little driving. Which is exactly what they are, and that’s why I oppose them.
I’m not saying we shouldn’t tax vehicles. But if we’re going to do that, it should be based on how much you use the roads. A “car tab” tax is not that. It’s a gift to owners of expensive vehicles and people who drive a lot.
@42
the fool, tax cheat wannabe roger rabbit misses two points:
the guy driving 50k miles a year pays more in gas taxes.
nobody that buys a 120k Porsche drives it 50k miles per year. You obviously have never had a nice sports car in your life. nice sports cars stay in the garage most of the time…commuter cars are for piling on the miles.
what the lazy rabbit is really trying to say, is that the working blue collar joe who drives his 10 year old F150 50k miles a year for work should be supporting lazy ex-lawyers(who rarely worked more than 3 hours a day when they were working)…roger wants the blue collar guy to pick up rogers tab..
stop your bitching and pay your taxes.
@38
who the fuck are the union to tell a company where they can and cant open a factory INSIDE the US.
fuck those guys, they have been cutting their own throat for years, now the chickens are coming home to roost. IF I was a union guy at Boeing, I would be pissed at the big union bosses for fucking things up.
# 44: It’s not the union guys who have been screwing up Boeing over the past decade. It’s the guys in Chicago who have MBA degrees, backgrounds in finance, and believe that anyone with a finance background can run any company, in any industry, just by cutting costs and conducting mergers and acquisitions.
Union guys at Boeing, and even quite a few non-union manufacturing managers, have been warning Boeing for years that it’s policies were going to cause problems in the long run. But these management types were trained in Friedman’s Chicago School of Management philosophies, and Ronald Reagan politics, to ignore anything which came from anyone who was either in a union or ever worked in a union. They just laughed at them, told them that they had it all figured out, don’t worry about it, and drink the Kool-Aid.
Then they tried to build an airplane using out-sourced manufactures of major assemblies who had never built this size of assembly before, using new materials which had a high union curve, using a newly-hired work force, and even out-sourced the engineering. They initially said no Quality Control was necessary because it would be done right the first time, until the FAA just laughed at them and forced them to install a Q.A. system. They bragged they could put together a 787 every three days, assembling major parts within three days, although everyone who knew anything about aircraft manufacturing just chuckled and shook their heads.
Then when they told the Union to go jump in the lake, forcing a strike lasting a few weeks, they spent months trying to claim that the strike caused the delivery delays – although it was painfully obvious to anyone who knew how far Boeing was in the production process that they were a very, very long away from having a completed airplane. Heck, they were still designing it even as planes were rolling down the production line!
Now, just four months shy of four years since initial “roll-out”, and three years after the promised first commercial delivery date, we are still waiting for the first commercial delivery of a 787.
I could go on about how it’s not the union fault, that a LOT of the problems and delays were caused by work performed (requiring extensive re-work) at the former Vought/Alenia/Aeronautica facilities in S. Carolina which will use many of the same workers on the new S. Carolina assembly line. Suffice it to say that I’m going to be keeping track of which airplanes come out of the S. Carolina factory, and when I board the airplane I’m going to look for the metal aircraft ID tag in the inside of the door bulhead (usually overhead). If I see a serial number which comes out of S. Carolina, I’m going to turn right around and walk right back up that jetway.
It’s not that I have anything against the workers in S. Carolina – they just need more training and a strong quality control process. But every indication is that the Q.C. people there are being pressured by managemetn to to say “close enough”, which was a big part of the delays encountered in Everett when their work arrived there. Without a union to back them up, they can be threatened with being fired or demoted if they don’t follow the wishes of every junior-level management guy who wants to impress his boss with how fast he can get jobs completed – as long as nobody looks at them too closely.