See if you can guess which recent initiative meets this description:
- It would strip away funds from other services needed.
- It would put a hole in the state budget.
- It would severely limit the state Legislature’s discretionary budgetary powers.
These are all arguments being used by the far left against Tim Eyman’s latest initiative, I-1136—which recently qualified for the November ballot. But, if liberal groups were interested in honesty, the same charges could just as easily been made about the Washington Education Association’s (WEA) I-1351 last fall.
Interestingly enough, the same groups attacking I-1136 for the qualities stated above were nowhere to be seen or heard when voters considered I-1351.
Eyman’s I-1136 proposes to “reduce the state’s 6.5-cent sales tax by a penny unless the Legislature sends a tax-limiting constitutional amendment to the ballot for a public vote next year.” Already, lefty groups have organized a lawsuit—brought on by a coalition of Democrats and their supporters—against I-1136, arguing “the measure illegally tries to coerce the Legislature into putting the constitutional amendment on the ballot.”
The League of Education Voters (LEV) immediately attacked I-1136 with strong language, calling it a “mean-spirited distraction” from Eyman. Yet, when I-1351 was on the ballot, LEV barely protested. The education advocacy group opposed I-1351, but didn’t do much to defeat it.
So, why are these groups attacking I-1136 (apart from the obvious) when they promoted—or passively objected to—I-1351. Simply put, the WEA’s so-called class size initiative was a way to make state government – and the union – bigger, at taxpayer expense. The initiative would have pumped more dollars into the WEA’s war chest via increased union dues. That money would, in turn, make it around to those the WEA bankrolls, including Democrats and lefty groups.
Whatever one might think of I-1136—whether you support it or see it as a bad idea—the initiative certainly does reveal the hypocrisy of liberals.
Interestingly, your post doesn’t actually quote any liberals making any of the three arguments on your list. This is because the only relevant argument against I-1366 is that it exceeds the power accorded to the Initiative by our state’s nConstitution:
Article XXIII of the Washington State Constitution explains in pretty plain language how amendments are made. They must originate in the Legislature, and they must receive a two-thirds vote of each house to pass. Then, they are placed before the people for ratification, which takes a majority vote.
This is the only process we have for amending the Constitution. There is no other.
Anyone supporting I-1366 therefore advocates violating our state’s Constitution. That is the only issue. Rather than attacking your liberal opponents for arguments they have not made, why not address the one argument they have made?
But it’s something U would say so I’m guessing it’s from a Liberal Hamster.