The Northwest Progressive Institute (NPI) commissioned a poll that found — as the Washington Policy Center’s Jason Mercier put it — “voters have just been pulling our leg when it comes to wanting a supermajority vote in the legislature to raise taxes.”
The poll asked the question: “Do you strongly agree, somewhat agree, somewhat disagree or strongly disagree with the following statement: all revenue bills and budgets in the Washington State Legislature should be decided by a simple fifty percent majority vote?”
The poll of 679 likely voters found that 59% agree, 34% disagree, and 6% were not sure.
NPI’s poll question and its explanation of the results are — simply put — ridiculous. In fact, it appears to be another case of liberals manufacturing surveys to produce the result they want.
Notice, the poll uses the term “all revenue bills and budgets” not “taxes.” The choice to exclude that term “taxes” was deliberate. Given the number of times Washington voters approved have super-majority initiatives, the use of the word “taxes” would have likely produced a response that the liberals who commissioned the poll did not want to see.
To borrow from Mercier again, we’ll “see NPI’s poll and raise them an election.” Time and time again — Washington voters have approved 2/3rds rules. In fact, voters have had their say a whopping six times now, and here’s the record:
- 1993: Initiative 601 – passed with 51% yes vote, to require a 2/3rds vote in the legislature to raise taxes;
- 1998: Referendum 49 – passed with 57% yes vote (affirmed 2/3rd requirement);
- 2007: Initiative 960 – passed with 51% yes vote (re-enacted 2/3rd requirement);
- 2010: Initiative 1053 – passed with 64% yes vote (re-enacted 2/3rd requirement);
- 2012: Initiative 1185 – passed statewide with 64% yes vote, approved in 44 of the state’s 49 legislative districts, to re-enact the 2/3 requirement.
And, of course, in 2015 voters approved I-1366, which proposed a one cent cut in the state sales tax rate unless the state Legislature allowed a public vote on a constitutional amendment that would require a two-thirds supermajority for future tax increases.
The reality is that we don’t need a sketchy poll commissioned by the far-Left to know whether or not voters support a two-thirds supermajority for future tax increases. We already know that they do — six elections have told us that.
But, evidently, the liberals are hard of hearing when it comes to taxes.
Leave a Reply