Like Glenn Close rising for the bathtub in Fatal Attraction, liberals are rising from last week’s 59-41% thumping of the carbon tax (Initiative 732) to demand that the next legislature pass a tax the voters don’t want.
As the Seattle Times wrote – in length – over the weekend,, “though Washington voters just rejected a carbon-tax ballot measure, a new campaign to put a price on fossil-fuel emissions already is gearing up for the 2017 legislative session in Olympia. This will be an alternative proposal pitched by an alliance of environmental, social justice and labor groups that would place a modest tax on carbon emissions from oil, coal and natural gas.”
The Democrats depend heavily on the money from the groups that will be pushing this new carbon tax, so expect them to be more than willing to support the legislation. Jay Inslee is always willing to support a new tax, especially for something green, and House Speaker Frank Chopp (if he’s still in place) will need to do something to keep his donors happy.
However, given that the Majority Coalition Caucus will still be in control of the State Senate, it’s unlikely that the environmental dream of driving up energy costs for people across Washington State will gain much traction. But rest assured that won’t deter the special interests. From the Times, “‘we will push it as hard and as far as we can,’ said Jeff Johnson, president of the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO. ‘And if the Legislature doesn’t move on it, we will move it back out to the public for a vote.’”
That’s right, rather than just listen to the voters this year, labor bosses and environmental extremists would rather waste more time (and money) on the next ballot initiative. Evidently, they love recycling so much that they’ll even apply it to bad ideas.
So put an initiative on the ballot, badly worded in 10 pages of legalese that purports to help Puppies and Kittens, the Elderly but is actually a 100% tax on rich liberals.