The Tri-City Herald editorial board has urged Democrat lawmakers to respect voters’ will by acting on the two-thirds supermajority state legislative vote to pass tax increases. The editorial board points out that voters have approved the supermajority vote six times beginning in 1993.
Yet, despite this overwhelming consistency on the part of voters and the Democrats controlling at least one House of the state legislature in 20 of the 22 years since then, the liberal lawmakers have refused to change the system. The Tri-City Herald,
“We don’t like Eyman’s bullying methods, but we also don’t like lawmakers continually dismissing voters.
“A statewide poll commissioned just before the session by the Washington Policy Center showed that if I-1366 was thrown out by the courts, 65 percent of the state’s voters were still in favor of legislators putting a constitutional amendment on the ballot requiring the two-thirds vote for state tax increases. The poll reflects a similar sentiment voters have shown over the years in support of Eyman’s initiatives.
“Time and again, however, lawmakers have failed to listen.
“There was a recent effort in the House to allow that chamber’s constitutional amendment on the two-thirds requirement to leap-frog over the committee hearing and head straight to a floor vote. But that idea was defeated and it was referred to the House Finance Committee. How it will fare there remains to be seen.”
Beyond action taken by Republican members of the state House to actually force Democrats to vote on the issue without Speaker Frank Chopp standing in their way, two proposed constitutional amendments addressing a supermajority legislative vote to raise taxes, SJR 8208 and SJR 8209, have been introduced in the state Senate. According to the Washington Policy Center, both proposals would “allow voters, for the seventh time, to consider this taxpayer protection policy and, if they choose, to place the requirement into the state’s constitution.”
Unfortunately, considering their record over the past 20-plus years, we have no doubt that liberal Democrats will do everything in their power to prevent voters from every being able to vote on raising measures.
After all, they don’t want anything to prevent them from implementing their gig-spending, big-government agenda – especially voters.
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