6 months fighting Olympia, 6 months shaking a tin cup
For the first 6 months of each year, Jack, Mike, and I work super hard with all of you beating back the Legislature’s inevitable effort to raise taxes. In the last 6 months of each year (like now), the three of us shake a tin cup, asking our supporters to voluntarily donate to our compensation fund if you appreciate our efforts and want us to continue.
It’s a system based on faith: your faith in us, and our faith in you.
Thanks to the voters overwhelming approval of last year’s Initiative 1185, we had really good leverage during this year’s legislative sessions against them raising taxes. But in the middle of the session, the supreme court gave Olympia the green light to go hog wild raising taxes when they said the 2/3-for-taxes legislative vote requirement couldn’t be a law, but had to be a constitutional amendment.
So we did exactly what the court instructed: we put forward “LET THE VOTERS DECIDE ON A 2/3-FOR-TAXES CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT.” That initiative reminded Olympia that we weren’t giving up, that we would persevere. Our initiative, we believe, had a very positive “chilling effect” on their efforts to raise taxes. We also traveled to Olympia often to testify and lobby against tax increases, reminding them that any tax increase would appear on the ballot as a tax advisory vote (thanks also to Initiative 1185).
Now that we’re in the final six months of the year, we ask you to please help us keep going.