“You’re picking at the carcasses of dead people with HB 2064 — is there no limit to how low you’re willing to go?”
Regular taxpayers don’t have time to travel down to Olympia to testify all the time. They’re too busy working for a living, especially mid-week during the middle of a work day.
Tax-hiking politicians love that. It allows them to only hear from the special interest groups who the politicians divert our tax dollars to.
So yesterday, on behalf of the 1.9 million voters who passed Initiative 1185 in November, I traveled down to Olympia to testify against one of 18 tax increases the Democrats are pushing this year. This particular tax increase will cost taxpayers $517 million. To put that in perspective, the state budget office confirms their 18 tax increases will cost $15 billion. So House Bill 2064 isn’t their biggest tax increase, but it certainly is a significant one. It retroactively imposes higher death taxes, directly contradicting a recent state supreme court ruling.
To remind legislators of the overwhelming public support for I-1185 last November, I had committee staff hand out to legislators copies of the election results of I-1185, broken down by legislative district (www.voterswantmorechoices.com/1185results.pdf). I love this handout because it includes legislators’ names in each district, an instructive reminder that every district outside Seattle approved I-1185.
Here’s what I said during my testimony: “Last November, voters sent a clear no-tax-increase message with the overwhelming approval of I-1185, the rejection of 2 legislative tax increases, and election of a governor promising to veto any tax increase. Voters’ no-tax-increase position has not diminished, it has only solidified since November. 1.9 million voters approved Initiative 1185; the supreme court’s 6-3 ruling didn’t change that. In fact, the court’s decision cemented the public’s opposition to higher taxes exactly because it made it easier for Olympia to raise them. It’s simply delusional for Olympia to be ignoring the voters’ clear mandate from a high turnout presidential election.
For the state’s general fund, Democrats are pushing 15 different tax increases totalling over $7 billion when it comes to the state’s general fund budget while exploiting the truck-bridge collision to raise another $8.4 billion. $15 billion in higher taxes? Seriously?
I mean you’re talking about picking at the carcasses of dead people with House Bill 2064 — is there no limit to how low you’re willing to go?
It’s one of the reasons candidate Inslee said no to higher transportation taxes for 2013 because he knew voters couldn’t stomach massive tax hikes for both the general fund and transportation budgets in the same year.
How stunningly out-of-touch can politicians be to be pushing massive tax hikes at a time when voters have clearly said ‘no more.‘
It’s important to remember that every tax increase imposed in Olympia will automatically be on the November ballot as a tax advisory vote. That’s 12 individual votes just for HB 2038. That’s 48 pages in the voters pamphlet listing legislators tax votes on each one. There’d be an additional 3 votes on the transportation tax package, another vote on this bill’s tax increase …”
I was then gaveled down by the Democrat committee chair after which he turned off the microphone and moved on to the next witness. Reminding them of the voters’ mandate not to raise taxes and reiterating candidate Inslee’s veto-any-tax-increase promises was clearly too much to bear.
What a perfect metaphor for how things work in Olympia: if politicians don’t like what the people are saying, they simply shut them down. That’s one of the many reasons the initiative process is such a positive contrast: it allows the voters to express their views without government censorship.
As you know, our new initiative — LET THE VOTERS DECIDE ON A 2/3-FOR-TAXES CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT — gives taxpayers the chance to reiterate their support for the 2/3. With our initiative, we’re going to let the voters decide on a 2/3-for-taxes constitutional amendment.
Without the 2/3, this year’s Legislature is proving why it is necessary. Our new initiative is, by far, the most powerful way we have to fight back against Olympia’s insatiable appetite for higher taxes.