The State Senate Votes To Keep It Easy To Raise Your Taxes

The Washington  State Senate turned its back on the voters one more time in the pursuit of a constitutional amendment to require a 2/3 majority to raise taxes.

Other states have it.  Washington voters have tried repeatedly to convince lawmakers its what they want but to no avail.  Makes you wonder why voters return those lawmakers to office year after year.

13th district Sen. Judy Warnick, R-Moses Lake, supports the idea and voted today to let Washington voters have the final say with Senate Joint Resolution 8211 on requiring a higher level of approval for tax measures.

Senate Joint Resolution 8211, would have changed the state constitution so that tax increases would need support from a two-thirds majority of lawmakers but it failed to receive the necessary 33 votes in the Senate for adoption which means voters will not be able to decide on a ballot measure to change the state constitution.

In a press release Warnick said “The voters in Washington have said six times for over two decades that it should be harder for the state to raise taxes and their voice should be heard....The solution to our state’s challenges is not taking more and more of the people’s money. Our Senate majority has demonstrated that we can make issues like education a priority without raising taxes. Minority Democrats in the Senate made every excuse as to why they didn’t trust the people of Washington to have a voice, and I think they are wrong.”

A statewide poll in December found 60 percent of those responding believe a supermajority vote by lawmakers should be required to raise taxes; 65 percent agreed voters should be given a chance to vote on whether to make the supermajority tax-approval rule part of the state constitution.

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