Ballot Measure Filed to Make All State Tax Hikes to Expire

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — Initiative promoter Tim Eyman has filed a ballot measure to make all Washington state tax hikes expire after a year.

The one-year limit would go away if state lawmakers pass a constitutional amendment to require a legislative supermajority to raise taxes and eliminate tax breaks.

If passed by the Legislature, the amendment would need a simple majority of voters.

The initiative, filed Wednesday, comes in the wake of a Washington Supreme Court ruling in February. That ruling found that a previous Eyman-promoted initiative requiring a legislative supermajority to pass a tax increase violated the state's constitution.

The initiative would also put non-binding advisory votes on each tax increase passed by the Legislature on the ballot. And it would require that lawmakers' votes to increase taxes be listed below their photographs in state-issued voters' pamphlets.