Even the P-I gets it.

Wednesday, April 13, 2005

Arrogant lawmakers tread on voters' wishes

JULIA A. YOUNGS
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER COLUMNIST

Our state government has seized the reins of spending from voter hands and the budgetary cart is out of control. Over the past month, the Legislature has willfully overridden voter-mandated spending constraints, presented a budget that veils the severity of the spending problem while mortgaging our future and has refused to submit to independent audits of this crazy spending spree.

The Legislature voted along party lines to set aside the requirement of voter-approved Initiative 601 that tax increases be approved by a supermajority of legislators for the 2005-07 biennium. This is an encore presentation of what they did for the last biennium.

Since a majority can set aside the requirement for the supermajority, this maneuver defeats voters' intent in passing I-601. Rep. Jim McIntire, D-Seattle, summed up the Legislature's arrogance by referring to the set-aside as a "procedural motion that has no bearing" and that I-601 was "a statutory constraint that cannot constrain any legislature that chooses as a majority to set it aside."

Still more insulting is the slight-of-hand being passed off as constituency-compliant budgeting. Initiative 601 caps increases in government spending. These caps are tied to inflation and population growth and require that any non-emergent expenditures beyond this be approved by the voters. (Emergencies include spending required to alleviate human suffering in a crisis such as an earthquake.) By passing "emergency" measures that just couldn't wait until the next budget was passed, and by incorporating some fancy budgetary shifting between accounts, our present governor managed to artificially increase the budgetary base that is used to determine how much may be spent this biennium.

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