State House democrats are scum.

So, House democrats ignore the law mandated by the people of this state, so THEY can govern?

They're scum. Truly.

Source: soundpolitics.com

Legislative Democrats Ignore Voter-Mandated Tax Limits ... Again

A friend following the action in the Democrat-controlled legislature e-mails:

The Appropriations Committee is having its cut-off meeting for bills originating in the Senate. One of the bills in front of us is SB 6078, the Senate proposal to amend the Initiative 601 spending limit in various ways and to eliminate the requirement that a two-thirds vote of each house of the Legislature is needed to raise taxes. We just got word that Rep. McIntire (D-Seattle) will offer a striking amendment to the bill providing as follows:

(1) After July 1, 1995, any action or combination of actions by the legislature that raises state revenue or requires revenue-neutral tax shifts may be taken only if approved by a two-thirds vote of each house, and then only if state expenditures in any fiscal year, including the new revenue, will not exceed the state expenditure limits established under this chapter. However, for legislation enacted between the effective date of this act and June 30, 2007, any action or combination of actions by the legislature that raises state revenue or requires revenue-neutral tax shifts may be taken with the approval of a majority of members elected to each house, so long as state expenditures in any fiscal year, including the new revenue, will not exceed the state expenditure limits established under this chapter.

The same bill was passed by the Democrats in the 2002 session. The bill was SB 6819. The only thing different in that 2002 bill from this striking amendment to 6078 is that 6819 said "June 30, 2005" rather than "June 30, 2007." It appears that every time the Democrats want to raise taxes, they just pass a bill saying, in effect, "We herein disregard what the people said when they passed I-601."

UPDATE: Correspondent reports:

6078 as amended by the McIntire striker passed the Appropriations Committee 15-13, all Republicans and two Democrats, Haigh and Linville, voting no.

Rep. McIntire: "This is a simple, straightforward amendment allowing the majority to govern."

Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at 05:37 PM | Comments (24) | Email This