Orcutt takes up the challenge: Make I-1053 an Amendment to the Constitution.

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Kudos to my state representative, Ed Orcutt (R-Kalama) for stepping up. Well done!

Orcutt seeks a tax clamp with constitutional force

Amendment would not be suspendable

By Kathie Durbin
Columbian Staff Reporter

Sunday, January 30, 2011

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State Rep. Ed Orcutt dropped a political bombshell in Olympia 10 days ago in introducing a bill that would enshrine a formidable barrier to state tax increases in the Washington Constitution.

State Rep. Ed Orcutt, R-Kalama

The Kalama Republican, bolstered by November’s overwhelming vote for an initiative requiring a two-thirds vote in each legislative chamber to raise taxes, said it’s time to make the high bar permanent.

“The whole purpose of putting it into the Constitution is to make it impossible for the Legislature to use a simple majority vote to eliminate a two-thirds vote requirement,” he said.

That happened in 2010, when the Legislature, controlled by Democrats, suspended the two-thirds vote requirement in Initiative 960, sponsored by anti-tax activist Tim Eyman and approved by voters in 2007.Under the constitution, the Legislature has the power to suspend or amend voter-approved measures after they have been in place for two years.

It’s not the first time the Legislature has reversed a voter-approved bill requiring a supermajority to raise taxes, Orcutt noted.

In 2002, Democrats, who held a slim majority in each chamber, suspended I-601, a 1993 initiative sponsored by former House Republican Rep. Linda Smith, who, like Orcutt, represented Southwest Washington’s 18th District. Eyman responded in 2007 with I-960, part of which was suspended by the Legislature in 2010.

In all, Washington voters have either enacted or affirmed a two-thirds vote requirement for tax increases four times: in 1993, 1998, 2007 and 2010. With a simple majority vote, the Legislature has suspended the requirement three times — in 2002, 2005 and 2010.

In November, voters approved Eyman’s latest supermajority initiative, I-1053, by nearly a 64 percent majority.

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The Will of the People. It's more than just a bumper sticker.
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