State House GOP idiot backs off from plan to lift 1% property tax cap.

REPUBLICAN State Rep. Larry Haler from Richland actually dropped a bill to get rid of the 1% property tax cap voted into place by the people of this state a few years back.

This is yet another sign that, all too often, it really doesn't make any damned difference whether the GOP or the dems are in charge or the Republicans are in charge.

Rightfully, Haler got smacked around like a rented stepchild for his obviously democrat-inspired bill.

And the Seattle Times is now reporting he's withdrawn it.

Local NewsPolitics
After conservative pushback, tax proposal disappears 

Originally published May 24, 2015 at 3:57 pm 

After conservative opposition, a bill that would have raised the 1 percent cap on local property-tax levies was pulled by its sponsor. 

By Joseph O’SullivanSeattle Times Olympia bureau 

OLYMPIA — Big-idea revenue proposals this year have come and gone, attracting momentary attention before drifting away as state lawmakers focus on what they think could gain enough votes to pass. 

But last week, one recently introduced proposal actually, formally disappeared.
House Bill 2255, which would have lifted the 1 percent cap on local property-tax levies, was sponsored by Rep. Larry Haler, R-Richland. 

But after immediate criticism from conservatives, Haler removed his name from the bill, and the two co-sponsors declined to sign on as the main sponsors, according to Barbara Baker, chief clerk of the state House. So the bill was pulled Wednesday, meaning it no longer exists, according to Baker. 

“I think he got beat up,” Rep. Ross Hunter said of Haler. 

Hunter, D-Medina, and Rep. Cindy Ryu, D-Shoreline, were the co-sponsors.
Haler’s bill would have replaced the tax cap with a formula related to inflation and population growth. Under the formula, some areas would have been able to increase the caps to as high as 5 percent. 

In a May 7 email to supporters, anti-tax initiative activist Tim Eyman called HB 2255 “terrifying.” 

It was Eyman who in 2001 sponsored Initiative 747, which voters approved to cap property tax-rate increases at 1 percent per year. In 2007, I-747 was struck down by the state Supreme Court as unconstitutional — but lawmakers and then-Gov. Chris Gregoire reinstated it in a special session that year. 

“Can taxpayers afford a 5-fold increase in their property tax increases?” Eyman wrote in his email. “Massive increases in property taxes mean skyrocketing house payments, skyrocketing rent payments, and skyrocketing commercial lease payments (meaning higher prices for most everything you buy).” 

KIRO radio host Dori Monson also took issue with Haler’s proposal. 

The reaction “didn’t take me by surprise,” Haler said. But it was overblown, he added.
Instead of HB 2255, Haler says he now intends to propose a study of the 1 percent property-tax cap to help encourage a discussion. 

That proposal would direct the state Department of Revenue and Office of Program Research to assess “what has the 1 percent affected or not affected and what would be a reasonable (tax-cap) rate,” he said.