Legislature Now Using "Emergency Clause" Regularly For Unpopular Tax Bills


Source: ShiftWA.org

It turns out that it is possible to balance the state’s budget without raising taxes, and two weeks after the Washington State Senate Republicans proposed a budget that does just that (without including an unconstitutional state income tax on capital gains), the Seattle Times finally decided to do a story about it.  Of course, the story was primarily focused on the Democrats’ plan for an unconstitutional state income tax, not why such a tax is unnecessary when state tax revenues are going up.  Nor did the story’s author consider the Democrats’ dubious inclusion of a so-called “emergency clause” in the tax legislation, to prevent voters from overturning the law with a referendum.  The “emergency” the Democrats are falsely claiming is that the revenue is needed for COVID-19 relief, despite the fact that the earliest any revenue would be collected from SB 5096 is 2023.  This significant restriction on voter involvement chosen by the Democrats was not included in the Times story. While the author did state an initiative could still occur, there is a significant difference between a referendum and an initiative in terms of the number of signatures needed to place the issue before state voters, which is why Democrats don’t want the people to be able to file a referendum.  Referendums (which the emergency clause prohibits) only require signatures from 4% of those who voted in the previous election (162,258 signatures) to be placed on the ballot, while initiatives require twice that (8%) many (324,516).   (Seattle Times, Washington Legislature Bill Summary, Washington Policy Center, Washington Secretary of State 2020 Election Results, and Ballotpedia)

And speaking of “emergency clauses” to prohibit citizens repealing bad legislative actions through referendums – now Democrat legislators are now routinely including the restriction in their unpopular measures to raise other taxes.   As we previously mentioned, the Democrats have included it in their state income tax bill, despite being unwilling to define what constitutes an “emergency?”  A 2019 Washington Policy Center report provides good background on this question, and also suggested that “emergency clauses” need to receive 2/3 support from both legislative chambers (a “supermajority”) before being approved.  Republican senators in 2013 proposed legislation (SB 8026) to require a supermajority to pass “emergency” bills, but the Democrats (who hate any obstacles to increase taxes) never allowed the bill to reach the floor.  (Washington Policy Center and Washington Legislature Bill Summary)

There is growing anxiety among Washington State seniors regarding state officials discussing the next stage of their immunization plan, even as most seniors who are already eligible for shots are still unable to obtain appointments to be vaccinated.  According to a Washington State Department of Health (DOH) spokesperson, the state is still “well below” vaccinating 50% of eligible seniors.  Of course, DOH can’t really provide a more precise count on how badly the state is failing, because counting really isn’t a skill set at use by the Inslee Administration. (KING5 News)

 

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