I’m in the overflow hearing room for the hearing on the bill to make it easier to raise taxes and another to end some tax loopholes in the House. Here’s a picture:
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“When we did Initiative 960, we made a mistake,” said Tim Eyman. He said that mistake was not safeguarding 960 over the interim. He said they assumed that an upcoming election would serve as a safeguard.

Eyman ran into some trouble during his testimony with impugning motives, so Rep. Ross Hunter cuts him off.

Nancy Williams, taxpayer: “I believe (960) makes our legislators accountable as the bank makes me accountable with my checking account.”

Amber Carter, AWB: “We would encourage you to try and build that consensus,” she said — referring to the two-thirds requirement, rather than suspending Initiative 960. She said “raising taxes is supposed to be the last resort.”

Kim Field, SEIU: “I represent very vulnerable populations in our state,” she said, including those with TB. “When you don’t have people there, then tuberculosis is an opportunistic, airborn communicable disease,” she said. She said the state should raise taxes to make sure communicable diseases like TB aren’t spread when public healthcare funding gets cut. (more…)

Tags: 960

Right now live on TVW, you can watch the procedural debate in the House over whether the bill to suspend Initiative 960 for a year should be referred to the Finance committee.

“I think if we’re going to have such an important bill that will come through this body, it should go to the proper committee,” said Rep. Bill Hinkle. He said people at home are frustrated at how this bill has moved through the Legislature.

“The bill under consideration today … is a bill related to taxes, to revenue,” said Rep. Ross Hunter, who is the chairman of the House Finance Committee. “You could have referred it to the Ways & Means Committee,” but, he said, it wouldn’t have been the most logical choice.

“I’ve been asked why we’re doing this,” Rep. Richard DeBolt said. “We have ideas on where this bill should go … but we also want people to understand that if you have a minority voice here, it’s not … necessarily our ability to impact the system,” he said. DeBolt said the initiative was about creating “balance and voice” for the citizens and Legislature.

Rep. Norma Smith said when people are considering their future — whether of their business or family — they look at whether a state is stable. She said raising taxes “will have a chilling effect on economic development. So when we look at where we’re going to send this bill, we have to understand … this is about creating opportunity, taking a serious look in economic development committee about the impact this legislation will have,” she said.

Rep. Glenn Anderson: “If, in fact, you tax more of something, you get less of it.” He said the bill should be referred to the Economic Development Committee.

Rep. Lynn Kessler said she doesn’t “play games” when making committee referrals. “This bill belongs in Finance, and that’s after 12 years of doing referrals.”

Tags: 960

Round 1:

Round 2:

Tags: 960

The Senate just passed the Initiative 960 redo bill — this one suspends the entire initiative, making it easier to raise taxes.

It passed 26 to 22.

Here’s the bill’s page. Next stop: House public hearing on Saturday.

Tags: 960, taxes

“This is very serious. We need a little flexibility to get it done. And I would love to have some help from the other side,” Sen. Jim Hargrove. Hargrove said he voted to help pass the Rossi budget in 2004.

“I disagree that this is necessary,” said Sen. Joe Zarelli. He said Democrats have been unwilling to talk to Republicans about their budget-solving ideas. “The phone did not ring back.” Zarelli said he believes raising taxes is taking the easy route. “Unless we start working together … we’re going to keep doing this.”

Sen. Tim Sheldon: “I don’t think we ought to overturn the will of the people.” He said he’s got to stand up against his fellow Democrats.

Sen. Lisa Brown said she’s been keeping track and nearly everyone who’s stood up to say suspending Initiative 960 would be overturning the will of the people have sponsored or voted in favor of overturning, suspending or amending other initiatives. “When we talk about the will of the people, let’s be consistent. Voters sent us here to do what we believe is in the best interest of the people,” she said.

Sen. Mark Schoesller: “Most important, we’re rejecting every one of the transparency issues and we’re rejecting the notification. Now I think that’s just wrong. We can disagree on the underlying bill … but transparency is what’s dying tonight.”

Sen. Paull Shin said students not being able to attend college due to budget cuts “pains me so much” that he’s going to vote to suspend 960.

Sen. Janea Holmquist read off a list of tax increase bills that Initiative 960 helped provide momentum to stop. After each bill title, she’d say “Stopped.”

To that, Sen. Rosa Franklin rose and said: “If we didn’t have so many ‘stops,’ maybe we wouldn’t be in the predicament that we’re in.” There were some laughs after that.

Tags: 960

The Senate is now debating amendments to the 960 redo bill.

One amendment would keep the notification e-mail that is part of Initiative 960. Sen. Joe Zarelli: “People subscribe to (the listserve). The information is there… it makes no sense to me” that it would be discontinued for a year, he said.

Sen. Rodney Tom said of the millions of people in Washington, only 2,000 or so are signed up for the e-mail notification. He said the system costs money and there’s no reason to carve it out of the 960 suspension.

Sen. Cheryl Pflug: “I wonder how many of the people on that list are press who would like to know?” She said it costs no money and there’s only one reason not to do it: “And that is to make sure that we cover it up and do not let people know any more than we possibly can.”

The amendment failed 26 to 22.

Tags: 960

The Senate is back, and they might be here for a while. (The House has adjourned for the day.) Here’s the deal: They want to rerun the bill to suspend 960 for a year. But they need a two-thirds vote to allow it before midnight.

Here’s a statement from Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown:
“We’d like to vote on the bill at a reasonable hour so the public can follow the debate, but if that’s not possible, we are prepared to work past midnight into the next legislative day so that we can vote on the 960 bill and send it over to the House as soon as possible.”

Tags: 960

This week’s Off the Set interview was with Rep. Glenn Anderson, who will be on tonight’s edition of The Impact. Anderson discussed 960, taxes, the budget, school funding and more.

(Apologies the late-intro in this video, but we started chatting before I got a chance to formally introduce him.)

Tags: 960, off the set, taxes

Sen. Margarita Prentice sent out this statement last night. Due to a miscommunication, they passed a bill that suspends the two-thirds vote requirement, but not the entire initiative:

“Today’s vote was a recognition of the revenue crisis facing our state and 47 others, and the need for immediate responsiveness on the part of the Legislature to the state’s current budget emergency.

“Suspending the entire initiative allows for prompt action now, avoiding the added delay and additional cost to the state that a November public advisory vote would require. The state Treasurer says the state will run out of cash by September, so you can see how that sort of delay is something the state just can’t afford.

“We will run a bill as soon as possible on the Senate floor in line with our original intent to suspend I-960 in full until July 2011.”

Tags: 960

The bill to suspend Initiative 960 — allowing the Legislature to raise taxes with a simple majority — passed the Senate 26 to 23. It now heads to the House. It must pass there and be signed by Gov. Chris Gregoire before any tax increases could be passed.

Initiative 960 required a two-thirds vote, among other things. That requirement would be suspended until after next session under this bill.

Read about the amendments, the bill debate and the title controversy.

Tags: 960, taxes