According the Seattle Times columnist Bruce Ramsey: This is spite, codified.
The best way to protect our rights is to exercise them.
"We have to get 960 overturned as soon as possible," said Lisa Brown, the Democrats' leader in the state senate. In the state house, Speaker Frank Chopp wins the Alice in Wonderland down-is-up, up-is-down award for his Orwellian statement: "We must suspend 960 to carry out the will of the people."
To counter their arrogant effort to take away Initiative 960's policies -- which have been approved by the voters 3 times and which have survived 2 court challenges -- the 14 of us are sponsoring I-1053, the "Save The 2/3's Vote For Tax Increases Initiative." Asked about our initiative recently, Gregoire responded by telling our supporters to "stop meddling" and "leave it to us."
I-1053 reinstates I-960's common sense policy:
* For state government to raise taxes, the Legislature must receive 2/3's legislative approval or voter approval (either 2/3's of the politicians or simple majority of the voters); and
* For state government to increase fees, the Legislature must receive majority legislative approval.
We can send you petitions right away but we ask you not to wait -- instead, please print up petitions using the PDF file of the petition (it must be printed front & back on 11" x 17" paper) and start getting signatures immediately. You can download the petition here: http://www.VotersWantMoreChoices.com or http://www.VotersWantMoreChoices.com/1053petition.pdf. Some of you work in offices with copiers and printers that can do 11x17 -- if not, you can forward the PDF file to a local FedEx Kinkos, Office Depot or local printer and have them make as many copies as you want (costs about 30 cents a copy).
We know what it takes to succeed but there are no shortcuts -- collecting over 300,000 voter signatures means 2000 signatures PER DAY -- that requires enormous effort and persistence. To succeed, we need everyone to start collecting voter signatures IMMEDIATELY. Today. Right now. Not a single day can be wasted. There are events and rallies and conventions and caucuses happening RIGHT NOW and we need all of you to take advantage of every opportunity to collect signatures over the next 150 days -- the deadline is July 2nd.
Carry a petition wherever you go. Put it on the door of your office. Put it on the counter of your business. Ask local businesses to put it on their counters. Don't just let it sit there -- ask people to sign it. Tell them why. Because politicians don't get it. Because politicians aren't listening. Because it shouldn't be easy to raise taxes. Because working families and senior citizens can't afford higher taxes, especially now. Because without these policies, politicians will radically raise taxes and impose huge new fees. Because I-960's 2/3's vote requirement stopped BILLIONS OF DOLLARS of job-killing tax increases over the past 2 years.
Please ... HELP!!!!!
Regards, Our Expanded Team of co-sponsors for I-1053, the "Save The 2/3's Vote For Tax Increases Initiative": Tim Eyman, Jack Fagan, Mike Fagan, Mike Dunmire, Senator Don Benton, Senator Janea Holmquist, Erma Turner, Nancy Nelson, Dagny Lord, Keli Carender, Senator Pam Roach, Rep. Matt Shea, John Ahern & Ken Morse, ph: 425-493-9127, email: tim_eyman@comcast.net, http://www.VotersWantMoreChoices.com (go to our website to do a secure donation by VISA/Mastercard/PayPal)
Posted by Tim Eyman at February 03, 2010 07:32 AM | Email ThisIt's not like the people have the same opinion now as then. If anything, this state -- indeed, the whole country -- has become much more anti-tax since November 2007.
You've seen all the massive pro-tax rallies. If the will of the people is to keep taxes down, then why haven't we seen tens of thousands of people across the state, and millions across the country, out protesting tax increases in the last couple of years?
Satire FAIL.
They should, really, just be honest. "Look, we think we should raise taxes. We know many of you disagree, and most of you voted to not raise taxes in this way, but we think you're wrong; and further, we know you won't vote us out of office, so we don't care anyway."
This would raise public opinion of them, I think.
The arrogance is absolutely breathtaking. And yes, the comment Orwellian.
Posted by: Michele on February 3, 2010 11:57 AMThis is easy to understand. In their view, THEY are the people. The rest of us are just tax fodder. I rather give money to Eyman than hand it over to the government.
Posted by: Jack on February 3, 2010 01:05 PMIf children want to play government, they should do it for real.
Posted by: Joe Szilagyi on February 3, 2010 01:25 PMIt's so nice that you are so much more superior than 1.5 to 1.8 million other voters in this state that you can deride them as being "children" when they try, through the initiative or referendum process, to give a collective message to their deaf legislative "representatives".
Posted by: SouthernRoots on February 3, 2010 01:36 PMhttp://www.pushbacknotax.com/
Posted by: Grassman on February 3, 2010 02:06 PMEven if reckless, irresponsible spending created the bills?
Tax cuts are a partial attempt to starve the beast to make it cut back on reckless spending, but it is an uphill battle.
Posted by: SouthernRoots on February 3, 2010 02:18 PMYeah, that's how we got Governor Quagmire, and now we're in the red by how much as of today? Seems the only people that understand how to run government responsibily are too busy being productive members of society that pay the taxes the anointed liberal-elitists choose to waste once they get to Olympia. This state needs to have a political high colonic if it ever has a chance to grow up and quit following the lead of economic failures like those of the state of California.
Posted by: Rick D. on February 3, 2010 06:50 PMAlso, your stated initiative would be patently unconstitutional, since no such limit on the right to initiative is permitted by the state constitution.
Seems to me you're the child here, lacking basic understanding of what the law actually is.
Michael: you make some reasonable points, but the fact is, if the Democratic legislature and governor didn't screw up so much, then so many people wouldn't be so interested in passing these initiatives. The right to initiative is a safety valve, kinda like term limits (which might be a better solution to the same problem, but also harms the republican nature of our government).