Article by Erik Smith. Published on Friday, July 02, 2010 EST.
I-1053 Submits 333,000 Signatures Friday – Would Make it Harder to Raise Taxes
Eyman delivers signatures Friday, flanked by state senators Pam Roach and Don Benton.
By Erik Smith
Staff writer/ Washington State Wire
OLYMPIA, July 2.—Just in time for another enormous budget shortfall, voters this November will be asked if they want to put the handcuffs back on the state Legislature and make it harder to raise taxes.
But there’s something interesting going on in the background of Initiative 1053, a virtual carbon copy of a measure that was passed by the voters three years ago and deep-sixed by the Legislature this year. This time business has climbed aboard. That’s because the stakes keep getting bigger as the state’s financial ship keeps sinking.
Business support is going to make I-1053 one of the hottest issues on this year’s ballot – without it, the measure wouldn’t even had made it this far.
Backers submitted 333,000 signatures to the state elections office Friday, virtually guaranteeing the measure a spot on this year’s ballot.
Like I-960, the successful 2007 ballot measure that it essentially reenacts, I-1053 requires a two-thirds vote of the House and Senate before taxes can be increased. Just like the last one, it is the product of Washington’s most successful initiative promoter, Tim Eyman. What’s different is that this time the campaign has had the backing of the Association of Washington Business almost from the very start.
Business Support Significant
Normally AWB doesn’t endorse ballot measures until September. The early endorsement for this one kick-started an independent business campaign for the measure. In recent weeks the word swept Olympia’s lobbying community that Eyman was seeking support from business to raise money for the 1053 signature drive. And while Eyman isn’t commenting on what happened, the result Friday showed that business came through.
Exactly how much business contributed toward the signature drive won’t be known until campaign finance reports are filed July 10, but the amount is likely to be in excess of $300,000.
That’s just the start. Normally Eyman runs a modern version of the “front porch campaign” to promote his ballot measures, spending virtually nothing after the signatures are gathered. He relies on the press and word of mouth to carry his message. The strategy didn’t work very well last year – voters rejected an Eyman-backed spending-limit measure after the opposition spent a staggering $3.5 million on TV and radio advertising.
It’s not going to be that way this time.
With business running its own campaign, you can count on an independent effort to promote the ballot measure, with big bucks, TV advertising and everything else that Eyman has traditionally lacked.
A Two-Year Insurance Policy
What I-1053 really offers is a short-term insurance policy that the Democrats who control the state Legislature won’t raise taxes without Republican support. The Dems have big majorities, but the two-thirds-vote requirement means they need at least a handful of Republican lawmakers to side with them. Unless the sky begins falling, that’s not very likely.
I-960 managed to prevent tax increases in 2008 and 2009 – or at least Democrats didn’t bother suggesting the idea.
But the constitution allows lawmakers to rewrite initiatives two years after they take effect, with a simple majority vote. That’s what happened this year. Democrats suspended I-960 and promptly raised taxes by about $800 million.
Republicans didn’t make it easy, of course. The minority has a few powers, and one of them is to debate things as long as possible and make the process absolutely excruciating. Total elapsed time of the floor debate in the House and Senate was 15 hours and 54 minutes, not counting dinner and bathroom breaks.
State Sen. Don Benton, R-Vancouver, said Friday that by the time Republicans had finished debating the issue for days on end, the issue finally made sense to thousands of Washingtonians. That made it easier to collect signatures for I-1053 this time around.
“I really think 1053 will become a litmus test,” he said. “If you support 1053, you’ll have a chance of being elected, and if you don’t support 1053, they won’t vote you in.”
Big Stakes Next Year
What has drawn business into the fight on 1053 is the fact that things are about to get even worse. Lawmakers faced a total $12 billion shortfall over the last two years, and they cut everything that is easy to cut.
But the state budget is still way out of whack, thanks to the national recession and ambitious spending plans adopted in the boom years. Next year the governor’s office projects a $3 billion shortfall, and then another $5 billion shortfall in 2013-2015.
So who’s going to pay for it?
No business is safe, Eyman says. Democrats proved it this year.
“In a sense you have to say that the greatest promoters of 1053 were the Democrats themselves,” he said. “You just saw one attack after another, on realtors, banks, the oil industry, soda pop. You take every industry they hit and you have people saying, ‘Oh my God, what’s it going to look like next year if 1053 doesn’t pass?'”
It’s the first time business has really come together on an anti-tax measure in such a coordinated way, he said.
All Business on Ballot
Actually, 1053 might be seen in the context of everything else that appears headed for the ballot this year. There are five business-backed initiatives, dealing with everything from workers’ compensation to liquor-store privatization. And business is already is assembling a campaign to defeat the sixth, an income-tax measure backed by unions and the social-service lobby. AWB has been pressing hardest on 1053 while other groups have been pressing harder on others. But business as a whole is using the ballot-measure approach this year far more aggressively than in the past. It’s as though someone flipped a switch.
It also seems that AWB’s loyal opposition in the Washington State Labor Council has picked up on the shift. Two weeks ago the labor council posted a story on its website in which the writer called every member company on the AWB board and demanded that it explain its position on 1053. Most of the companies said they hadn’t taken a stand. That led the author to wonder where the support for the endorsement came from, and he denounced AWB for secrecy.
It led others to wonder if union officials would have been so polite if AWB had called them and demanded to know how they voted in private labor council meetings.
1053 and 1082 are Top Priorities
In a statement released Friday, AWB president Don Brunell said the top priorities for his group are 1053 and 1082, the worker-comp measure that was put forward this year by the Building Industry Association of Washington.
“Voters — especially Washington state employers — want some certainty in their lives right now,” he said, “The cumulative effect of taxes, fees and regulations is making it difficult to stay in business. Both 1053 and 1082 would help give our members a firmer foothold.
“Voters approved I-960 three years ago. They wanted to limit the growth of government and taxes. Now the state’s in a budget crisis and Democrat lawmakers revoked the will of the people. That’s why our members have expressed such strong support for 1053.
“AWB member companies are also weary of the skyrocketing taxes and politics that are unraveling our state’s workers’ compensation system. The Legislature had several chances to take this on, and punted every time. So the employer community stepped up with I-1082, in the hopes that even a few of the fundamental issues — like privatization – might be resolved. Voters will have the final say, and we’re eager to tell our side of the story between now and November. These are important issues for our times.”
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