Article by Erik Smith. Published on Wednesday, October 13, 2010 EST.

Gregoire Endorses I-1098 – Reverses Campaign Promises, Says She Can’t Think of Another Way Out of Budget Mess

Nope, never, nyet — Gov. Gregoire declares her opposition to an income tax during one of many TV appearances in the 2008 campaign.

By Erik Smith

Staff writer/ Washington State Wire

OLYMPIA, Oct. 13.—As memories of a hundred campaign promises to the contrary danced in everyone’s heads Tuesday, Gov. Christine Gregoire crossed the line she has taken her entire political career and endorsed the idea of an income tax for the state of Washington.

            Gregoire said she will be voting for Initiative 1098 this year, and so should you.

            At a news conference Tuesday, the governor said she can’t think of another way out of the state’s current budget crisis. “I’ve searched my soul,” she said. “I’m not a big fan of the income tax, as you know. If I wasn’t in an economic crisis of a lifetime, I might choose otherwise, but I’m voting yes.”

            Gregoire’s new stand might not come as a shock. The Democratic governor has been considerably warmer toward taxes than she seemed to be during her two campaigns, now that state tax revenues have plummeted and the state finds itself in the worst jam since the Great Depression. She’s been hinting for months that she might endorse the high-earner income tax measure that has been put forward this year by a coalition of labor groups and the wealthy Bill Gates, Sr.

 A few months ago she said she planned to sign the petition to put Initiative 1098 on the ballot. But as for voting for it, she was going to have to think about that one long and hard.

Now she says she’s thought about it.

            Reverses Campaign Stand

            The only problem is that her new position runs entirely contrary to everything she said on the subject during her two runs for governor in 2004 and 2008. Her opposition to an income tax was one of the reasons she defeated former King County Executive Ron Sims in a 2004 primary.

            And every time her Republican opponent in both races, Dino Rossi, tried to argue that her opposition wasn’t firm, she called the idea poppycock.

            You can even find the video on You Tube. This comment from an Aug. 11, 2008 TV appearance:

            “You know,” she said, “there have been some comments made by my opponent on this, and I guess he has forgotten four years ago. Four years ago I was involved in a hotly contested primary. My opponent was for an income tax, and I made it clear I did not support it. I have not changed my mind.”

            Changing Mind is Governor’s Privilege

             In fact, on the governor’s 2008 campaign website, you can find a whole page of quotes designed to dispel any notion that she might someday support an income tax. They’re headed, “Truth: Governor Chris Gregoire’s position is clear – she opposes a state income tax. Just look at the record…”

            But the truth has changed.

            After a massive expansion in state spending during her first four years as governor, the bottom fell out of the economy. Wall Street had its meltdown in late 2008. Taxes tanked. And those two factors – wildly optimistic spending plans and wildly negative reality – handed the state a shortfall that totaled $12 billion over the last two years. Next year another $4.5 billion shortfall looms ahead, this time with no federal stimulus money to help cover it.

            Gregoire told reporters Tuesday she can’t see any other solution.

            No Way Out

            “I’m voting yes, candidly, because I don’t know what we do. We can’t afford to lose our investment in the education of our children. I respect some of those CEOs that are saying no to it, but I say to them, how are we going to give you the skilled workforce of tomorrow? You are united in telling me you need a skilled workforce. Well, how do I get it to you?

“So it may not be the best vehicle, but I don’t have another vehicle. My hat goes off to Bill Gates, Sr., for his belief that you ought to leave those behind you in as good a shape or better shape than you found yourself, for his commitment to education, particularly early childhood education. He is a passionate individual about education.

“He has brought a good idea forward and he has asked the voters to consider it. And I am asking voters to consider what is the alternative. More cuts to education that we simply cannot afford?”

            Money Might Not be There

That raises another question – would there be any money under I-1098 in time to do anything about the state’s current budget crisis? The governor’s budget writers and the state’s top economic forecaster maintain that the current budget trouble is a temporary thing, most likely lasting another two to three years. After that point it’s supposed to be onward and upward again for the state economy – though of course the state won’t be on the same trajectory it was on back before the whole mess started.

Meanwhile, any income tax proposal is likely to face years of court challenges. Initiative 1098 has been designed to get around a state Supreme Court decision of the 1930s that bars anything but a flat-rate income tax, by defining it as an excise tax, rather than an income tax. That provision alone is one of many that would be tested.

 Would the courts issue a final ruling before the state finds another way out?

Gregoire, a former state attorney general, said there’s a chance the courts might allow an income tax to take effect while the inevitable challenges make their slow way through the system. “I don’t know where a judge might come down,” she said.

            What Makes People Cynical

The governor said people have a right to feel cynical about politics – but that was on a different topic. She said campaign advertising for Initiative 1107, a tax-rollback measure sponsored by the soda-pop industry, is distorting the truth by claiming that the rollback would affect groceries and food. The bulk of the new taxes that would be repealed by the measure are on candy, soda pop and gum.

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