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BUDGET & TAXES
The Evergreen Freedom Foundation provides analysis of budget and tax issues with an emphasis on Washington state. EFF attempts to identify government pork-barrel spending, inefficient practices, and rules and regulations that needlessly increase costs for taxpayers. In determining wasteful government spending, EFF considers whether a program is a core function of government. If it is, then is the program executed at the most appropriate level of government? Tax policies are assessed according to the following principles:
What's New: Legislature
doesn't trust state auditor Senate
fails to adopt independent performance audits by one vote House
strikes out on fiscal restraint Capital
budget should focus on "state" projects Senate
adopts budget ensuring future billion dollar "deficit" More on Budget and Taxes:
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1 Part Honesty; 2 Parts Arrogance At a March 23, 2005, House Appropriations hearing on a bill to gut the voter-approved I-601 spending limit, Rep. Jim McIntire (D) asked a supporter of I-601’s two-third supermajority requirement for the legislature to raise taxes the following question: "Can you name a time when we [legislators] have actually not just set it [supermajority requirement] aside by majority vote? I mean, this is in many respects a procedural motion that has no bearing. It’s a statutory constraint that cannot constrain any legislature that chooses as a majority to set it aside . . . have we ever used a supermajority [to raise taxes]?" - Rep. Jim McIntire (D - 46) Despite the arrogance of some state officials, Washington's constitution is clear: "All political power is inherent in the people..." |
