The Stewardship
Project
In 2003, many states experienced financial bow waves from previous years
spending commitments coupled with an economic recession. Large deficits
are the result in most states. Most short-term fixes have been exhausted.
So what happens in the next budget? Some say we must cut spending; others
say we must raise taxes; most say a combination of the two will be necessary.
We believe a third way exists, as exemplified by our governors innovative
Priorities of Government (POG) model.
Business Matters
A ten-part series on resolving Washington's anti-business climate.
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]?"