2008 COMMENTARY

March 04, 2008

Bob Williams letter to Lisa Brown re: I-960 lawsuit

By Bob Williams

Dear Senator Brown:

Under terms of the state’s open records law, we respectfully request your office provide us with any and all communications, hard copy or electronic, notes and any other materials related to the effort to overturn the two-thirds vote requirement for tax increases between September 1, 2007 and March 3, 2008, including communications regarding the writ of mandamus filed Monday. These would include communications between your office, the Governor’s office, the Lt. Governor’s office, all members of the Legislature, and private organizations or individuals.

Because you have requested an expedited schedule from the Court, we request that you expedite your response to us.

As the governor pointed out yesterday at her media availability, no one should be terribly surprised that a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Initiative 960 and the underlying challenge to Initiative 601 would be filed.

I note, however, that effort attempts to undo in just one week what voters supported twice in the last 15 years.

The Seventh Amendment of our state constitution affirms the people’s sovereignty. “The legislative authority of the state of Washington shall be vested in the legislature . . . but the people reserve to themselves the power to propose bills, laws, and to enact or reject the same at the polls, independent of the legislature…” There were reasons that amendment was passed, and checking the power of the Legislature was one of them.

Undoing the expressed will of the people is not a good reason to file a lawsuit. The Legislature has effectively contrived its own fiscal crisis by spending more than is available. Overturning I-960 tax limits may seem like a solution, but it is a flagrant dismissal of the will of the people and a complete failure to recognize the core problem facing our state.

The ability to raise taxes is not the issue; the Legislature’s inability to control spending is.

The Legislature should regain fiscal restraint and return to the Priorities of Government budget model.

Constitutional questions deserve thoughtful consideration. There is no reason to ask the Court to rule on constitutional issues without giving members adequate time to consider the legal merits.

In the meantime, we would appreciate your expedited response. If any documents are redacted or withheld, we request an index of those documents and the specific exemptions claimed for each.

Cordially, 

Bob Williams
President
Evergreen Freedom Foundation

Bob Williams is the Founder and Senior Fellow of the Evergreen Freedom Foundation, a public policy organization in Olympia, Washington, dedicated to the advancement of individual liberty. He is known as a national expert in the areas of fiscal and tax policies, election reform and disaster preparedness. He received his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Pennsylvania State University. Bob worked as a GAO auditor of the Pentagon and Post Office before moving to Washington state where he served five terms in the Washington state legislature and was the 1988 Republican nominee for governor.

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