by Amber Gunn More than 20,000 citizens signed a petition to legislators asking them to balance the budget within existing revenues. Today, 20 concerned taxpayers and representatives of EFF, including CEO Lynn Harsh and myself, presented the signatures in person to Speaker Frank Chopp and Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown. Or rather, we would have if they had made time to meet us. Unfortunately Speaker Chopp was “in a meeting” and Senator Brown was M.I.A. entirely. We called and emailed her office but received no responses from her staff. So we did the best we could, and left the signatures with their legislative aides. We collected the 20,000+ signatures in a 15-day petition drive.  The idea came after more than 80 organizations and labor unions turned in 14,000 names of people who support what they call a “progressive” approach to balancing the budget, which includes increased taxes and fees. Leaders of this coalition were eagerly greeted by Governor Gregoire,...

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By Brett Davis You’ve seen it on the national political scene: Democrats’ “Party of No” attack on Republicans in Congress opposed to the agenda of President Obama and the legislative majority. Whether or not it’s true, Republicans are being painted as mere obstructionists; good at complaining about what they don’t want, but offering nothing in the way of solutions. Critics often slap a similar “do-nothing” label on the Evergreen Freedom Foundation (and other like-minded organizations, for that matter) for our opposition to new and/or higher taxes that state leaders are contemplating. That criticism, however, misses the mark. In fact, with apologies to David Letterman, the Freedom Foundation recently put out a list of the Top 10 Ways to Cut Waste, Balance the Budget and Stimulate the Economy Without Raising Taxes. The Top 10 list is based on our more comprehensive and detailed list of 105 such ideas from last year—one for each day of the 2009 legislative...

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By Amber Gunn   More than 80 state and national groups have signed onto a coalition that was formed explicitly for the purpose of raising taxes this legislative session in Washington state. From the website:   "Rebuilding our Economic Future Coalition is an emerging broad-based, statewide coalition of organizations and individuals committed to securing the state's economic future by advocating for passage of a humane and sensible budget for 2010...The coalition supports a full dialogue toward a fair and humane budget that includes not just targeted cuts and reforms to make government more efficient, but a full discussion of potential revenue options as well."   Coalition partners: AARP Washington American Association of University Women - WA Chapter Addus Healthcare Alzheimer's Association - Western and Central Washington State Chapter Benton Franklin Parent Coalition Building Changes Cascade Chapter, Sierra Club Center on Budget and...

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By Amber Gunn Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown wants to keep you in the dark about how much bills that increase taxes or fees will cost you--and so do many of her cohorts. The Senate Democrats Blog confirms they will move to amend or suspend the initiative passed by voters in 2007 that requires lawmakers to quantify the amount that a proposed bill would raise taxes or fees. For the past two legislative sessions, Initiative 960 required the state's Office of Financial Management to quantify and send an alert regarding proposed tax or fee increase bills to anyone who wanted to know about them. Now, the initiative is in danger of being trampled by the democratic majority. Initiative 960 is an open government bill. Legislators will claim the suspension is about removing the two-thirds requirement for tax increases. That is questionable enough. After all, if tax increases are that important, they should be able to get two-thirds to agree. But a straight-up suspension of I-960 would...

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By Amber Gunn To close the state’s $2.6 billion budget deficit, Governor Gregoire and many Democratic leaders would rather propose tax increases than modify one of the state’s largest expenses—state worker salaries and benefits. In a December press conference, the governor said unions will sue if she tinkers with contract recommendations, but our state’s collective bargaining laws allow labor agreements to be modified in the event of a significant revenue shortfall. RCW 41.80.010(6) states: “If, after the compensation and fringe benefit provisions of an agreement are approved by the legislature, a significant revenue shortfall occurs resulting in reduced appropriations, as declared by proclamation of the governor or by resolution of the legislature, both parties shall immediately enter into collective bargaining for a mutually agreed upon modification of the agreement.” Because the governor has refused to reopen contracts with state workers, the ball is now in the...

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