Seeing as how I’ve gradually spent less and less time on the PC this week (with less than 30 minutes spent on-line yesterday), I’ve been falling behind on my ‘Issues’ reading. As for local issues, I scan the emails the Seattle Times sends to me for free every morning and that has been about it.
Thankfully, someone else has been up to the task of keeping an eye on the wiley bastards who run the local governments.
The Heartless Libertarian sunk his teeth into Washington State Attorney General, Rob McKenna (R), after Snohomish County Superior Court Judge James Allendoerfer found that McKenna was sandbagging the voters of Washington. He also has a seperate companion piece that you should peruse right here.
There is a bit of history behind this story, so let me fill it in right-quick:
In 1993, the citizenry passed Citizens Initiative 601, which established state spending and taxation limits based on the size of the general fund. Life was decent in Washington under I-601. Spending was under control, and taxes, while still too high for my liking, weren’t skyrocketing. The people of the land were, for the most part, content.
Then the Democrats wrenched control of both the legislative state houses and the governorship in the 2004 elections. Their beady little peepers looked with hatred at I-601 and decided that it just wouldn’t do.
So they passed Senate Bill 6078, which took away the requirement for a supermajority of the vote in order to pass new/increase taxes. They did this by saying feel-good things like ‘School Levies should only need a simple majority in order to be passed’, which, of course, is complete bullshit. If there is one single thing demands a supermajority, it is a more money for the pit that is the disfuctional Washington State Public School System.
The most egregious part of SB-6078 was that it was passed as “Emergency Legislation”. In Washington, if something is passed as an “Emergency”, it cannot be challenged by the citizenry with a referendum vote before it takes effect. “Emergency Legislation” could be categorized as a ‘Get Out of Jail Free Card’ for legislators, in that, the legislators will be the ones collecting the $200 an they pass “GO” over and over and over again.
But, most of the people bought into it, and little to no flak will have to be dodged during the next round of elections because of it.
Which brings us to HL’s piece; the judge found that not only was the Attorney General wrong in thinking that I-601 was ‘Unconstitutional’ (the AG having presented that argument incorrectly), but also that the House Democrats cooked the books using environmentally friendly non-fossil fuels. They essentially grabbed money that wasn’t supposed to be counted, around $250 million, and put it in the general fund so as to make it seem larger, so that they could spend more, and then put the money that wasn’t supposed to be ing there, back where they found it.
Nice little scam they had going, eh?
Unfortunately, this issue will not stop here. If McKenna doesn’t bring this issue to the Washington Supreme Court, some leftist will take up the banner and get it through the doors. Once it gets inside there, it is anyone’s guess what they’ll do to it. I can name a couple of judges who will say the county judge was correct, and I can do the same for the judges who will say that he was incorrect, but the others, you just can’t get a line on.
So we’ll have to wait and see.
About the only shining light I can see, even with this story is that, while McKenna backstabbed the citizenry on I-601, he didn’t waste our state’s money, staff and time on joining the lawsuit against the fed for their “Weak Federal Fuel Efficiency Standards issued in March”.
You don’t have to follow that link, but if you do, you’ll see left-wing environmental lunacy, as well as a familiar button at the top of their right-hand column showing their Musolinni-esque/Brown Shirt style activity to harass people who are trying to gather signatures for conservative causes in Washington.
I showed you those buttons back in February, when the NW Progressive Institute first displayed them. The folks on the other side of the above link, wear their’s as a badge of pride.
Nice folks. This should be the by-line at the top of their page:
“We support lying to the taxpayer so that we can spend more of their money on what WE want to spend it on, and if the taxpayers balk at us spending the money and try to start an Citizens Initiative or a referendum to stop us, we will send out our idological minions to harrass them!”