Jayne: Possible constitutional amendment a taxing prospect

Well, Sen. Don Benton, R-Vancouver, isn’t happy, noting in his typically nuanced and mature fashion that, “I wasn’t sent to Olympia to represent some liberal King County judge.” But Benton’s bullying persona aside, many lawmakers are happy with the decision.

That is understandable, because legislators need to look at the state budget holistically. They don’t have the luxury of thinking that taxes exist in a vacuum without pondering how those taxes impact state services and state residents and state employees.

Making it more difficult to raise taxes makes it more difficult for lawmakers to do their jobs, and if citizens don’t like how that job is performed, the recourse is available at the ballot box.

Taxpayers don’t have to deal with such complexities. They can seize the simplistic approach that taxes are bad and cling to it — and cling, they have. Six times voters have approved a two-thirds requirement, and six times it has been overturned by the Legislature or the courts.

Yet while I disagree with the majority on this subject, I can feel the pain of the voters. And that is why my head hurts.

“We’re doing something extraordinarily difficult; we’re trying to limit government’s power,” Eyman said in a phone interview. “I’m probably the only person who is surprised by this ruling. I was just bursting with optimism.”

Despite a variety of attempts to institute a two-thirds requirement by employing a variety of strategies, proponents keep getting sent back to the drawing board. Next, they hope to appeal to the state Supreme Court, but the question remains: Why is it so difficult for the citizens of the state to change their own constitution? When the courts said the constitution cannot be changed by initiative, voters came back and told the Legislature to do it; now the courts say that isn’t fair.

What comes next?

To that end, lawmakers still could refer the issue to the voters, even without the cudgel of a sales-tax reduction. “Whether it’s $30 car tabs or charter schools or property-tax limits, the Legislature has a track record of correcting the courts and implementing the will of the people when the will of the people is clear,” Eyman said.

The will of the people has been clear regarding a two-thirds supermajority — even if that will is misguided. And that puts the Legislature in a bind.

Lawmakers could seize the opportunity to elevate the discussion and tweak Washington’s tax system, which has been ranked by some as the most regressive in the nation. Because the state has no income tax and is heavily reliant upon sales tax, an inordinate percentage of the tax burden lands upon poor people, and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy has deduced: “Washington has the most unfair state and local tax system in the country.”

That seems like an apple ripe for the picking, with the juiciest option being a capital-gains tax. But considering that the Legislature needed three extra sessions last year simply to agree on a budget, creative compromise regarding the tax system seems unlikely.

Which means that lawmakers just might try to conform to the will of the people and send a constitutional amendment to voters. And that might be enough to give me a migraine.