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Collection: BP, Tim Eyman, and I-1053

I-1185’s Two-Thirds Rule is Exactly the Wrong Idea

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For Cascadians in the state of Washington, the ballot measure that needs much more attention  this year is Tim Eyman’s latest supermajority voting rule, Initiative 1185. Eyman’s measure would do even more damage to our state in the coming legislative season than its predecessors already have. It’s time to restore fiscal sanity, to say nothing of majority rule, to the state legislature by voting “no.”

Under 1185, as under its nearly identical predecessors, most revenue matters in Olympia require two-thirds House and Senate votes for passage. In other words, they are held hostage to a minority of legislators—a third of senators or representatives—who can block any path forward to a fairer or more adequate revenue system for the state.

When people encounter the Eyman supermajority rule, its oddest effect often strikes them as its craziest: the legislature can (and does) create new tax loopholes by simple majority—at whatever cost to state revenues. But if tax breaks prove ill-considered or outlive their legitimate purposes, it takes a two-thirds vote to remove them from the books. Lobbyists defending tax loopholes need only handfuls of votes—17 senators to be precise—to safeguard tax policies that favor the few at the expense of the many. That’s why special interests (this year, oil companies and liquor and restaurant interests) filled the Eyman campaign war chest with over $1 million for the signature collectors to put I-1185 on the ballot.

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Will Court Throw Out Eyman’s Supermajority Rule?

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As I’ve said, yesterday was a hugely important day: the Washington State Supreme Court heard oral arguments on I-1053, the undemocratic law that gives minority factions in each house of the Washington legislature veto power over closing tax loopholes and raising revenue. (Find news coverage at Publicola here and here, The Oregonian, and The News Tribune.) This is arguably the single biggest legal barrier to progress in Washington on issues ranging from climate to education.

I watched the hearings twice (here) and took note of every question a justice asked. I even tried to study the justices’ inflection and body language. (Paging, Cal Lightman.)

I came away more optimistic than before. I’m raising my estimate of the odds from one in four to one in two—50-50—that the court will throw out Eyman’s measure and restore the Washington legislature to majority rule. If so, many good things will become more possible: Puget Sound clean-up, funding for education, perhaps even a carbon tax shift. Such a ruling would also moot I-1185, a carbon copy of 1053 that will be on November’s ballot.

But handicapping supreme court cases is notoriously difficult, and I’m a novice at it. So you should take what follows with a handful of salt. We won’t know the outcome until the court announces its decision, probably some time before the end of the year.

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What Has Tesoro Done Lately?

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It’s been a couple of months since we last checked to see what oil refiner Tesoro has been up to. During that time, there have been three significant events to report: 1.) On December 9, 2010, Tesoro’s problem-plagued refinery in Martinez, California had yet another flare-up: A power outage at the Tesoro Golden Eagle Refinery prompted a visit … Read more

A Noose Around Tax Loopholes

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Despite the fact that it hasn’t yet been introduced, I’ve already got a favorite bill in Washington’s still-young legislative session. Representative Reuven Carlyle is taking aim at the tax loopholes that riddle the state’s tax code. In the process, it could also put Eyman’s I-1053 in the judicial crosshairs.

As the news site PubliCola reported yesterday:

Thanks to I-1053, last year’s voter-approved Tim Eyman initiative that reestablished the requirement for a two-thirds vote of the legislature to raise taxes, it takes a supermajority to eliminate tax loopholes. (When you cut a tax loophole, you’re raising taxes.)

State Rep. Reuven Carlyle (D-36, Seattle) thinks it’s unfair that it only takes a simple majority to create a tax loophole, but a two-thirds vote to repeal one, and he plans to introduce a bill in the next week that will put sunset dates on all of the estimated 500 plus tax exemptions. Carlyle says he’s reviewed all the sales and b&o tax exemptions and there’s $2.7 billion worth out there.

Currently, once an exemption gets passed, it stays on the books, “locked in perpetuity,” Carlyle complains. “The one-time gig is over,” he says.

If Carlyle’s bill became law, it would mark a huge step toward fair-minded public policy. Tax giveaways—mainly the province of the business lobby and other special interests — would have to justify their carve-outs, which are effectively expenditures, in the same way that eduction, social services, law enforcement, state parks, and everyone else has to justify their levels of funding. Fair’s fair.

There’s also a tactical brilliance to the bill because it could set up a judicial showdown on Tim Eyman’s I-1053, which is very likely unconstitutional.

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