Introduction

On November 6, 2007, the people of Washington enacted Initiative 960 to require a two-thirds vote of the legislature to raise taxes.  This was the third time voters had enacted the two-thirds requirement.  Similar measures had passed in 1993 and 1998, and each time lawmakers repealed the tax-limit provisions of these initiatives in the years following their enactment.

In similar fashion, on February 22, 2010, a majority in the legislature passed a two-year suspension of Initiative 960, repealing the two-thirds requirement.  Section 3 of the bill cancelled a number of disclosure provisions in the initiative designed to provide information to the public.  Efforts to restore the public disclosure provisions during floor consideration were defeated.

The final measure passed on a partisan vote; only Democrats voted for passage, and 15 Democrats joined all the Republicans in voting against it.  Governor Gregoire signed the repeal bill on February 24th.

The legislative action proved to be unpopular in Washington.  A poll of state residents showed 68 percent of respondents called the repeal of Initiative 960 “the wrong thing to do.”  When asked about the policy of having a two-thirds vote in the legislature to raise taxes, 74 percent of respondents said such a limit should be required.

The public disclosure provisions provided that specific information about tax increases, their cost to the public, and roll call votes appear in the state’s official voters’ pamphlet.

Initiative 960’s Public Disclosure Requirements

The Initiative 960 law provided that at the next election following passage of a tax increase, an advisory vote be held and that the following information appear in a two-page section of the official statewide voters’ pamphlet:

• A short description of each tax increase passed by the legislature
• The most up-to-date ten-year cost projection, including a year-by-year breakdown, of how much lawmakers increased the financial burden on taxpayers
• How legislators voted on final passage of each tax increase
• The names of legislators and their contact information, including first name, last name, party affiliation, city or town in which they live, office phone number and office e-mail address.

 The text of Initiative 960 explained the purpose of these provisions this way:

“With this measure, the people intend to protect taxpayers by creating a series of accountability procedures to ensure greater legislative transparency, broader public participation, and wider agreement before state government takes more of the people’s money.

The people want a thorough, independent analysis of any proposed increase in taxes and fees.  The people find that legislators too often do not know the costs to the taxpayers for their tax and fee increases...”

By repealing the non-binding advisory votes, lawmakers expected their names would not appear in the official voters’ pamphlet for 2010 next to a description of the tax increases they had enacted.  The purpose of this report is to provide much of the information the public would have received in the official voters’ pamphlet if the legislature had not repealed the public disclosure provisions of Initiative 960.  Due to Washington Policy Center’s status as a non-profit organization qualified under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, this report does not include the names, addresses or contact information of office holders or candidates for public office.  Information about how lawmakers voted on bills in the 2010 session is available from the Washington state legislature.

Read the Report on 2010 Tax Increases in Washington State here