Democratic candidate for Governor Jay Inslee (D-WA)
By now, it’s common knowledge that Washington super lobbyist Grover Norquist has successfully intimidated Republicans into not backing any new taxes on the rich and corporations to pay to sustain the America we all love.
But why are Democrats suddenly jumping into Norquists’s camp?
During a recent gubernatorial debate in Washington, both the Republican and Democratic candidates refused to back any sort of tax increase:
But no lip-reading will be required for the Washington state gubernatorial campaign between Republican Rob McKenna and Democrat Jay Inslee.
The two candidates were very clear ai??i?? they forcefully said they would not propose new taxes if elected governor.
ai???I am not proposing and I will not propose tax-rate increases,ai??? McKenna said last week in a debate with Inslee in Vancouver.
Inslee responded by saying, ai???No, I am not going to propose taxes. I do not believe theyai??i??re right for the state of Washington.ai???
This is remarkable, in the light of the sort of budget troubles the state has been in. One-third of the state parks’ department’s full-time positions have been eliminatedAi??and funding for state universities has been cut 50 percent in the past four years, now at a level it hasn’t been since 1991. If anything, voters shouldn’t take any candidate seriously who doesn’t want to promote some sort of way to raise revenues, especially from those who can most afford it. A 2011 Tax Foundation report even finds that taxes across the state put Washington 29th nationally — meaning the state already pays less than most.
Both Inslee and McKenna are simply failing the state with this no new taxes pledge.
This post does very little to shed light on the political situation in Washington state. Raising taxes in Washington is pointless as a series of successful voter initiatives requires that practically any increase in fees or taxes must be approved by the voters. In recent history (read: several decades), very few tax increases have been approved that were not targeted (i.e. stadiums, specific transit improvements). What is more, without an income tax, Washington has one of the more regressive tax structures among the states. This makes targeting taxes at the wealthy or large corporations (who probably receive specific tax relief or out-and-out subsidies as it is) that much more difficult.
Within this context, why would anyone, even a Democrat, come out in favor of tax increases that are very likely to go absolutely no where? Inslee and McKenna might be showing a failure of leadership, but their position is very much in line with the bulk of the state’s voters who passed an initiative just two years ago (since overturned by courts) requiring a 2/3 majority vote of the legislature to raise taxes.
Considering the attitudes of Washington residents regarding increasing taxes, these people seem to have stuck their heads in the sand and are ignoring problems.