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greenspun.com : LUSENET : I-695 Thirty Dollar License Tab Initiative : One Thread

Republicans Had Power To Lower Cost of Tabs

Published in the Herald-Republic on Wednesday, October 27, 1999

That was some curious reasoning advanced earlier this week by state Rep. Joyce Mulliken when she came out publicly in support of Initiative 695.

Mulliken, an Ephrata Republican, said she has been too busy before now to endorse the initiative, which would eliminate the state's license tab tax and require voter approval of all tax and fee increases. Certainly it's her right as a legislator to take sides on the initiative. But when she blames former Gov. Mike Lowry and current Gov. Gary Locke for keeping license tab prices high we just can't let that go unchallenged.

In our form of government, which is divided into the executive (governor), legislative and judicial branches, the governor has no power to determine taxes and tax rates. That's done by legislation -- either by the Legislature or by the people through initiative or referendum.

So Lowry and Locke had nothing to do with what license tabs cost. Neither did justices on the state Supreme Court. But legislators, particularly the Republicans? Well, that's a different story.

Before the 1998 elections produced a 49-49 tie in the state House of Representatives, Republicans controlled both houses of the Legislature. Thus the GOP had the clout to change the MVET, or any other tax.

And, by golly, they did change it.

The GOP majority pushed through what became Referendum 49 on last year's general election ballot. That measure, which was approved by voters, pulled some MVET money out of the general fund to help pay for bonds to underwrite sweeping statewide transportation projects. Legislative Republicans sent it to the ballot to bypass a near-certain veto by Locke.

It was also the Legislature, not the two Democrat governors, that earmarked some of the MVET money for local government law and justice programs. And when local government officials say the loss of that MVET money just might have some serious impact on local law and justice programs they're branded "doomsayers."

And isn't it interesting that Republicans, who last year touted the good deal people were getting for their MVET money with approval of Referendum 49, are now badmouthing the tax. In the meantime, that voter-approved Referendum 49 package is on hold pending the outcome of the vote on I-695. If the latter is approved, the former is toast. While Mulliken blames liberal Democrat governors for keeping MVET taxes high, state GOP Chairman Dale Foreman just blames Democrats in general.

"The simple fact of the matter is that people want tax relief," Foreman said after the state GOP endorsed I-695. "The Democrat majority in Olympia had a chance to do something about this unfair tax, and they chose instead to roll the dice and hope for its failure."

But remember, before the Democrat majority in Olympia had a chance to do something about the "unfair" tax, it was the Republicans who controlled both houses who had the same shot. They responded with Referendum 49, which spent a good chunk of it.

Besides, the only "Democrat majority" in Olympia at the present time is in the state Senate. The House is equally divided between Republicans and Democrats.

Just setting the record straight. It has gotten bent a lot in the debate in support of I-695.

Members of the Yakima Herald-Republic editorial board are Robert Bickler, Sarah Jenkins an

-- Dave (everett244@hotmail.com), October 27, 1999

Answers

I like it. Democrats have controled the legislature (AND implemented the 2.2% of the MSRP formula, now universally dispised)for (except for 2 years) decades, and the high tab fees are the Republican's fault.

Typical of the anti's warped reasoning.

Westin

BTW, we're assisting in fixing it NOW, aren't we?

-- Westin (86se4sp@my-deja.com), October 27, 1999.


Check your facts Westin (there's a concept). We aren't talking about the U.S. House here, we're talking the state legislature. Power has shifted there MULTIPLE times since the MVET has been in place. In fact, there have been several times where both the legislature and Governor's office were controlled by Republicans. So claiming that the GOP only had power for a couple years over a period of decades is just flat WRONG.

As the article stated, BOTH parties have had their fair share at chances to "fix" the MVET. Can you show me where the Herald is trying to pin this completely on Republicans Westin? Or is this #1,563,973 in the line of your complete misinterpretation of a statement? What they are taking aim at is the fact that suddenly Dale Foreman is doing his best Bob Dole impersonation. Now out of office, he feels completely comfortable bashing Democrats for dropping the ball. Just try to forget that he did his OWN share of ball dropping when he was the speaker of the house!

Same thing goes with Rep. Mulliken. She's been in office since 1994. I don't suppose she's offered any ways to fix the MVET besides R-49. But yet she's claiming that it's all Lowry and Locke's fault for not doing anything to fix it.

Don't be putting those Republicans who are coming out in favor of 695 on a pedestal. For all their support now, they SURE were silent on the issue before. These are also the same people who offered R-49 last year, and are supporting its elimination this year. Makes you wonder if they'd do the same to 695 if the mood strikes them.

-- Patrick (patrick1142@yahoo.com), October 27, 1999.


Dave

But remember neither of the parties did a damn thing about it. You appear to be the only one here complaining that it was the Republicians did this and the Democrats did that.

Know what? I don't care who did what, when. I don't care what programs are cut. I don't care who is fired or laid off (even me).

What I do care about is the politicians won't be able to take anymore of MY money without my say-so.

I personally will only be voting on the initiatives. I think the politicians of this country have lost their credibility when it comes to telling me what's good for me.

Ed - having a tough time typing with the flu

-- Ed (ed_bridges@yahoo.com), October 27, 1999.


Check my facts? SURE!

The MVET was passed in 1937. The make up of the legislature in 1937 was:

Senate: Democrat (41) Republican(6)

House: Democrat (93) Republican(6)

Figures, doesn't it?

Since 1937, the Republicans have controled both Houses in:

1953, part of 81, 82, 96 and 97.

Guess who ran it the rest of the time?

Westin.

That enough fact checking for you?

-- Westin (86se4sp@my-deja.com), October 27, 1999.


Why how amazingly sneeky of you Westin. You provide the dates in which the GOP controlled BOTH houses of the legislature and then make it sound as if the Democrats controlled BOTH houses for all the other years. Fraid not. Quite a number of those years the R's controled one house and the D's the other.

So tell me Westin, did you just fail to mention that because, as a government employee, you only do have of a job, or because when you actually did check the facts you realized that the GOP had quite a bit of shared power, but didn't want to admit when you were

-- Patrick (patrick1142@yahoo.com), October 27, 1999.



Patrick,

Speaking of making it too easy....

Republicans have controled the legislature (as pointed out) for 4 years and change... out of the last 67.

During that time, the Republicans, contrary to your made-up statement: "In fact, there have been several times where both the legislature and Governor's office were controlled by Republicans." had control of both the legislature and governorship exactly 1.5 sessions (as a result of PvR's defection from the democrats)(part of 81 and 82 under Spellman) in the last 67 years.

Nothing sneaky about it, Patrick. I can only hope it's unintentional ignorance that you are displaying with such neon brilliance.

The fact is that there have been dozen's of times when the legislature and the gov's office were controlled by democrats... you know, like when you imposed this tax on us in the first place?

Get over it, Patrick. The whining column that started all of this has little basis in reality... but then, that's not unusual for you, is it?

Westin - 5 days till victory

"During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet."

VP Al Gore

-- Westin (86se4sp@my-deja.com), October 28, 1999.


I'm really starting to wonder if Westin is a politician. Again he's trying to make things sound one way when it really ain't so. Yes, the GOP controlled both houses of the legislature only a few times over the past 60 or so years. Does that mean the Democrats controlled both houses for the rest of the time? Not really. See, it is quite possible for the House to be Democratic and the Senate Republican and vice versa. But that's not what Westin would like us all to assume.

While the MVET has been in place the GOP has controlled the House for 18 years and shared power for 3. They've held the Senate for about 14.5 years with two years of shared power. Not exactly devoid of power there.

But of course that isn't really the point. You don't have to be in power to advocate change. Why wasn't the GOP championing this issue all this time? Sure, their proposals wouldn't have probably passed while in the minority, but at least they could say that they tried.

The point of the article, which Westin keeps missing either on purpose or by incompetence, is that these GOP legislators who are now leading the rallying cry about how unfair the MVET is have had YEARS to bring this topic up before but never did. The article was just pointing that out. If I were in support of this initiative I'd feel rather insulted by the comments made by Foreman and the others. If the people have been complaining for years about the MVET, then they are just as guilty of turning a deaf ear to the people as well. They aren't truly horrified by the cost of the MVET. If they were, they would have made SOME sort of effort to cut it a long time ago. Instead they're just jumping on a bandwagon really late in the game because they see it as a political opportunity. Now they're just relying on GOP lap dogs like Westin to make excuses about why they didn't speak up about it earlier.

-- Patrick (patrick1142@yahoo.com), October 28, 1999.


"The point of the article, which Westin keeps missing either on purpose or by incompetence, is that these GOP legislators who are now leading the rallying cry about how unfair the MVET is have had YEARS to bring this topic up before but never did. " I agree with you Patrick (and a GASP came up from the crowd!) that Republicans in this state are little more than Democrat-lite. Look at the competing budget proposals that they put forward this year, the Democrats calling the Republican proposal mean spirited and slashing essential services, the Republicans calling the Democratic proposal Spendthrift and pro Big Government. When you looked close, there was a grand total of 2% difference between them. They are tweedle-dum and tweedle-dumber (and I for one, won't argue with whichever one you wish to call tweedle-dumber) So I totally agree with you, that we are not going to solve our problems by asking help from anyone who has been a politician for 10-20 years. That's why we need MORE initiatives like this, to rattle the cages a little bit in Olympia, and get them to pay attention to the voters rather than each other. I would predict that when they have to get permission to raise taxes and fees, they'll pay a LOT more attention to us.

-- Craig Carson (craigcar@crosswinds.net), October 28, 1999.

Patrick

Your right when you say their just jumping on the bandwagon. But they missed the one I driving.

Ed - Dems, Repubs their all the same when they get power

-- Ed (ed_bridges@yahoo.com), October 28, 1999.


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