Tomorrow is a dismal day for Washington State. We have let people like Tim Eyman and Dino Rossi take advantage of our out of whack tax system for their political gain.
Joel Connelly in today’s Seattle PI makes an excellent case for change. You can read it here.
The timidness has got to stop. The lack of political courage has got to stop. The decision to call a special session was wrong. We have had our tax system for decades and something like a permanent 1% cap needs more thought than a special session can provide.
Why couldn’t we wait until session? Because, one could argue, that Eyman and Rossi would have a field day saying that the governor doesn’t care about your property taxes. So, the political knee jerks at the prospect of criticism and democrats in our state caved.
Why?
Let’s point out that these oversimplistic solutions don’t work. Let’s point out that conservatives are terrible at governing. Too often, Republicans are so concerned about scoring political points that they forget to govern. Republicans at the national level have driven the country into the ditch. Do we want that to happen in Washington state?
Taxes are at the core of government. It is exactly what the legislature gets paid to deal with. We should’ve waited until regular legislative session and worked through this issue with a thoughtful, deliberative process.
There is no question that Christine Gregoire is a much better Governor than Dino Rossi could ever pretend to be. But, this was an opportunity to go for the big play and instead we are playing defense.