Property tax cap Initiative 747 will be upheld
by the state supreme court this fall.
15 May 2007
There are several whacko lefty activist judges on the state supreme
court. You know it, I know it. But there's enough OK justices to
overturn King County judge Mary Roberts' goofy ruling saying "voters were
unconstitutionally misled into approving I-747." We know it's hard to
believe but that is the absurd argument being presented by lawyers hired
by Whitman county.
In November of 2001, 826,258 voters voted "yes" (58%) and 609,266
voters voted "no" (42%) on Initiative 747, a 200,000 vote margin. That
means that Whitman County's lawyers want everyone to believe that over
100,000 "yes" voters were actually "no" voters and so the initiative
should be overturned. They didn't present evidence that even ONE "yes"
voter was actually a "no" voter, let alone 100,000. Voters knew exactly
what they were doing when the overwhelmingly approved this common sense
initiative six years ago.
Oral arguments before the state supreme court were held last week.
My favorite moment involved Justice Richard Sanders who totally stole the
show. In response to Whitman county's attorney saying that he was there
to "Protect the voters ... They deserve every protection," Sanders offered
this devastating response: "You want to nullify their vote. You want to
nullify the result of the election. You're protecting government that
wants to tax people more. That's who you represent."
It was an incredible moment.
Since 2001, Initiative 747 has been in effect. It's prevented
property tax increases from being even higher than they've been. Whenever
I hear a supporter tell me that their property taxes increased $100 this
year or $500 or $1000 (or more), I point out that IF NOT FOR I-747, those
increases would have been SIX TIMES HIGHER. So without I-747, a $100
increase would have been $600, a $500 increase would have been $3000, a
$1000 increase would have been $6000. I-747 has helped. It hasn't solved
our property tax problem, but it's made is less bad.
Another thing that'll make property taxes less bad is Initiative 960.
The Taxpayer Protection Initiative makes it tougher to raise any tax WHICH
OF COURSE INCLUDES THE PROPERTY TAX. Taxpayers don't want it to be easy
for government to increase property taxes, it oughta be tough.
We're in the homestretch on getting signatures and raising funds. We
implore you to donate TODAY -- and if you've donated already, thank you
very much, but please contribute again. We need the funds to ensure I-960
gets on the ballot.
We are currently installing our archives. Please bear with us
as we update our website. This page will provide access to
previous articles and newsletters. Please check back later.
Thank you very much.
|
