Act now to stop property tax hikes

I was extremely disappointed that the Washington state Supreme Court threw out Initiative 747 last week. This initiative would cap a district’s property taxes to no more than a 1 percent increase per year.

The court, by a 5-4 decision, said voters didn’t understand the contents of I-747. Its reasoning was a slap in the face to those who voted for this initiative by a 58 percent margin. The judges’ majority vote, in effect, said voters were too stupid to understand the initiative and they, these judges, are far smarter than us “common” voters.

Unfortunately, this means counties can increase property taxes substantially in a district. While the overall district cannot increase taxes more than 6 percent with this court ruling, individual homes and land values can increase, so homeowners often see much more than a 6 percent increase on their taxes.

Hard-working, middle-class homeowners will be affected the most without this 1 percent cap on district increases. Clearly, this decision was not the best for our state and doesn’t represent what taxpayers want.

State Rep. Ed Orcutt, a Republican from Kalama, has called on Gov. Chris Gregoire to hold a special session to correct this egregious decision, and I support him 100 percent. He suggests the special session be held during committee assembly, when the entire Legislature will be meeting during the last week of this month.

We cannot allow the Supreme Court to control the people’s voice. By taking a portion of one day during that period, we can restore I-747 for property owners and voters who supported it. A special session would not cost anything to taxpayers since lawmakers will already be in town.

Earlier this year, the House Republican caucus anticipated the court’s decision and asked the governor to hold a special session to address I-747. She refused.

We also sponsored a bill last session to address this issue, but the majority refused to even allow a hearing on the proposal. Democrats promised to address property taxes, but not a single bill got to the House floor for a vote.

One of the bills I sponsored would give tax relief to senior citizens, the disabled and veterans. Although the bill was heard, it didn’t go to a vote on the House floor.

The bill would benefit folks who are largely on fixed incomes and cannot afford higher taxes. In some cases, it’s a decision to pay higher taxes or lose their home.

I recently talked to Spokane County Assessor Ralph Baker, who has the responsibility of valuing property in our county. The county treasurer then sends out the notices to your homes. Baker supports I-747, as well as the bill I introduced for property tax exemptions for seniors, the disabled and veterans.

County assessors fear that if voters revolt on property taxes, we could possibly see initiatives like those in California and Colorado that cramp the ability of treasurers to levy property taxes. I-747 would fully address all these concerns.

The public has spoken loudly on onerous tax increases by passing I-747 and I-960. These initiatives have appeared on the ballot in increasing numbers because our Legislature has been largely controlled by Democrats the last 30 years. In the words of Ronald Reagan, “If it moves, they’ll tax it; if it doesn’t move, they’ll subsidize it.” In other words, the liberals never met a tax they didn’t like.

Initiatives are the citizen checks and balances against a runaway liberal legislature. Citizens have every right to counter these tax increases through the initiative process. They fully realize that we are one of the highest-taxed states in the union.

As a matter of fact, we are approximately the fifth highest-taxed state in the union. And Washington has the highest gas tax in the nation – 36 cents – which will go up again in July 2008.

KXLY reported that one unnamed county in Washington plans to raise property taxes by 20 percent. Since this is the case, other counties could follow suit and increase property taxes by a substantial amount. This, of course, will mean that the poor, the seniors, citizens who are disabled and veterans will stand a very good chance of being taxed out of their homes.

It is my hope that Gov. Gregoire will allow a special session the last week of the month to restore I-747 in its original form. To do otherwise will guarantee higher property taxes and insult the intelligence of taxpayers and voters.