Editorial: Advisory votes waste scarce state funds, time

If Washington voters really dislike tax loopholes, they will get a chance to say so in November with an advisory vote on one the Legislature narrowed earlier this year.

They will also vote on the extension of a tax that funds the cleanup of oil and other spills.

The Attorney General’s Office on Monday decided Initiative 960, passed in 2007, entitles voters to second-guess lawmakers when they “increase” taxes directly, or by closing, narrowing, extending or making some other adjustment. Mind you, thanks to another element of that same initiative, those changes must have been made by a two-thirds vote in the state House of Representatives and Senate.

The votes are advisory only. The outcomes will not reverse the work of legislators who passed the pollution levy by a combined House/Senate vote of 93-1, and the bank measure 109-34.

That was never the point. The votes are yet another device that initiative author and promoter Tim Eyman came up with to create the illusion of populism. To complete the overkill, the names and contact information of every legislator and how they voted on the two bills must be included in the voter pamphlet information about the legislation, including the full text.

The legislation that eliminated the business and occupation tax exemption on first mortgage revenues for the largest out-of-state banks in Washington was 45 pages long. The pollution fund measure is shorter, so with the type compressed to bank-statement size the information will fill just 16 pages, at $15,000 per page.

Wonderful reading. But the true absurdity is a requirement in the initiative that the intent of the tax must be described in 30 words on the ballot. Thirty words. Voters will be voting yes or no on millions in state revenue – $14.5 million this fiscal year in the case of the bank bill – based on the information contained in the average tweet.

How hard could that be? The tax on petroleum products, which is levied at the wholesale level, is going down. The bill just extended the termination date from next year to 2020. And it adds a provision that prevents the Legislature from sweeping any of the money set aside for cleanups into the general fund, a tactic desperate lawmakers have adopted all too often.

Tweet that.

These should not be the best first test cases for Eyman. Who wants to give Wall Street bankers a break? Or starve an insurance fund that cleans up abandoned underground storage tanks?

But, setting aside the fine points of Washington’s tax structure, advisory votes have the disturbing potential to build on cynicism toward lawmakers who have to digest more than a tweet when they consider legislation. The best “advice” voters can give their representatives or senators is a ticket out of Olympia when they don’t measure up.