No one ever teaches well who wants to teach, or governs well who wants to govern”. Plato
“Any person who wants to govern the world is by definition the wrong person to do it.” Greg Iles
“The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern: every class is unfit to govern”. Lord Acton
I don’t know if you noticed or not, but this year was Olympia’s longest legislative session on record. It was like watching a football game go into double overtime. With stumbles and fumbles but without the excitement, the beer, and the cheerleaders…
The reason for the extended session, of course, was a budget battle between those who felt that there was enough money to address all necessary expenditures and, therefore, tax increases were not necessary. On the other side were those who felt that more money was needed and, consequently, taxes had to be increased. And I’ll just bet that you know one politician who favored raising taxes or, as he so quaintly puts it, “increasing revenue” (Hint: his name rhymes with derringer…)
It is kinda funny but I thought politicians were supposed to determine how much of our money they needed to conduct the government business. But lately, this concept seems to have changed from “how much of our money they will take from us” to the current philosophy of “how much of our money we will be allowed to keep”. And the usual answer is… less and less because they need more and more.
Surprisingly, however, when all was said and done – and, after a session lasting 176 days, far more was said than done – it appeared that cooler heads prevailed and the $1.5 billion package of new carbon taxes, capital gains taxes, and income taxes as proposed by the Governor and House Democrats was shot down. So I call this a win… On the other hand, an increased transportation tax was passed and I call this a loss…
So, overall, did we win? Of course not. Politicians have prevailed over taxpayers again and so, in the end, it is not how much we won but, rather, how little that we lost.
Wouldn’t it be nice to actually win for a change? It is up to you. And your vote…
Until next time,
Dick Pilling, Chair
