Supremes decline to order simple majority vote on taxes
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A fresh opinion from the state high court, turning down Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown’s request to overturn the two-thirds supermajority requirement for tax hikes in the Legislature. In a unanimous 9-0 ruling, the high court side-stepped the request to rule on the constitutionality of the supermajority requirement approved by voters as Initiative 601 back in 1993 and reiterated in Tim Eyman's I-960 in 2007. The court, using a separation-of-power argument, called it a political-legislative question that belonged in the Legislature's bailiwick. In other words, if lawmakers want to return to a simple-majority vote requirement, they have a process to do that -- pass a law (with a simple majority in both houses and the signature of the governor) that repeals the supermajority requirement. Lawmakers in both parties have suspended the requirement at times in the past, but this year, they're talking like if they DO decide to boost taxes, they'll stick it on the statewide ballot. Wanna read the ruling? Click here.
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Secretary of State
Steve Hobbs
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