The anti-tax forces had hardly dispersed before an even bigger crowd of students, unionized workers and others gathered with the opposite message: The state should bring in more money so it can preserve vital services.
One rally protested taxes, the other budget cuts. Lawmakers, confronting a $2.8 billion budget shortfall, are sure to make one or both of the groups angry before they leave the capital next month.
Time will tell who represents voters’ sentiment.
“The powers that be have miscalculated the power of our numbers,” Patrick Connor, state director of the National Federation of Independent Business, told anti-tax forces, “and one by one, we will take back the people’s legislature.”
The numbers, though, were higher for the rally in support of tax proposals. The Washington State Patrol estimated that the crowd overflowing the Legislative Building steps reached 6,000 people, twice the crowd at the earlier rally.
TAX DECISIONS AHEAD
More revenue is needed to avoid cuts to health care, education and environmental programs, participants said.
“We are going to close those tax loopholes and we are going to raise revenues,” Sen. Ed Murray, a Seattle Democrat, said to the cheers of the crowd.
Hundreds of signs proclaiming “Yes on revenue” may have given a preview of a rallying cry in this fall’s election. Initiative promoter Tim Eyman is seeking signatures to put a question on the ballot that would reinstate the requirement for a two-thirds majority of the Legislature to raise taxes if lawmakers suspend that requirement this year. Activists could also try to have voters overturn any tax increases.
The Senate has approved suspending the two-thirds requirement, and the House could follow as early as today. Then comes the hard part for the Democratic majority: devising a way to bring in more revenue without bringing down voter wrath.
Do lawmakers take a targeted approach by raising taxes only on, say, pollutants, private aircraft or candy? Or do they pass a general tax increase, perhaps by approving a proposed 1-cent increase in the sales tax?
“Whatever decisions legislators make in the next month,” said Amber Gunn, director of the free-market Evergreen Freedom Foundation’s Economic Policy Center, “they can rest assured we will remember in November.”
The Tea Party activists didn’t have a monopoly on claims that they were at the forefront of a brewing revolution. Tax advocates saw themselves as fighting against powerful forces too, even though they have the Democrats who control the Legislature and governor’s office largely on their side.
“The American Revolution was about getting rid of a king. But somehow, Washington state ended up with King Tim,” Murray said.
RALLYING AGAINST WASTE
If Eyman was the punching bag at the pro-tax rally, Gov. Chris Gregoire filled that role for the people criticizing proposed tax increases and what they called out-of-control state spending.
Talk radio host Dori Monson called the governor a liar after quoting her saying that tough economic times aren’t the time for leaders to raise taxes. The crowd chanted “liar.”
“Don’t tell me, Madam Governor, that you have cut to the bone,” Monson said, “because everybody here can see there’s a lot of fat still hanging off that bone.”
Anti-tax rally participants cited middle management in the state bureaucracy, grants to artists, state-run liquor stores and redundant state boards as evidence of waste.
Kris Grassman, a 27-year-old Olympia resident, wonders about new buildings going up around town using state money.
“When I can’t put food on my table, I’m not putting a new wing on my house,” Grassman said.
RALLYING FOR EDUCATION
Similarly, the rally against cuts sought to put a face on the people who are struggling and get help from taxpayer-funded programs.
A large student presence ranged from a group of social work graduate students from the University of Washington all the way down to fourth-grader Ashley Riley, who told the crowd that her school, Sheridan Elementary in Tacoma, can’t afford new library books, playground equipment or a full-time nurse.
“Our government needs to stop taking money away from schools, because that’s hurting kids,” Ashley said.
If tuition costs keeps rising faster than financial aid, future students won’t be able to attend state universities, said John Wheeler III, a member of Associated Students of the University of Washington Tacoma.
Students including Wheeler, a senior at UW Tacoma, came to the capital to rally for revenue and to oppose Substitute Senate Bill 6562, which was due to be considered as early as Monday evening in the Senate. It would grant the University of Washington, Washington State University and Western Washington University limited tuition-setting authority for six years starting from the 2011-2012 academic year.
The governing boards at the schools would be allowed to raise resident undergraduate and graduate tuition by up to 14 percent per year. The average annual compounded rate of increase couldn’t exceed 9 percent over 15 years.
Other participants spoke against cuts to programs that help the elderly and the disabled. A recent Elway Poll suggests voters might support tax increases that are targeted to help such groups.
The survey done for the Eldercare Alliance found that 47 percent of Washington residents polled said they would vote for a legislator who “voted to raise taxes in order to maintain services for elderly and disabled people,” while 24 percent said it made no difference and 24 percent said they would vote against the lawmaker. The poll showed less support, 23 percent, for lawmakers who voted for general tax increases “in order to maintain statewide public services.”
At the capital Monday, the two camps assembled on the same site within two hours of each other, but without confrontation.
Speakers, though, couldn’t resist tweaking the other side. Connor called the pro-tax rally “a counter-demonstration organized by the powers of state government and their supplicants.” Leno Rose-Avila, director of Social Justice Fund Northwest, told the crowd the anti-tax protesters “are giving tea a bad name.”
Jordan Schrader: 360-786-1826
jordan.schrader@thenewstribune.com
Staff writer Brad Shannon contributed to this report.
