Gregoire budget guru: tax hikes need voter OK

• Published July 11, 2008

Gov. Chris Gregoire tried to make clear yesterday that taxes are her “last resort” to close the $2-billion-plus budget gap next year.

And today, her staff went further, insisting that any tax increases she does embrace next year would have voter approval in 2009, in keeping with Initiative 960, which voters passed last year. Of course, that’s assuming she beats Republican Dino Rossi in November.

“As I-960 provides and the governor believes, the public must weigh in on taxes,” Gregoire’s budget director Victor Moore said in a statement released by his spokesman Glenn Kuper.

Moore was replying to a question we submitted. Our query was prompted by an email from I-960 sponsor Tim Eyman, who sent the question to Moore today by email and then copied it to reporters.

Eyman wanted to clarify just how much say voters would have if taxes become an option. Moore was expected to also reply to Eyman, according to Kuper.

Kuper, when asked, went further. He confirmed what we’d heard earlier in the week from Wolf Opitz, Moore’s deputy at the Office of Financial Management. Opitz said Gregoire has made clear to budget writers that she does not want them to consider increases in taxes on sales, business-occupations or property.

None of that has changed, Kuper said.

Neither has the budget shortfall, which Senate Ways and Means staff has pegged at $2.7 billion for the 2009-11 budget cycle; Gregoire insists it’s lower, perhaps $2 billion, and she is taking the position she can deal with a lot of it through budgeting.