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Spending limit's legality placed in spotlight
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Candidate
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| Contributor | Ralphie |
| Last Edited | Ralphie Mar 13, 2006 07:41pm |
| Category | Perspective |
| News Date | Mar 13, 2006 07:00pm |
| Description | As Republicans complain that the newly minted state budget violates the state's spending limit, Washington's Republican attorney general says a key provision of the limit is likely unconstitutional.
In a court filing this week, Attorney General Rob McKenna's office says the spending limit's requirement for a public vote on some tax increases is "of doubtful validity."
McKenna is not asking that the spending limit — established in 1993 by Initiative 601 — be thrown out. In fact state lawyers say the court "need not and should not" reach that conclusion in deciding a lawsuit that alleges that lawmakers violated the limit when they approved tax increases without a public vote last year.
The state's position is that Gov. Christine Gregoire and the 2005 Legislature followed the law as set out in the voter-approved spending limit, but even if they didn't, the judge shouldn't require a public vote because that part of Initiative 601 could be unconstitutional. |
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