Thank you to those of you who contacted Senate leaders to tell them not to gut Initiative 960, the initiative that protects taxpayers by requiring a two-thirds vote of the Legislature to raise taxes. Now, we in the House have received this legislation -- Senate Bill 6130. And we will not do so quietly. 

I just came out of a meeting with Speaker Frank Chopp (D-Seattle) and Minority Leader Richard DeBolt (R-Chehalis), along with my fellow Republican Floor Leader Charles Ross (R-Naches). We communicated to Speaker Chopp, in no uncertain terms, that we would not make this debate an easy one. The will of the majority of Washingtonians is to keep I-960 in place to guard against onerous tax increases.  

UPDATE: The Democrat leadership has just brought Senate Bill 6130 to the House floor for debate. I am standing with my Republican colleagues to oppose this bill and demand that our state government produce a fiscally-sound budget that finds efficiencies and cuts spending, rather than ask taxpayers to bail out legislators’ bad spending habits. I will do all I can to stand against this job-killing measure, including offering an amendment to reinstate the citizens’ advisory vote provisions of I-960.

This debate will likely be a long one and if you are interested in watching, please tune into TVW. To find your local TVW station, click here. Or, log on to the TVW Web site to watch the floor session online here.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me at anytime if I can ever be of assistance.

Sincerely,

Jaime Herrera
State Representative
herrera.jaime@leg.wa.gov
http://houserepublicans.wa.gov/herrera/
(360) 786-7850