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November 07, 2007

M50 victim of economic uncertainty?

Okay, I don't really believe that this is a major contributing factor to M50 having been defeated rather soundly. Personally, I think that a variety of factors spelled doom for M50, one of which was it's regressive funding scheme and another was that it was a constitutional amendment. Although I would buy that economic uncertainty might be a contributing factor too.

OPB's political pundit Bill Lunch and others have attributed M50 going down in flames to "anti-taxers." Our neighbors to the North in Washington state defeated EHJR 4204, which would have allowed citizens to pass any future tax measures with a simple majority. Currently any proposed tax raise requires a 2/3 or "super" majority to be passed.

I was pondering this as I drove home from work today and it occured to me to wonder if perhaps "anti-taxers" might not be more accurately described at least in part as folks who are feeling economically squeezed rather than as being opposed to taxes per se. As supporting evidence I would submit the talk we've all been hearing for the last several years about the shrinking middle class in America and how so many jobs don't pay a "living wage" any more. Throw in the housing and mortgage woes and maybe a lot of what seems on the surface to be opposition to new taxes is really just a reaction to people's own individual economic circumstances and if those circumstances improved, so too would their willingness to pass new taxes.

So what do you think? I'm really just throwing this out there rather than trying to make an argument. I honestly don't know if it has merit or not. So I figured I'd ask y'all.

Posted by Kevin at November 7, 2007 06:08 PM