To save WA climate act, take a lesson from history | Op-Ed - The Seattle Times

To save WA climate act, take a lesson from history | The Seattle Times

The current effort to put a citizen initiative on the November ballot to overturn the state’s Climate Commitment Act should surprise no one. In fact, should it appear on the ballot in November, it will probably pass easily.

But it doesn’t have to be if state leaders act quickly to answer voters’ concerns. Here’s a lesson from history.

We’ve all been here before. The year was 1999, and an unknown signature gatherer named Tim Eyman saw a way to gain fame and notoriety with what turned out to be a winning issue: $30 car tabs. For years, the state had assessed license fees using a process based on a highly inflated value of the car. And the fees kept rising, filling government coffers for our Washington State Ferries system, county health departments and other services.

While people liked these services — who doesn’t like a beautiful ferry ride — they were pretty upset that the government wasn’t being fair in taxing them in such a way. Nobody believed Initiative 695 would lead to the deterioration of their ferry service.

Fast forward to today. The governor and Democratic legislators continue to deny that the package of policies under the CCA is having any impact on gas prices. Republicans, of course, are saying it’s having a huge impact and punishing middle- and lower-income people. They also rightfully point out that high fuel prices disproportionately impact rural residents and people who must drive their vehicles for work.

The funny thing is, California has already shown that our carbon pricing policy would lead to increases in gas prices. Our policy is modeled after California’s and we may soon be linked to their market. The California Legislative Analyst’s office issued a letter to a California State Assemblyman on March 29, 2017, stating that depending on how the Legislature sets the carbon price, the consumer would see a range of 15 to 63 cents per gallon increases. Washington’s governor and legislators had this information even as they were passing the CCA, saying it would only add a couple of cents at the most.

As a supporter of carbon pricing, I am troubled by the dishonesty. One of the main policy objectives here is to price fossil fuels more so we all use less. In general, if you want less of something you tax it higher and if you want more of something you tax it lower.

A better idea would be forlawmakers to help taxpayers afford the higher gas prices by reducing their burden elsewhere. And since we all want successful businesses and strong consumer demand, how about changing the Business and Occupation Tax to be set on a company’s percentage of net receipts rather than the current gross receipts? A break in the sales tax would help everyone. There are many other things that people smarter than me could come up with.

As someone who worked on the “No on 695” campaign in 1999, I worry that Gov. Jay Inslee will make the same mistake as then Gov. Gary Locke. Instead of hearing the people’s concerns and reforming the policy, he will dig in his heels and do nothing.

I doubt many people know Brian Heywood, the Redmond man ponying up millions to put before voters the question of whether to repeal the CCA and other conservative measures. But like Tim Eyman, if the CCA repeal makes it to the ballot, his will become a household name.