Wash. governor to back spending after tax vote Updated 10:28 PM ET November 3, 1999 By Tom Banse OLYMPIA, Wash. (Reuters) - Washington State Gov. Gary Locke proposed Wednesday spending half the state's $1 billion surplus to maintain vital state services, including olice and health care, after voters passed one of the United States' strictest anti-tax measures.
Unofficial election results from the Secretary of State's office show 58 percent of voters approved Initiative 695, which slashes the state's high auto tax and requires voter approval for any government tax or fee increase.
"I accept (the voters') decision, but at the same time we have a responsibility to try and protect the vital services of our state," said Locke, a Democrat
========================================================== No middle ground is possible on this subject. Either "taxation without consent is robbery," or it is not. If it is not, then any number of men, who choose, may at any time associate; call themselves a government; assume absolute authority over all weaker than themselves; plunder them at will; and kill them if they resist. If, on the other hand, "taxation without consent is robbery," it necessarily follows that every man who has not consented to be taxed, has the same natural right to defend his property against a tax-gatherer that he has to defend it against a highwayman. - Lysander Spooner http://members.aol.com/Dreom/