(The Center Square) - Washington Senate Minority Leader John Braun says documents obtained by The Center Square that reveal months of communication between the office of Attorney General Nick Brown and Sen. Jamie Pedersen, D-Seattle, the prime sponsor of the recently passed income tax law, demonstrate it was all about putting together a bill that would overturn nearly 100 years of legal precedent and keep voters out of the process.
“It’s both stunning and not really that big of a surprise at the same time,” said Braun in an interview with The Center Square. “It’s stunning that they would be so blatant, so transparent, and so obviously focused on putting together a bill that would change the almost 100-year-old reading of our state's constitution, and very plainly work to keep the voters out.”
In an email to The Center Square Wednesday, Let’s Go Washington (LGW) announced the filing of a supplemental brief to their upcoming case challenging the constitutionality of the income tax to block a referendum.
“The brief asks the State Supreme Court to consider communications between the Attorney General’s Office (AG) and Senator Jamie Pedersen as additional evidence against the need for a necessity clause. After 988 pages of documents were provided to The Center Square without redaction, it became clear that the documentation was pertinent to LGW’s case against the emergency clause,” wrote LGW.
The supplemental brief asks the court to consider what Solicitor General Noah Purcell wrote in one of his email communications with Senator Pedersen: “Last but not least, unless I missed it, I did not see an emergency clause. Without one, someone could try to subject the bill to a referendum. It should not be subject to referendum because it raises revenue, but under the Secretary of State’s longstanding practice, they only reject proposed referenda if the bill has an emergency clause, so someone would have to sue to prevent a referendum on the bill as written. I just wanted to make sure you were aware of that.”
LGW suggests the exchange proves that the AG’s office was conspiring with Senator Pedersen to find the most efficient means to work around the confines of the Constitution.
Behind the curtain
Braun said he isn’t suggesting there is anything necessarily illegal about the communications but said it’s certainly "improper" and goes far beyond anything they’ve seen before.
“It's a kind of the inside look at the raw political power that the Democratic elite, the Democratic majority leaders are willing to use to get their way and to stand in the way of the historic opposition of voters in our state to this type of a tax,” Braun said.
Asked if it’s common for lawmakers to engage in asking the AG’s office for help on legislation, Braun explained it’s not forbidden, but added this instance went far beyond asking for advice or input.
“It's not that they asked the attorney general for their opinion, it’s the depth of this conversation," he said. "That's a whole different level. People should understand just how unusual this is."
The Senate Minority Leader said the most disturbing part for him is to see confirmation of how determined crafters of the income tax were to silence the people from having a voice in the matter.
The AG will play a role in a referendum or initiative campaign
“If there’s a referendum or there's an initiative, the attorney general also has a role in that," he said. "He gets to help decide the title, and state government puts together the financial impact statement. All of this we've seen in the past [has been] used to bias voters in the direction they want them to go. So, they're using every tool in the toolbox. And it’s a toolbox they built themselves with legislation to shape this in a way to hopefully get the voters to say yes. I don't think that's going to happen. I think the voters are smarter than that, but I think we have work to do in getting this information out to out to people around the state.”
State Supreme Court is scheduled to to consider LGW’s appeal of the Secretary of State’s rejection of a referendum campaign on April 30.
The Center Square has reached out to multiple Democrats, including Brown and Pedersen, for comment on the documents we obtained, including several Democrats who voted against the income tax. Some have declined and others have failed to respond.
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