ext month, Washington state voters will consider Initiative 1033, which would limit the growth of government general fund revenue to a rate tied to population and inflation. The latest poll shows the measure leading 45%-32%, with 22% undecided. It’s hardly surprising that the teachers’ union is leading the opposition.
In an off-year, we would normally expect huge wads of national money to be flowing into Washington from NEA headquarters. But because of the vagaries of Washington’s campaign finance laws, NEA cannot fund the opposition from its multi-million dollar ballot measure fund. Instead, NEA allocated $200,000 from its contingency fund, which is capped at $2.5 million and must cover a host of other costs – most notably the half-million dollar expense of instituting the new business items passed by the NEA Representative Assembly last July.