At EOI’s blog, the single best comparison I’ve seen demonstrating the wretchedness of Washington’s tax and revenue situation:

A $23 million cut in King County health programs approved by the Legislature last month means layoffs in Maternity Support Services, [a] program that improves infant survival and health by providing a range of services to 30,000 women and babies.

Meanwhile a sales tax exemption for out-of-state coal worth…you guessed it, $23.7 million…is still on the books.

It’s hard to imagine history treating us kindly. Will we be remembered for neglecting our most vulnerable infants and mothers, so that we can protect a tax loophole for a foreign energy company that is also the state’s biggest polluter? I hope that’s not our legacy.

I fully understand the implications of Eyman’s 1053—that closing even the most egregious corporate tax loopholes is nigh impossible — but it’s hard to believe that a moral legislative body wouldn’t try.