…Codifying Eyman’s I-747 into law before the state supreme court throws it out.

Eyman’s 2001 property tax cap (1 percent) was thrown out by King County Superior Court Judge Mary Roberts last summer on the grounds that voters were misled about the substance of the measure. Roberts said voters thought they were changing the tax increase cap from 2 percent to 1 percent, not from 6 percent to 1 percent, as 747 mandated.

Voters had approved I-747 by 58 percent.

Of course, liberals and Democratic lawmakers have long argued that I-747 hampers their ability to fund basic services. (Before I-747 passed, the state department of revenue estimated that I-747 would cost the state about $1.3 billion in its first five years. In more concrete terms: Conventional wisdom has it that local governments need to increase their budgets by about 3 percent annually to keep pace with inflation.)

So, codifying 747 into law, eh? Um… go, Democrats?

Look, property taxes are a tricky issue, and there needs to be reform so that people with fixed incomes and poorer people aren’t paying a larger percentage of their incomes in property taxes than rich people. And certainly, lots of Democrats heard complaints on the campaign trail about property taxes.

But wait: Why codify I-747? It’s still in effect (at least until the state supreme court rules), and it hasn’t solved the problems and inequities in our property-tax system since 2001.

If Democrats want to score points and reform the property-tax system, they ought to come up with a progressive solution that doesn’t indiscriminately cap revenues.

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