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After I moved to a Republican Senate district a few years back, I suggested to my representatives in Juneau that they should work to pass a comprehensive approach to our budget crisis, including new revenue. Oh no, was the response from my senator, it’s too early for that, we need to cut the budget first.
OK, maybe, but after they cut it as much as they apparently could and we started spending our reserves, they still refused to do anything — we’re in a recession, we can’t impose new taxes now. When Gov. Bill Walker proposed an income tax, the majority didn’t try to amend it or suggest an alternative, but simply refused to consider it. And so we went through some $15 billion in reserves.