[joegosse]

The initiative wasn't so simple. In addition to the carbon tax, it included a reduction in the state sales tax, with the net result being an overall reduction in tax revenue for the state. With social services and education already underfunded (at least in people's minds), this was a difficult tradeoff to make.

My sense was that the initiative was formulated to appeal to two different groups of voters but in doing so ended up alienating both.

[bzbarsky]

As I understand it, the carbon tax proposal in Washington was supposed to be revenue-neutral. Do you have a pointer showing it would come out revenue-negative?

[WalterBright]

It was designed to be revenue neutral, but it's a bit hard to predict behavior changes which will affect the result (and the whole point was to change behavior).