I hate to obsess about this, but I keep coming back to this one line in an email from state Sen. Rodney Tom (D-48), in which he matter-of-factly explains:

We have swept over $250 million from the MTCA account to the general fund for programs like K-12 education over the past several years.

Tom argues that he's doing the responsible thing, stealing money from one worthy program to pay for another he thinks is worthier. You know priorities and all that. But the MTCA was approved by voters in 1988, establishing a dedicated tax on toxic substances to help pay for toxic cleanups, not to help paper over budget shortfalls.

That bullshit lawmakers like to spout about honoring the will of voters? It's bullshit. But more importantly, it's shit like this—sweeping "dedicated" tax revenue into the general fund—that makes it that much more difficult to get voters to approve the taxes necessary to pay for everything else.