Michael Dukakis, governor of Massachusetts, did something similar to help fund his "Massachusetts Miracle" when spending kept spiraling. I know as I was working in MA at the time and he got his retroactive tax cut through. If memory serves (I may have the EXACT number off by 1) there were 4 annual "largest tax increases in the Commonwealth's history" hikes in taxes at one point (it might have been 5, I'm not sure).