The following is presented as part of The Columbian’s Opinion content, which offers a point of view in order to provoke thought and debate of civic issues. Opinions represent the viewpoint of the author. Unsigned editorials represent the consensus opinion of The Columbian’s editorial board, which operates independently of the news department.
Donnelly: Initiative voters send an important message
By Ann Donnelly
Published: November 1, 2020, 6:01am
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Opponents of 2019 Initiative 976, which aimed to limit car tab fees, are relieved that the state Supreme Court has ruled the popular measure unconstitutional. Some of sponsor Tim Eyman’s detractors now want to shoot the messenger, quashing his future efforts once and for all.
“Tim Eyman has never written a successful tax initiative that passed legal muster,” sniffed state Attorney General Bob Ferguson, a vocal opponent of I-976, who, ironically, was charged with its defense before the state Supreme Court.
Taxpayers beware of politicians acting from self-interest.
Should Eyman lose support or cease his efforts, taxpayers of this state would lose a defense against what would have been billions in government spending and tax collections. The advantage to the Inslee administration for discrediting Eyman would be to acquire a freer rein to use the party’s majority votes in the Legislature and executive power to enact a plethora of new taxes.
Locally, governments could put down their sharpened pencils and resume spending without the expectation of further initiatives.
Eyman’s persistence in marshalling grassroots support has both direct and indirect value to taxpayers by enforcing needed accountability and scrutiny of budgets to state and local governments. A prime example is the city of Vancouver’s current scrutiny of its road projects budget. Upon passage of I-976, the city had to scour its transportation budget to cover a projected loss of $1 million in revenue (“City rethinks road projects” Columbian, Oct. 28), which subsequent to the Supreme Court ruling can now be restored for expenditure.
Yet, the Initiative’s value survives indirectly. Ryan Lopossa, City Transportation Manager, advises putting $400,000 aside for four years for high-priority expenditures because “we could be right back to having this same conversation in the next year or two.”
Excellent point. Lopossa’s prudent planning for the future is just what the voters had in mind.
Initiatives face daunting challenges, as a handful of us in Clark County learned in 1993 when we spearheaded Linda Smith’s Initiative 601, a budget and tax limitation measure that resonated with voters. Our experience showed us that grassroots efforts, even after persuading a healthy majority of voters, will be challenged in the courts on arcane legal points of constitutionality. The outcome is then out of activists’ control, despite initiative writers’ best efforts to meet standards.
Initiative 976 actually passed legal muster with King County Superior Court Judge Marshall Ferguson, an Inslee appointee whose Feb. 12 order upheld the initiative on most of its opponents’ legal objections (“dismisses all but two”), including the pivotal Single Subject Rule. The state Supreme Court, which now reflects the strong liberal bent of the Puget Sound area and recent governors, took a different view, raising the Single Subject Rule in its decision of unconstitutionality.
Eyman has long refused to be deterred, making him a target for Ferguson and other opponents.
He keeps tabs on his initiative outcomes, concluding that since 1999 he has qualified 17 statewide initiatives for a public vote, of which 11 were passed by voters, from which taxpayers have received $43 billion in direct savings. He cites “billions more in indirect savings from initiatives requiring a 2/3 vote to raise taxes from 2007 to 2013.”
Justifiably, Eyman believes that “all 17 initiatives that made it to the ballot were victories because voters got to discuss, debate, learn about, and vote on each one.”
Tax initiatives, whatever the long-term outcome, send a message of accountability to our governor, Legislature, and local governments, direct from the voters.
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