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Initiative backers don gag, cuffs in protest
Friday, January 27, 2006
Initiative backers don gag, cuffs in protest Eyman,
others say bills would curtail citizen input. "Eye
on Olympia".
Richard Roesler
Spokesman Review Staff writer
January 27, 2006
OLYMPIA - It was "a dream come true" for his critics, initiative
promoter Tim Eyman joked Thursday: the sight of him and two associates
shuffling along in jail jumpsuits, handcuffs and leg chains, with duct
tape over their mouths.
Another fund-raising scandal? No. Just more political theater from the
man who once filed an initiative while wearing a rubber gorilla suit.
Eyman, Mike and Jack Fagan, Mike Dunmire and other allies were trying to
draw attention to a series of bills that would regulate - or in one case
do away with - citizen initiatives and referenda.
Among them:
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SB 5556: Requiring that initiatives spell out the
full text of any laws
they want to repeal.
-
SB 5147: Banning the practice of paying petitioners
by the signature.
-
SJR 8201: Which would ask voters in November to
approve a constitutional
amendment banning citizen-written ballot measures.
Committee chairman Sen. Jim Kastama repeatedly said at
Thursday's hearing that he doesn't really intend to approve the bill to
do away with initiatives.
"I assure you it is not the priority of this Legislature to stop you
from doing your business," he told Eyman, a former citizen activist who
now solicits contributions to his "compensation fund" for his work on
mostly anti-tax measures.
I nitiatives, a child of early 1900s populism, are essentially an end run
around state lawmakers. Anyone with $5 can file one with the secretary
of state. If they can then gather more than a quarter-million signatures
from like-minded folks, the measure goes on the fall ballot to see if
voters agree. If most do, the initiative becomes law.
Lawmakers have long disliked the measures, saying that voters don't have
the time to consider the long-term implications of what they're being
asked to approve.
Sen. Ken Jacobsen, D-Seattle, is the one who proposed the ban.
Initiatives, he said, undermine America's republican government.
"If people don't like decisions I make in a representative form of
government, then don't re-elect me," he said.
And since a court ruled years ago that the state couldn't stop the
practice of paying people to gather signatures, he said, the
once-populist practice has been picked up by big-money groups intent on
passing laws that favor themselves. Doctors, lawyers, builders and
health associations have all recently paid to put measures on the ballot
after repeatedly failing to win
over lawmakers.
-- END --
The following information sheet was submitted into
the public record at the hearing:
ANTI-INITIATIVE BILLS AND WHY THEY'RE BAD
Senate Bill 5333 - Sponsored by Democrat Senator
Debbie Regala - Modifying requirements for voter-approved property tax
levies.
This bill makes property tax increases imposed by
local governments last
longer - up to six times longer. Voter-approved Initiative 747
limited
property tax increases and required government to ask our permission
each
year for more. This bill guts that requirement.
Senate Bill 5556 - Sponsored by Democrat Senator
Karen Fraser - Requiring initiatives and referenda to set forth repealed
language in full.
The text of an initiative must fit on the back of an
11"x17" petition. This bill requires initiatives to include not just the
titles of repealed statutes, but all the text of the statutes with
strike outs (lines drawn over the text). This radically increases the
length of the initiative's text, making it impossible to fit on the back
of a petition. THE LEGISLATURE HAS EXEMPTED ITSELF FROM THIS
REQUIREMENT. BUT EVEN IF THEY DIDN'T EXEMPT THEIR BILLS, THEIR
LEGISLATION DOESN'T NEED TO FIT ON THE BACK OF AN 11"X17" PETITION. This
is sneaky, underhanded way to stop initiatives that repeal statutes.
This bill makes it impossible to repeal anything the Legislature passes.
This idea was cooked by the labor unions as an anti-initiative strategy
and their toady - Democrat Karen Fraser - is sponsoring it for them.
Senate Bill 5412 - Sponsored by Democrat Senator
Margarita Prentice --
Modifying the impact of statewide initiatives on local tax authority.
This is the "Protect Sound Transit from
SaveOur30Tabs.com" anti-initiative
bill. The Legislature has insulated Sound Transit from any challenge
by
local initiative. So we sponsored and voters approved Initiative
776, "$30
Tabs for Everyone," in 2002 to hold Sound Transit accountable. This
year
we're pushing SaveOur30Tabs.com that, among other things, guarantees
that
Sound Transit stops collecting the vehicle tax repealed by
voter-approved
I-776. This bill would broaden Sound Transit's current exemption
from local
initiative to include statewide initiatives, including
SaveOur30Tabs.com.
When voters are denied local initiatives to hold rogue governments
like
Sound Transit accountable, the constitutionally guaranteed state
initiative
must be available to the voters.
Senate Bill 5879 - Sponsored by Democrat Senator
Margarita Prentice --
Prohibiting out-of-state contributions to gambling ballot measures.\
Laughably unconstitutional.
Senate Bill 5147 - sponsored by Senate Seattle
Democrat Jeanne Kohl-Welles - Prohibiting payment of petition signature
gatherers on a per-signature basis.
The courts have ruled that as long as legislators
and their staffs can be compensated, so too can citizens for
exercising their political free speech rights. But politicians claim
they're not banning compensation, only ONE METHOD of compensation.
Bull hockey. They know this bill locks it up in the courts for years
with their legal bills being paid by taxpayers. THIS REQUIREMENT
WOULD DOUBLE THE COST OF GETTING INITIATIVES QUALIFIED FOR THE
BALLOT. A person who gathers signatures with a table at a park or a
movie theatre can earn $30 or $40 per hour when lots of voters
choose to voluntarily sign petitions. Requiring hourly payment means
the initiative campaign must pay $30 - $40 per hour REGARDLESS OF
HOW MANY SIGNATURES ARE GATHERED. This radically increases the cost
of qualifying an initiative for the ballot. This won't impact the
big guys -- doctors, lawyers, teachers' unions, and other special
interest groups -- they've got the money to overcome this doubling
of the cost. Who's affected? Initiative campaigns like ours that
draw thousands of small contributions from thousands of heroic
supporters. Sherry Appleton is lead sponsor of this in the state
house and she has the gall and audacity to send this email to people
unaware of her anti-initiative bills and agenda: "I support the
initiative process and there is no bill in the House of
Representatives that I know of." Liar. All the sponsors and
co-sponsors of these bills are lying weasels, secretly pushing to
take away our political free speech rights by gutting the initiative
process while publicly claiming they support the right to
initiative.
Senate Joint Resolution 8201 - sponsored by
Senate Seattle Democrat Ken Jacobsen -- Amending the Constitution to
remove initiatives and referenda powers.
This bill ain't the big enchilada, as some might
suggest. At least he recognizes that the right to initiative is
guaranteed by the state constitution and that any changes to the
initiative process can only be done by constitutional amendment.
Which means getting 2/3's in the state house, 2/3's in the state
senate, and a vote of the people. Give him points for not hiding his
views - he openly hates having the citizens voices heard in
important debates over public policy and he's pushing to openly take
our rights away from us. At least he's honest about his position.
The sponsors and co-sponsors of the other bills skulk and hide and
obfuscate their opposition and secretly try to gut the initiative
process and yet have the audacity to claim "I support the initiative
process, I'm just trying to make it better with Senate Bill XXXX" --
Lying weasels.
Tim Eyman, Mukilteo - Jack Fagan,
Spokane - Mike Fagan, Spokane -
Voters Want More Choices, 425-493-9127,
jakatak@comcast.net
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