Voters, you’re a tough nut to crack.
This isn’t meant to discourage those relative few who did vote. Turnout appears to be even lower than the state’s modest expectations for an off-year election. State election officials were hoping about 46 percent of registered voters would return their ballots; figuring in ballots still to be counted, the turnout statewide could be as low as 37 percent and an even lower 34 percent in Snohomish County. So, if you voted, thanks.
But looking at two initiatives, one from this year and one from last, it’s difficult to discern which direction voters want the state to go.
Last year, the apparent message from voters was spend. Voters approved Initiative 1351, requiring that the state fund lower class sizes in public schools with a cost estimate of $5 billion through 2019. With 54 percent turnout, about 51 percent approved the initiative.
This year, the message was don’t spend, or at least don’t tax us any more to do so. As they have in past elections, voters backed Tim Eyman’s latest attempt to mandate that the Legislature require a two-thirds majority to pass any tax increase. To do so, Initiative 1366, approval for which is now leading with about 53 percent, would require the Legislature put an amendment on the November 2016 ballot that would enshrine the two-thirds requirement in the state constitution. Unless the Legislature complies by April 15, the initiative states, the state sales tax rate would be reduced to 5.5 percent from 6.5 percent, representing an estimated $8 billion hole in state budgets between 2016 and 2021.
You’ll forgive the perplexed look on the face of some legislators. Not that either election result will have bothered them for long.
Facing the Supreme Court’s mandate that it develop a plan to amply fund public education, the Legislature made a $1.3 billion down payment this session, which included funding to lower student-teacher ratios in K-3 classes. But the Legislature opted to delay requirements of I-1351 that would have brought lower class sizes in the fourth through 12th grades.
Now, depending on an expected court challenge, the Legislature may never have to bother with I-1366.
Eyman — whose initiatives have about the same record of success in court as Wile E. Coyote does with the Road Runner — told The Herald’s Jerry Cornfield that the initiative was designed to avoid the legal land mines that have previously blown up in his face. His opponents disagree, claiming I-1366 violates rules against addressing more than one subject and attempting to amend the constitution through the initiative process, both which courts have previously ruled against.
In allowing I-1366 to go on the ballot in September, the state Supreme Court said it would retain the case to rule later on its merits.
Getting back to the issue of voter turnout, maybe the troubles initiatives have in court and in the Legislature offer a partial explanation as to the voters’ lack of enthusiasm to turn in ballots. Why vote for something that might be overturned or suspended? But more than the fault of those two branches of government, it’s more the fault of an initiative process that is in need of reform.
Maybe more people will vote when they know their vote will matter.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
