From crime to credit cards, initiatives run gamut

By David Ammons

Associated Press

OLYMPIA — Initiative backers are hawking several dozen ballot measures, dealing with everything from crime and credit card interest to road taxes and a requirement that all political candidates take the 10th grade achievement test.

One citizen would even like to change the state’s name from Washington to "Cascadia."

Thus far, all but one of the initiative efforts are mom-and-pop operations. The exception: Tim Eyman’s Permanent Offense committee has begun paying solicitors to hit the streets with clipboards.

Sponsors find it very difficult to qualify unless they have well-heeled backers and can use paid signature-gathering. Of the 66 initiatives filed in 2000 and 2001, for instance, just nine qualified for a place on the ballot and most used paid solicitors. Seven of those measures passed.

The initiative process, which allows average citizens and groups to try their hand at writing state laws, has been criticized in recent years for hemming in the Legislature by cutting revenue while mandating billions in new spending.

Eyman’s confession in February that he had secretly converted some campaign contributions into a salary fund for himself spurred the Legislature to consider restrictions. The only change adopted this year was a requirement for the state budget office to do a fiscal analysis that would be included the Voters’ Pamphlet write-up on each initiative.

One new initiative, however, warns legislators to keep their hands off the process. Initiative 781 says any lawmaker who attempts to overturn or weaken an initiative would be expelled from office, put in the state penitentiary for five years and barred from politics for life.

However, that’s probably more of a "message to Olympia" than a legal threat. The state Constitution, which cannot be amended by initiative, says lawmakers can amend or repeal an initiative within two years of its passage with two-thirds votes in both houses, and by a simple majority after that. This year, for instance, the Senate voted to repeal anti-trapping Initiative 713; the count was a few votes short in the House.

This year’s initiatives also include:

Transportation taxes: Eyman’s I-776 would roll back car tab fees to $30 a year for vehicles, motorcycles and motor homes. This would eliminate some of the taxes that pay for mass transit in central Puget Sound.

I-785 would require that all transportation taxes and tolls be spent on transportation projects and mass transit in the county where they are collected.

I-787 extends the sales tax to gasoline, with revenue earmarked for public transportation.

Education: I-780 would require candidates for state and local office to take the 10th grade Washington Assessment of Student Learning. Test scores would be made public, including a notation in the Voters’ Pamphlet.

I-779 would award merit pay to teachers, based on parents’ ratings.

I-789 would allow school principals to develop and manage a schoolhouse budget, subject to school board approval and state audit.

Tax policy: I-782 says 95 percent of all state and local taxes should be paid by the individuals and corporations that possess 95 percent of the state’s wealth. A couple making less than about $100,000 a year would pay no tax. The attorney general says this measure is flawed, because it has no enacting clause.

I-791 would impose state spending limits stronger than the ones voters approved in 1993 with Initiative 601. Tax increases would require a legislative supermajority or a vote of the people.

Campaign finance: I-783 says the only legal campaign contributions would be ones from individuals who are able to vote for the candidate or ballot measure. This would rule out money from unions, business, political action committees and parties, as well as individuals from outside the state or district.

Crime: I-784 would allow property forfeiture only after a person is convicted of a drug crime. I-792 would stiffen the penalties for vehicular assault while intoxicated or high on drugs.

Credit cards: I-788 would impose a 12 percent annual interest limit on credit card balances.

More: I-786 says all tribal rights would be "shared equally and in common with the citizens of Washington state." I-777 bars employers from either demanding or forbidding workers to belong to a union or to pay union representation costs. I-790 establishes a new board to oversee the Law Enforcement and Fire Fighters’ Plan 2 pension.

Numbers haven’t been assigned yet, but other initiatives have been filed, including ones to abolish the death penalty, tie legislative salaries to homecare workers’ pay and to rename the state Cascadia.