OLYMPIA – The state Department of Transportation is violating election law by campaigning against Initiative 912, which would roll back the Legislature’s new gas tax increase, the measure’s supporters contend.
In complaints Monday to the state Public Disclosure Commission and Executive Ethics Board, supporters of I-912 said the department is using mailed fliers, staffed booths at county fairs and its Web site to campaign against the initiative.
Department director Doug MacDonald declined to specifically address the complaints, saying he hadn’t read them. But MacDonald defended his agency’s efforts to tell the public about projects that would be funded by the increase in the state gas tax, which was 28 cents a gallon before lawmakers acted.
I-912 would repeal a 9.5-cent-per-gallon gas tax increase approved by the 2005 Legislature. The tax increase is being phased in over four years; the first 3 cents already is being collected.
Opponents of the initiative say it would scrap plans for more than 200 crucial road and bridge projects. But supporters say the state would be left with billions of dollars from other sources to spend on transportation.
In letters to the disclosure commission and the ethics board, I-912 supporters said the department was breaking laws prohibiting the use of public facilities for campaigns.
Specifically, the campaign said the Transportation Department’s Web site improperly implied that some transportation projects would be in jeopardy if I-912 passes, sent fliers that warned of an end to road funding, and staffed county fair booths with banners that proclaimed “New gas tax builds projects!”
Those efforts are “pretty dramatic stuff that we have never seen before,” I-912 spokesman Brett Bader said.
“There’s enough of a campaign against I-912 now. Taxpayer funds don’t need to be used against this measure,” he said.
MacDonald defended his agency in an appearance on John Carlson’s KVI-AM radio show.
While acknowledging that he shouldn’t take a position on the initiative, MacDonald said he sees nothing wrong with agency officials telling the public what’s at stake.
“I know it’s inside the law for us to do what we have done, and that’s get out and try to talk to people,” he said. “That’s exactly what we want – we want people to know what the money would buy.”
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