{"id":289216,"date":"2010-02-05T19:26:00","date_gmt":"2010-02-06T00:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seattletimes.nwsource.com\/html\/northwestvoices\/2010995963_bypassingtheinitiative.html?syndication=rss"},"modified":"2010-02-05T19:26:00","modified_gmt":"2010-02-06T00:26:00","slug":"bypassing-the-initiative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/289216","title":{"rendered":"Bypassing the initiative"},"content":{"rendered":"

Used as a tool for out-of-state interests<\/strong><\/p>\n

Editor, The Times:<\/p>\n

Bruce Ramsey\u2019s editorial, \u201cBills to spite Eyman don\u2019t help\u201d [Opinion, Feb. 3], gave a one-sided view on ballot initiatives. These proposed legislative bills to restrict initiatives would not only affect Tim Eyman, but all special-interest groups: lobbyists, out-of-state-funders and independent groups.<\/p>\n

These groups use our ballot initiatives to influence and promote their own self-interests. By focusing the argument solely on Eyman, Ramsey is being disingenuous. He fails to discuss how the initiative process is not always a \u201chomegrown,\u201d grass-roots campaign.<\/p>\n

In 2006, our I-933 \u201cproperty-rights\u201d initiative was mainly financed by Howard Rich, a New York real-estate developer. With Rich\u2019s wealth and his self-interest group, Americans for Limited Government, this developer used the ballot initiative to influence elections in 11 Western states concerning \u201cproperty rights.\u201d I-933 was Rich\u2019s attempt to overturn our local, city, county and state regulations on land-use development.<\/p>\n

When Ramsey fails to give a complete view of the overuse and abuse of the initiative process without regard to all the facts, he does his readers a disservice by slanting the argument as a group of state legislators attempting to usurp democratic principles.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Glenda Tecklenburg, Mill Creek<\/em><\/p>\n

Initiative is important popular check on government<\/strong><\/p>\n

On Feb. 3, the Democrat-controlled Legislature introduced legislation to undo the will of the people \u2014 Senate Bill 6843. Initiative 960 forced our legislators to reveal how much new bills would cost \u2014 last year, some proposed bills were shown to cost billions! They sounded nice; we didn\u2019t have billions to spend. Once the fiscal note was attached to the bill, it often \u2014 and rightly \u2014 failed. If this new bill passes, transparency is gone.<\/p>\n

I- <\/span>960 also required a two-thirds vote in the Legislature \u2014 or a simple majority vote of the Legislature along with a vote of the people \u2014 to increase taxes. In other words, we wanted them to live within their means! Through rushed political maneuvering, legislators are trying to get through this bill that undoes I-960 without allowing us to read the bill or comment on it. It is appalling that they can be so arrogant in flouting our will.<\/p>\n

If SB 6843 bill passes, you can bet there will be large tax increases for us and we will begin down the road to insolvency, similar to that which plagues other states.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Nancy Thompson, Clinton<\/em><\/p>\n

Initiative befuddles system, empowers troublemakers<\/strong><\/p>\n

The problem with the initiative is at least twofold:<\/p>\n

First, the principle of representative government was weakened when, in 1912, the state adopted the progressive agenda \u2014 that included initiatives, referendums and recalls \u2014 to hobble the influence of \u201cbig business.\u201d Today, in a much more complicated world, with better-educated voters and legislators, we don\u2019t need the initiative.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s legislators \u2014 not a bad lot compared with those from 1912 \u2014 have the ability to do their real job of representing us voters and putting together complex legislation that voters could not possibly undertake rationally \u2014 and do it much better without the initiative. The initiative is a constitutional anachronism, it is disruptive of good government and the sooner we get rid of it the better.<\/p>\n

Ours is a representative democracy, not that of a Swiss canton \u2014 our state constitution says so.<\/p>\n

Second, the initiative gives full scope to troublemakers like Tim Eyman. He not only earns big money by playing to the fears and ignorance of too many of us, asking \u201cWouldn\u2019t you like government on the cheap?\u201d<\/p>\n

He cynically does the nihilistic work of his backers: wealthy but vicious ideologues. He gives employment to pitiable folks who will do anything for a buck, but they should find employment less damaging to our public treasure: the civic process.<\/p>\n

The best way to weaken Eyman and his backers is to require, by law, that signature gatherers may not be paid. Should conscientious voters be willing to let the Eymans of this world do their civic work for them?<\/p>\n

\u2014 James Huntley, Sequim<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Used as a tool for out-of-state interests Editor, The Times: Bruce Ramsey\u2019s editorial, \u201cBills to spite Eyman don\u2019t help\u201d [Opinion, Feb. 3], gave a one-sided view on ballot initiatives. These proposed legislative bills to restrict initiatives would not only affect Tim Eyman, but all special-interest groups: lobbyists, out-of-state-funders and independent groups. These groups use our […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2861,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-289216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2861"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289216\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}