Politicians Hate the Initiative Process

It challenges their elitist policy-making "monopoly." It lets the people decide.

The trouble we have is that the government in Olympia has become inbred. They are determined to care for government officials first to, the exclusion of the People. The People must awaken to the fact that when the politicians stop serving the People and start serving only special interests, the whole society is in deep trouble.

For 15 years, Tim Eyman and Voters Want More Choices work to let the people decide important issues; for example, lower car tab taxes, limits on property tax increases, performance audits of government, the 2/3 legislative majority vote requirements for tax increases. They've also made it top priorities to defend the initiative process from “liberal” political attack.

The People had a huge victory last Friday.

Background: Last year, in response to Eyman‘s initiative in Monroe on red-light cameras, the Monroe City Mayor and City Council refused to allow the people to vote Then they sued Eyman for sponsoring the initiative. The people’s own elected representative sued to keep the people out of the political process. Despicable.

The City officials asked the court to impose a $10,000 fine on Eyman and tried to force Eyman to pay the City attorney’s fees. Under the threat of escalating legal costs against an the government with taxpayer-funded resources to pay their lawyers, lots of folks would've folded their tent and gone home. Eyman didn't -- he fought back.

After months of personal anguish and stress, Eyman prevailed against the Monroe politicians’ anti-initiative effort, as on Friday, Snohomish County Superior Court Judge George Bowden found that the City's action was a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP lawsuit) and imposed a $10,000 fine on the city! The red-light camera initiative is green lighted for a public vote.

Judge Bowden wrote: "Having secured enough valid signatures to place (the initiative) on the ballot, the City's lawsuit burdens the initiative sponsors with having to defend the right of the voters to express their opinions and weigh in on a matter that will directly affect them."

This court decision sends a clear message to other arrogant politicians that such obstructionist tactics will not only fail, but result in substantial financial penalties. It is a huge, huge victory for initiative rights in Washington.

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But what does it matter to the authoritarian “liberals?” The People get to pay for everything arrogant mistake the politicians make.

Yesterday, Eyman again drove down to Olympia to testify against another one of the pageant of anti-initiative bills that have become annual tradition in our state's Capitol.

Much of this information is supplied by Tim Eyman.

Homosexual marriage?

There are many different sorts of domestic partnerships. Some arrangements are not intimate -- they are an arrangement to split the rent or just have someone else in the house. Some arrangements are more intimate, but the partners do not want their status clarified. And in some cases people want to celebrate a different sort of cohabiting arrangement, such as non-traditional sexual orientation.

Enter the State -- The "liberals" are telling us homosexual pairings deserve to be described as a marriage. "Senator" Potty Murray explained words are always changing in their meaning. She gave the example of "mouse" which no longer means mouse. Likewise, Murray explained, "marriage" has changed to include homosexual pairings. She missed the fact that some people want to be different and she is forcing them to be labeled the same.

Anyway, "Governor" Christine Gregoire galloped to Murray's aid to forced the changed use of the term on the legislature attention. Both women claim to be very proud of the gobbledegook they are creating. Don't they have a massive budget shortfall to deal with?

Murray & Gregoire are intellectual lightweights, trying to pick a fight with half the people in the state. No word's meaning has been more honored and keenly defended than the word "marriage." It means the pairing between a man and a woman.

These state "liberals" are eager to create a debate with lack of clarity. They condescend to reckon the power of government can even be used to force people change the language they use to call marriage "marriage" -- a stupid government overreach.

The male-female paring deserves special naming -- It preserves wealth for the offspring of the union, and it produces offspring by combination of the genetic material of the two people involved in the marriage. (There are historical exceptions, cuckoldry and similar). In the main, the marriage relationship is unique and unblurable. It takes a monumental act of stupidity to miss this point.

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News source

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A public hearing is scheduled on HB 2516, 01/23/2012 1:30PM in the John L. O'Brien Building, House Hearing Rm A, Olympia, WA. The hearing for the associated Senate bill, SB 6239, is scheduled 01/23/2012 10:00AM in the J.A. Cherberg Building, Senate Hearing Rm 2, Olympia, WA

Update -- Because there is a tax or fee associated with homosexual domestic arrangements, the law required a public report, which is not ready yet (so they say).


Update on the update -- The cellar dwellers in Olympia who sort through the legislative output for taxes and fees have discovered they made an error. Here is the text of their notice: "An email notice was previously sent regarding SB 6239, AN ACT Relating to providing equal protection for all families in Washington by creating equality in civil marriage and changing the domestic partnership laws, while protecting religious freedom. Upon further analysis, this bill does not include a new or increased tax or fee." The same is true for HB 2516.

Banning Plastic Bags

An idea whose time is dumb.

Plastic bags are not a landfill problem the way the paper bags used to be. 98% of the people who have plastic bags re-use or re-cycle them. They are light, efficient and work very well. The legislature is intent on banning them.

Seattle City Council recently banned single use plastic bags. Apparently the Council is still miffed over the People's rejection of their 20 cent per bag tax, so they are beating on the people. By the way, Seattle City Council added a 5 cent fee on paper bags.

The rationale for the statewide bag ban is that it is too hard for businesses to conform to the patchwork of local regulations imposed on plastic bags. It figures Olympia would think the answer to stupid government is more stupid government.

HB 1877, was introduced by Rep. Joe Fitzgibbon & Rep. Marko Liias, both Democrats. Liias, you may recall, proposed increasing fees on the People's initiatives in order to silence the common rabble last year.

SB 5780 was introduced by Senator Maralyn Chase and Senator Adam Kline, both Democrats.

State of the State

Governor Christine Gregoire in her State of the State message on Tuesday, January 10, included her visions for “New revenue options.”

Gregoire said, "In the next 60 days, I ask you to do four things:

1. Use the early start you got in December and quickly pass a budget;
2. Ask the voters this spring to approve a temporary, half-penny sales tax increase for students and their future;
3. Pass my school reforms; and,
4. Pass a major transportation and jobs package”

Gregoire also addressed her favorite topics – new taxes and fees, and closing tax “loopholes”. She said, “We must look for new revenue as well. Close tax loopholes to save vital services like the Basic Health Program for the working poor. It’s a matter of firmness.”

“Firmness” -- not a matter of wisdom, workability or fairness, but Who Is Governor.

Gregoire doesn’t support budget cuts.

Her favorite target is to increase the sales tax.

“Our businesses, our state, our children and our grandchildren can’t afford anymore “deep cuts” to education. About $411 million of the $494 [increased] million sales tax revenue would go to K-12 and higher education." The children need to be rescued from the uncaring state, again.

The House and Senate Democrats will likely both have their own budgets, as well as Senate & House Republicans.

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Gregoire's forth item, a transportation and jobs package, is an ongoing display piece, so everyone can see that She Is Getting Something Done. Politicians get fascinated with an idea and they relentlessly sell the idea to the People, who then clamor for construction. Whether or not a project will ever work out is ignored. Millions get spent.

The present tunnel-under-Seattle project will is one of these. The Alaskan Way Viaduct has been largely destroyed, to the delight of private landholders whose property has dramatically increased in value because of the Governor's action.

The whole project should have been shelved until the economy was stronger. But the "liberals" insisted there was no time to consider the options! The Governor must push forward! Billions have been committed.

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If you've lived in Seattle for a little while, you'll remember the downtown Seattle “Transit Tunnel Project” back in 1987, and the years of complications it produced. When the project was finished it traffic and bus riders snarls concerning transfers and safety problems. So Diesel buses were allowed to use the tunnel but other surface traffic was re-routed. Then things things became more tangled.

We never got the half-billion we spent back in benefits. We really should stop spending until we see where the money goes. We can spend tomorrow only what we still have.

Some material in this report comes from Mark Gjurasic

Rob McKenna's review of State of the State