2010 Washington State Legislative Session: Anti-Initiative Bills

Here are the bills the legislature is considering to restrict citizen access to government (and what else is wrong with them).

Senate Joint Resolution 8202 - sponsored by Sen. Ken Jacobsen (D-Seattle) -- Amends the Constitution and removes the people’s initiative and referendum powers.

Ken Jacobsen is the most honest elected official on this issue. He’s plainly pushing to take our Constitutional rights away from us. The sponsors of the other anti-initiative bills listed below hide their opposition and seek to impose unneeded, costly requirements on citizens so as to effectively repeal the initiative process with a stealth “regulate to death” strategy.

House Bill 2614 - Sponsored by Rep. Sam Hunt (D-Olympia) – Citizens who exercise their First Amendment rights by signing an initiative petition must have their signature invalidated if the person who gathered their signature forgets to fill out the back of the petition.

Why should perfectly valid voter signatures be rejected, and thus voters be disenfranchised, if the person who gathered those signatures forgot to fill out the back of the petition? This bill says that the Secretary of State must reject petitions, and thus reject valid signatures of interested voters, based on whether the person gathering the signatures publicly identifies himself/herself on the back with their signature, name, address, city, state, zip code, and date.

In 2006, the Initiative 917 campaign turned in 17,000 petition sheets and 3000 of them did not have signature gatherers’ names on the back; all 3000 came from volunteers. If HB 2614 had been in effect, tens of thousands of valid voter signatures would be rejected, and thus Tens Of Thousands Of Voters Would Be Disenfranchised, because some of our volunteers either forgot or chose not to fill out the back of the petition. The tens of thousands of voters who signed those petitions wanted their signatures to count and they shouldn’t be penalized, and thus be disenfranchised, based on the person who gathered their signatures.

The US 9th Circuit Court struck down a 1993 Washington state law that required the names and addresses of people collecting voter signatures for ballot measures to be publicly reported. They ruled that citizens who ask voters to sign petitions have a right to anonymity ("There can be no doubt that the compelled disclosure of this information chills political speech.”). People who gather signatures are regularly harassed and forcing them to publicly identify themselves will make them even more susceptible to intimidation.

Citizens should not be deterred from exercising their free speech rights because of a legitimate fear of retaliation caused by laws like this.

Sponsors of HB 2614 claim they just want to find the people collecting ‘bad’ signatures. This problem does not exist – from 1999 through 2009, 36 ballot measures submitted 10,516,645 voter signatures to the Secretary of State. In response to a public records request, their office confirms that they’ve had “no instances of verified forgeries or fraud in the signature gathering process for statewide measures during those years.” 10 years, 10 million signatures, zero instances of verified forgeries or fraud. It's clear that initiative campaigns are doing a very good job and the Secretary of State is making sure that only initiatives with enough valid voter signatures qualify for the ballot. This bill is unnecessary and oppressive.

Under current law, the Secretary of State rejects a voter's signature on a petition if it doesn't exactly match the signature on the voter's registration – valid voter signatures count, 'non-matched' voter signatures don't. Under this bill, perfectly valid voter signatures must be rejected also. With HB 2614, the Secretary of State's top priority will be to take petitions filled with valid voter signatures and throw them in the garbage.

House Bill 2613 - Sponsored by Rep. Sam Hunt (D-Olympia) – “They-gotta-register-and-be-licensed-by-the-government-to-gather-voter-signatures-and-if-you-don't-then-perfectly-valid-voter-signatures-will-be-rejected” bill – free citizens exercising their First Amendment rights who ask voters to sign petitions be subjected to criminal background checks – people collecting signatures must be registered & licensed by the government valid voter signatures gathered by unlicensed people must be rejected.

HB 2613 conditions First Amendment rights on receiving government permission – no license, no First Amendment rights. Requiring citizens who collect voter signatures to first register with the government is clearly unconstitutional and absurd (the state budget office’s 10 year cost projection for this new tax on signature gathering: $66,300 for “Paper-Copy Fingerprint-Based Background Checks”). People who collect signatures must give the government “A conventional photograph showing head, neck, and shoulders and is appropriate for copying and processing.”

Most disturbingly, the bill says that valid voter signatures must be rejected if they’re collected by non-licensed people. If HB 2613 passes, voters who are given the opportunity to sign a petition will first need to make sure that the person gathering their signature has been found “acceptable” by the government (if they don’t, then their signature won’t count). It even says that if there’s an invalid voter signature found on a petition sheet – even just one – then the person who collected that signature is banned from collecting voter signatures for 5 years. HB 2613 also contains the same noxious policies as HB 2614 described above. HB 2613 would stigmatize and deter citizens from exercising their First Amendment rights, require the rejection of perfectly valid voter signatures, and limit and impair the initiative process.

House Bill 2397 - Sponsored by Rep. Jim Moeller (D-Vancouver) -- The “Initiative Petitioners Stink Like Smokers” bill – treats people who collect petition signatures like smokers and orders them 25 feet away.

This is, by far, the stupidest, goofiest anti-initiative bill we’ve ever seen. It’s laughably unconstitutional, under both our state Constitution and the U.S. Constitution. For decades, the Courts have consistently ruled that people who collect signatures for ballot measures are exercising First Amendment rights and their free speech activity is subject to the highest protections. The Courts have also ruled that big box stores are public forums where this right is guaranteed – the rulings say that if these stores allow any First Amendment activity (like Christmas bell ringers, Girl Scouts, etc) that they can't discriminate amongst them (if they allow some, they must allow all). Most importantly, our state Constitution guarantees the right to initiative and referendum and only laws that facilitate the process (make it easier) are permissible – laws that make the process tougher are de facto unconstitutional. HB 2397 clearly makes the process tougher – the people’s right to initiative, guaranteed by the Constitution, is violated by this.

Absurdly, the bill’s sponsors took the language for the state’s smoking ban, which keeps smokers 25 feet away from "entrances, exits, & windows," and copied it & applied it to people who ask fellow citizens to sign petitions.

The collection of signatures for ballot measures is protected free speech guaranteed by the First Amendment and our state Constitution – smoking is not. HB 2397 is, again, the stupidest, goofiest anti-initiative bill we’ve ever seen.

House Bill 2615 – Sponsored by Sam Hunt (D-Olympia) – a 5000% increase in the filing fee for initiatives.

The Code Reviser’s office drafts over 12,000 bills for legislators every session (the politicians pushing HB 2615 are sponsoring 1216 bills in 2010). Legislators are not required to pay ANY fees to have their bills drafted and reviewed; instead, the Code Reviser’s office is funded with a fixed yearly budget of $4.6 million per year. They don’t work on commission – they aren’t paid on a per-bill basis – it’s a fixed cost regardless of the number of bills introduced by legislators. The Code Reviser’s office also reviews the handful of initiatives that are filed each year (23 initiatives to the people were filed in 2009).

If there were no initiatives filed, there would be no reduction in the Code Reviser’s $4.6 million budget. It costs taxpayers the same for them to review 50 initiatives or 10 or 1. Same goes for the Secretary of State and Attorney General’s offices. This bill radically increases the cost to file an initiative and is clearly intended to deter citizens from petitioning their government for change. The huge number of signatures required to qualify for the ballot already provides a big enough hurdle.

Our state Constitution makes clear that only laws that facilitate the process are allowed – HB 2615 certainly doesn’t make it easier. If legislators are interested in deterring legislation and revenue-generation, why not require legislators to pay $5 for each bill they introduce? That would put them on par with what citizens pay for initiative filings. The people overwhelmingly support the initiative process and oppose legislative sabotage, like these, imposing additional burdens on the citizens.

More Gun Ban Legislation

Now the state senate has introduced its own gun restrictions, SB 6396, sponsored by Senators Fairley, Kline, Kohl-Welles, and McDermott. Get a copy

Future sale of every self-loading and pump action rifle or shotgun which has a detachable magazine and a pistol style grip near the trigger is banned. This description fits nearly every type of rifle and shotgun.

Magazines may not hold more than ten rounds.

For those already possessing this newly defined assault weapon class, and who decide to keep it, every year storage must be inspected on site and certified by the county Sheriff.

SB 6396 defines possession in the presence of children of a firearm with more than 10 rounds in the magazine as felony.

Even a concealed pistol license holder in possession of a self-loading self-defense pistol containing more than 10 rounds is a felony.

As always, please contact both of your State Representatives and your State Senator TODAY at 800-562-6000 and urge them to oppose SB 6396. More contact information for your legislators can be found here, then click on the Find Your District tab.

Washington State Income Tax Proposal

Its here. The Washington State Senate proposes to keep the massive state sales tax and add a massive income tax.

SB 6250 (get your copy), titled AN ACT Relating to fiscal reform, has been introduced in the Senate by Senators Franklin, Kohl-Welles, and McDermott. The Office of Financial Management identified this bill as requiring a ten-year projection of increased cost to the taxpayers (This published projection is in accordance with I960, which the legislature is also trying to bypass. Apparently the legislature is more comfortable with the public not knowing what the legislature is doing).

As proposed, this Washington State Income Tax will increase taxpayer burden by 23.3 billion over the next ten years, according to the state's Office of Financial Management projection. That's an annual tax increase of at least $925 per wage earner. In the very least, there will be more paperwork to do.

In the current state of economy, Washington State will fare very badly under such a massive increase in taxation.

Will Washington State will have an income tax, or not. Please contact both of your State Representatives and your State Senator at 800-562-6000 and politely urge them to oppose SB 6250. More contact information for the legislators can be found here, then click on the Find Your District tab.

Legislation to Attack Gun Rights

State Representatives Brendan Williams (D-22) and Maralyn Chase (D-32) have introduced House Bill 2477, a bill that seeks to abolish the private transfer of firearms, even between family and friends, at gun shows.

Simply put, HB2477 would hold law-abiding gun owners liable for the acts of criminals. Under this bill, if a firearm is privately transferred at a gun show to a person who is ineligible, the seller can be held liable for injury or death caused by the criminal use of that firearm.

Further, in order to implement this bill, tracking firearm ownership will be required. The predictable follow-up to this bill's passage is comprehensive firearms registration.

Please contact both of your State Representatives and your State Senator TODAY at 800-562-6000 and politely urge them to oppose HB2477. More contact information for your legislators can be found here, then click on the Find Your District tab.

No Joke

On Washington State's official website, http://access.wa.gov/, these three items are grouped together.

- Get unemployment benefits
- Find stimulus jobs
- See the winning lottery numbers

Get unemployed, become a government hire, this is as likely to help as winning the lotto. There is a deeper meaning here.

Democrat Arrogance On Parade

Washington State governor Christine Gregoire attacked the initiative process. She told thousands of citizens to "stop meddling" and "leave it to us." Gregoire is a perfect example of an authoritarian Democrat. "Democratic" Party my eye.

Yesterday, Gregoire attacked the initiative process, saying that legislating can only be done by the experts in Olympia. She told our thousands of supporters and the voters to "stop meddling" and to "leave it to us." Her arrogance seems boundless. And she's not alone -- on Friday in Seattle, Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown said "We have to get 960 [the people's imposition of a tax report and supermajority requirement on the legislature] overturned as soon as possible." She goes so far as to invoke God, saying that raising taxes is a "moral necessity."

With politicians like them in charge of Olympia, is it any wonder that taxpayers want the opportunity to fight back?

At 10 am yesterday in our state's Capitol in Olympia, the 14 of us formally filed our 2010 initiative -- Save The 2/3's Vote For Tax Increases (petitions won't be mailed out until February ... once they're available, we'll only have 5 months to collect 300,000 voter signatures before the early July deadline). Our initiative is about respecting the voters' ballot box decisions -- they've approved the 2/3's vote requirement for tax increases 3 times -- and it's about making it tougher to raise taxes. Gregoire keeps saying that taxes will only be increased "as a last resort" -- this initiative's 2/3's vote requirement makes sure that actually happens.

Our initiative is, by far, the people's most effective lobbying tool against higher taxes. [report from Tim Eyman]

Washington State is in depression, like the rest of the US. Here the Democreeps sense an opportunity to truly immiserate and impoverish the people. The Democreeps will raise tax rates. They will do this by overturning the rule of law and removing the limits placed on them by the people. The corporatist Democreeps hate the free people of the state of Washington.

Washington State continues down the road of irresponsible arrogance and big government policies. Big labor Bosses are the dancing master and Gregoire and the Democreeps are too terrified to get out of step.

Its historically interesting the Democreeps perfected their technique of election stealing via endless recounts here in 2004. (subsequently this technique has served the Democreep perversion process in Minnesota in 2008, with the appointment of Al Franken to the Democreep controlled US Senate.

Washington State, where "Democratic" corruption technology is perfected.

End tyranny: Gregoire out now!

Gregoire Lies

"For weeks, all we've heard about from Gregoire and the Democrats who control Olympia is the state government's $2.6 billion deficit. It started at $1 billion, went to $1.8 billion, and currently sits at $2.6 billion. The hysterical press conferences and screaming press releases are meant to create a crisis mentality where 'emergency measures' are necessary. In the tug of war over taxes, the establishment is pulling the rope really, really hard for higher taxes, especially a state income tax.

"But not mentioned is the simple fact that just before Gregoire took over in 2005, the state budget was $23 billion. This year in 2009, Gregoire signed a $30 billion budget into law.

"The state's government is bigger than it's ever been. There is no deficit -- it's all a lie.

"But that's not stopping Gregoire and the Democrats from pushing hard for massive tax hikes to continue their business-as-usual, unsustainable spending.

"An editorial this week by the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin newspaper said it well: Gregoire's call for deep cuts in state programs is merely politics ... The governor called for deep, painful cuts in the hope it would spur lawmakers to embrace higher taxes. Gregoire’s budget isn’t really a budget, it’s a political ploy. ... The governor’s seemingly draconian budget shouldn’t be taken seriously. It was slapped together for only one reason — to build support for tax hikes.

-- Tim Eyman

More Taxes

Make the Democratic Party rich by sucking the life out of the rest of us.

Listening to last week's hearing in Olympia by the Economic & Revenue Forecast Council, Governor Gregoire and the Democrats couldn't have been clearer about their top legislative priority: raising taxes. My favorite was Democrat Senator Rodney Tom: we're gonna tax things "we never dreamed of." They've been dreaming of a state income tax on everyone forever -- they love higher sales taxes because it brings in tons of revenue -- they've always supported higher property taxes -- they adore bigger business taxes, gigantic gas taxes, catastrophic car tab taxes, titanic tobacco taxes, larger liquor taxes, and unlimited utility taxes. But those are taxes that they've thought of before -- on top of those, they're pushing taxes they've "never dreamed of." With their imaginations and their power, be afraid, be very afraid.

More taxes = longer recession. So raising taxes is willful economic suicide but it's what Big Labor has ordered them to do (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2010246447_democrats11m.html).

Initiative 1033 follow on

This item was sent out by Timothy Eyman.

RE: How ironic: Mr. Disclosure Sam Reed asks the Court to block disclosure - hearing: Fri, 9 am, before Judge Richard Hicks

For months, Secretary Reed and his staff have made numerous claims that are at variance with the facts. The greatest thing about our lawsuit (RE: citizens and their names, signatures, and home addresses on initiative petitions should be protected from harassment, commercial exploitation, and identity theft) -- the greatest benefit is the opportunity to have Secretary Reed answer questions under oath and under penalty of perjury. We have been especially eager to receive the results from discovery: the disclosure of requested documents and the answers to written questions. It would no doubt prove embarrassing for Secretary Reed for his under-penalty-of-perjury-answers to contradict earlier statements, assertions, and claims made earlier when he and his staff were made not under oath.

So it was especially ironic to have Secretary Reed file a motion with Judge Hicks to NOT DISCLOSE DOCUMENTS and to NOT ANSWER QUESTIONS under oath. Given his supposed commitment to disclosure, transparency, and openness, it is truly ironic to have him take such a contradictory stance.

This Friday at 9 am at the Thurston County courthouse, Superior Court Judge Richard Hicks will hopefully order Secretary Reed to comply with discovery. But regardless of the court's ruling, it is important for the public and the press to make note of Secretary Reed's hypocritical position: he's committed to disclosure as long as he's not implicated [in obfuscation].

You see, the leftist mind control NEA (Yes, the National Education Association) spent millions of dollars in advertising to defeat initiative 1033. The NEA also filed for and received a list of all the signatories to the petition. Why would they take such unusual action? Perhaps to harass and intimidate signers? Such prying seems pointless otherwise.

I hope things aren't that far gone.

Democratic lawmakers are greedy

Referendum-71 was enacted, mainly so the Washington State "Democratic" Party could buy another constituency "buddy". These little "Democratic" Party constituencies are getting very expensive for the taxpayer. Tax revolt specialist Tim Eyman had proposed Initiative-1033 in remedy, but big government types came out with $3.5 million to spend against the already broken taxpayer: I-1033 spent nothing, we the taxpayers are broke. I-1033 was defeated.

The tax burden is nearly crushing everyone's imitative.

Andrew Garber reported in the Seattle Times, Wednesday, November 11, 2009, in an article titled, State Democrats Facing Revolt By Labor [Unions]:

"State Democratic lawmakers have a revolt on their hands among major labor groups that provide the party crucial support during elections. The Washington State Labor Council, the Service Employees International Union and unions representing teachers and state workers have either stopped or sharply reduced donations to Democratic caucus political-action committees that back candidates for the state House and Senate. "I think the labor movement is more serious about withholding support from Democratic candidates this year than I have seen in my 30 years in politics," said Dwight Pelz, chairman of the state Democratic Party. There's even talk of trying to defeat some Democratic incumbents if they don't support issues important to labor in the next legislative session — such as raising taxes to help close a growing budget shortfall."

Despite the fact Washington State "Democratic" government has driven Boeing's new production out of the state; despite the fact the Washington State "Democratic" government has already sent much of Microsoft’s software development to India; despite generally taxing the people to death already; Washington State "Democratic" government is whimpering. They want more taxes to give to their buddies in big labor.

The planned tax increase is $9 billions. That's an increase of nearly $2000 per person. No wonder Seattle is full of "Vacancy" signs. Will the last person leaving the state please pay our taxes before turning out the light?