Raising the cost of Democracy.

Whenever the "Democratic" Party has tried to increase Washington State government control or taxes on the people, they have been frustrated by the initiative process.  A recent example is the income tax proposal in 2010, when the people of the state soundly defeated the measure.  And you have heard of Tim Eyman, who uses the the initiative process to try to control the state legislature's impulse to spend recklessly. 

In response to legitimate use of the petition process to review (and repeal) the legislature's actions, the "Democratic" Party has decided to make filing a petition on the ballot more expensive for the People.  SSB 5386 would increase the filing fee to $200 (The original version of the bill would have increased the filing fee to $500).  The "Democratic" Party controls the state legislature, and Governor Inslee has indicated he will sign this bill if passed.

Obviously, if Eyman and others had not been effective using initiatives to control the spending and micromanaging impulses of the Democrats, the Democrats would not care to make initiatives more harder to use.  It is ironic that the "Democratic Party" views raw democracy as an adversary --  but it is not a surprise.