Tuesday, September 25, 2001 - Page updated at 12:00 AM
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No patience for loosey-goosey state initiatives
Twice in the past year, the court said initiatives with more than one topic violate the one-subject clause of the state constitution. Initiative 722, a property-tax cap and tax-increase rollback, was tossed out last week for trying to accomplish too much.
Initiatives fall under the same rules as legislation: Bills cannot contain unrelated subjects and purposes.
I-722's ballot title asked voters: "Shall certain 1999 tax and fee increases be nullified, vehicles exempted from property taxes, and property tax increases (except new construction) limited to 2 percent annually?"
That covers too much territory. Initiative sponsor Tim Eyman was trying to cap tax increases and eliminate tax increases approved by local governments following submission of Initiative 695, the car-tab rollback.
The high court ruled last year I-695 also went too far by attempting to create $30 license tabs and establish a new method of approving future tax increases. Two subjects, two purposes.
Similarly, the court said I-722 tried to nullify various 1999 tax increases and change the method of assessing property taxes.
The court objects to lumping several subjects together to boost voter support. Since courts can't determine which parts of a measure voters like better, they threw out both initiatives in their entirety.
Eyman's latest tax-limitation measure, Initiative 747, appearing on the November ballot, is not affected by the court's ruling. I-747 appears to contain one subject, and Washington courts do not rule in advance on initiatives as they do in at least one other state.
But the court's view of initiatives that overreach is clear. With justices ruling 8-1 against I-695 and 9-0 against I-722, they are telling writers of citizen initiatives and their supporters to keep the proposals simple.
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