Last week on TVW, I watched the state Senate’s Government Operations committee hearing in Olympia. The Democrats invited in a parade of haters of the initiative process — “good government groups” and bureaucrats at the Public Disclosure Commission — and they spent two hours whining incessantly about spending on initiatives — $60 million.
But none of these anti-initiative zealots provided any perspective. Allow me to.
There were six initiatives on the ballot but just two were approved by voters. Interestingly, of the $60 million raised, $41.1 million was spent on the four initiatives that lost. So more than two-thirds of the money ended up being spent on initiatives that didn’t pass.
Our Initiative 1053 — reinstating the two-thirds requirement for higher taxes — was one of the two winners, but our spending was just 2 percent of the $60 million total. That’s right — 2 percent.
Nonetheless, voters approved I-1053 with a whopping 64 percent yes vote.
It’s clear that money doesn’t matter — voters don’t care which side has more money, they care which side has the better argument. Voters are making their ballot-box decisions based on the merits, regardless of the money spent.
I-1053’s campaign was amazingly economical. Our campaign raised $720,000, of which $250,000 was a loan from a second mortgage on my home. The business community raised $617,000, bringing the yes-on-1053 total to $1.3 million (most of which went toward getting I-1053 on the ballot). Opponents raised $1.6 million. Nonetheless, I-1053’s 64 percent yes vote was the biggest margin of victory we’ve ever received for one of our initiatives even though we were vastly outspent by opponents and even though it was a tiny fraction of the $60 million total.
Money doesn’t matter to voters.
Let’s compare I-1053 to the other initiative campaigns:
• I-1053 (two-thirds vote for tax increases, majority vote for fee increases): proponents $1.3 million, opponents raised $1.6 million. 64 percent yes vote.
• I-1082 (workman’s compensation): proponents $3.2 million, opponents $6 million. 41 percent yes vote.
• I-1098 (state income tax): proponents $6.4 million, opponents $6.3 million. 36 percent yes vote.
• I-1100 (Costco’s liquor privatization): proponents $6 million, opponents $8.9 million. 47 percent yes vote.
• I-1105 (distributors’ liquor privatization): proponents $2.7 million, opponents $8.9 million. 35 percent yes vote.
• I-1107 (repeal of food and beverage taxes): proponents $16.8 million, opponents $427,000. 64 percent yes vote.
Are citizens “losing control” of the initiative process? Of course not. None of these initiatives would have qualified for the ballot if not for 300,000-plus citizens voluntarily signing petitions and the two initiatives that passed were because a massive majority of citizens voluntarily voted for them. Voters are smart, discerning “deciders” when it comes to their vote on initiatives. There is simply no reason for Olympia’s Democrats to sabotage the initiative process with another legislative jihad attempt.
The checks and balances of the current system are working and public support for the initiative process continues to be sky-high.
The Washington Poll released their results on Oct. 15. Question 40 asked (http://www.washingtonpoll.org/results/oct15_2010.pdf): Overall, do you think that statewide initiative elections are a good thing for the state, a bad thing for the state, or that they don’t make much difference? The results:
• 73 percent good thing
• 9 percent bad thing
• 13 percent no difference
• 5 percent don’t know
The people of Washington strongly oppose the Democrats’ yearly legislative jihad against the initiative process. Don’t they have more important things to do?
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Tim Eyman was one of 13 co-sponsors of I-1053. He lives in Mukilteo with his wife and three kids.
