Washington
A proposed initiative that seeks to minimize enforcement of marijuana-related offenses in Tacoma has qualified for the city’s November ballot. Tacoma Initiative No. 1 today surpassed the required goal of 3,858 valid signatures from registered city voters, the Pierce County Auditor’s office confirmed. “The petition was determined to be sufficient with a total of 3,934 valid signatures verified,” Pierce County Elections Manager Michael Rooney wrote in an official letter of verification to City Clerk Doris Sorum.
The Washington Post has an article today about a teenager in the Washington town of Longview who is, like many citizens across the country, sick of red-light cameras in his town. Though he’s not even old enough to vote, he’s discovered that the citizen initiative process can be a powerful tool:
A group from Mukilteo asked the state Supreme Court on Tuesday to rule on the validity of a public vote on red-light traffic cameras. It’s a case that could have broad implications as red-light-camera opponents push ballot measures in several Washington cities. Camera foes, including frequent initiative sponsor Tim Eyman, collected signatures last year seeking to repeal a Mukilteo ordinance allowing the cameras and require a public vote before the city could use them. The measure passed with 71 percent.
A coalition of retailers and restaurants, including Costco, filed an initiative Friday that would privatize the distribution and sale of liquor in Washington. Last November, voters rejected I-1100, which was financed largely by Costco Wholesale, with 53 percent of the vote. The measure would have allowed grocery stores and other retailers to sell liquor. Costco also unsuccessfully pushed a privatization proposal in the Legislature this year.
If you regularly follow our newswire and blog you’d know that in communities around the country citizens hate red-light cameras. Numerous petition campaigns and ballot initiatives have attempted to get rid of them, and most have been successful.
In yesterday’s Common Sense article, Paul Jacob discusses an interesting story out of Washington regarding the red-light camera issue there:
The eight City Councilmembers who support the tunnel replacement for the Alaskan Way Viaduct will wait for a judge’s ruling Friday to see whether Seattle voters will get to weigh in on the project. “We have no idea what she’s going to do,” Council President Richard Conlin told seattlepi.com Tuesday, shortly after he cancelled a special meeting at which the Council was going to consider a tunnel resolution. Conlin said his colleagues decided the resolution wasn’t the best approach. However he said tunnel proponents still have options, including putting a competing measure on the ballot.
Initiative activist Tim Eyman’s latest offering ”” if it makes it onto November’s ballot and is approved by voters ”” could bring the tolling plan for the Columbia River Crossing to a screeching halt. Eyman announced recently he’s collecting signatures on Initiative 1125, which would change Washington law to ban peak-hour tolling, a key part of the tolling plan for the Vancouver-Portland crossing. It also would prohibit tolls from being used to pay for anything but highway purposes and require the Legislature to set toll amounts.
The council ran out of gas on Monday over the controversial issue of red-light cameras. Mukilteo City Council voted 6-1 to repeal a law that would have authorized red-light cameras in the city. Councilmember Tony Tinsley voted against the repeal. Last June, the council tabled the legislation in the wake of overwhelming public opposition, so Monday’s action finally put to rest any notion that the law would be enacted – at least by this council.
Voters across the country do not like red-light cameras. At all. In Mukilteo, WA voters voiced their disapproval for the cameras overwhelmingly, and it seems to have swayed the city council into eventually listening:
A Columbia County Circuit Court judge declared “unconstitutional and unenforceable in its entirety” a measure voters approved last fall to refund the tax money collected for a hospital project that has been shelved. Measure 5-209 was an initiative petition to stop all work on the Columbia Health District’s hospital project, to stop levying any hospital tax and to give back all the money collected for the hospital project since 2004, when voters approved a measure to build a hospital.
Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes filed suit Tuesday to prevent an anti-tunnel referendum, saying he wants to save citizens the expense and grief of what he considers a futile election. The motion, filed in King County Superior Court, basically asks a judge to decide whether City Council agreements for the planned Highway 99 tunnel are subject to a public vote.
(LAKE RIDGE, VA) – Today, Citizens in Charge Foundation, a national voter rights group focused on the ballot initiative and referendum process, presented Washington state senators Don Benton and Pam Roach with the March 2011 John Lilburne Award for their outstanding work in successfully defeating Senate Bill 5297, legislation that would have severely restricted Washington’s initiative process.
“Good riddance to SB 5297, which would have been a disaster for Washington’s initiative process,” said Citizens in Charge Foundation President Paul Jacob. “Both Senator Don Benton and Senator Pam Roach deserve a ton of the credit for defeating it.”
A new initiative to privatize state liquor sales has been filed with the Washington Secretary of State’s office. In November, Washington voters rejected two ballot initiatives to privatize liquor sales. But conservative blogger Stefan Sharkansky says his new proposal would maintain tax revenue and impose tighter control on private liquor sales. He helped craft last year’s Initiative 1100.
With fewer than 250 signatures left to review, anti-tunnel Initiative 101 doesn’t have enough valid signatures to qualify for the ballot. The initiative, which seeks to prohibit the the state’s use of city rights-of-way for construction of a Highway 99 tunnel, needs 20,629 verified signatures to be sent to voters. As of Tuesday, 19,128 had been verified, while 8,641 had been challenged, said Kim van Ekstrom, spokeswoman for King County Elections office, which certifies the signatures.
Thanks to the great work of initiative activist Tim Eyman, State Senators Don Benton and Pam Roach, the collective editorial power of Evergreen State newspapers and an outpouring of citizens contacting their legislators, Senate Bill 5297 was defeated yesterday in the Washington state legislature as it missed the mandatory deadline for a senate vote.