2007 PRESS RELEASES

November 21, 2007

Supreme Court: Legislature’s I-601 shell game okay

OLYMPIA—The Supreme Court has ruled on the legislature’s circumvention of Initiative 601, calling the action “appropriate.” In 2005, the legislature suspended Initiative 601’s two-thirds vote requirement for tax increases and failed to send the increases to voters. This violated the law. After being taken to court, the 2006 legislature passed a bill recalculating the spending limit in order to “cure” its violations of I-601.

“This is nuts,” Evergreen Freedom Foundation President Bob Williams said. “The trial court ruled that the legislature had ‘gamed’ the FY 2006 spending limit and it should be reduced by $250 million. That means the tax increases were over the limit.”

While the legislature has the power to amend the law, wrote the Snohomish County Superior Court judge, it should not do so to rationalize a previous violation of the law.

Today the Supreme Court overturned the trial court, and ruled that the legislature acted within its power. “The legislature is free to amend the expenditure limit and the process by which it is calculated. The legislature exercised this prerogative when it enacted the 2006 amendment. When the legislature enacts laws, it speaks as the chosen representative of the people.”

Justice Mary Fairhurst authored the five-vote majority, and four justices filed concurring opinions. Justice Fairhurst wrote that, “Washington voters' statutory ‘right’ to approve taxes that raise revenues in excess of the state expenditure limit is a mere expectation—it is not a vested right entitled to due process protections from subsequently enacted legislation.”

“So our rights are reduced to mere expectations now,” Bob Williams said. “It was our right to vote on the 2005 tax increases. That was the law. The legislature broke that law, but the Court is giving it a pass.”

Justice Tom Chambers apparently hoped the Court would invalidate I-601 entirely. In his concurring opinion he wrote, “There is an elephant in the courthouse. The majority knows the elephant is there. The majority maps out a course around the elephant. The majority never acknowledges the presence of the elephant.” Chief Justice Gerry Alexander agreed with Chambers in a separate concurrence.

Lynn Harsh, CEO of the Evergreen Freedom Foundation, offered the following comments:

“The Supreme Court has ruled that the legislature can exceed the legally-allowed spending limit, and then retroactively “cure” its violation. If a legislator is caught speeding, can she go back and change the speed limit to avoid paying the fine?

“Voters recently adopted Initiative 960, which will be the new standard for tax-and-fee increases. Given today’s decision, unfortunately, the Court will turn a blind eye if the legislature games I-960 in the future. It appears that neither the legislature nor the Court believe that voters know what they want when approving initiatives.”

+ Send EFF your comments

  Send this Article to a Friend