Eyman back in Olympia tomorrow
Tomorrow morning, Tim Eyman plans to be back at the Capitol Campus in Olympia - but not to file a new initiative. No, Eyman is actually going before the Senate Government Operations & Elections Committee to testify against various bills designed to reform the initiative process.
The committee's calendar for tomorrow morning's 8 AM hearing (which Eyman is exhorting his supporters to come to) includes the following:
But it's not that mysterious once you think about it. The current system is easily manipulated. The initiative process has been hijacked by special interests which are using it to thwart the Legislature's work.
Take last year's I-912, an attempt to destroy the Legislature's 2005 Transportation Package. It failed thanks to a lot of hard work from many organizations (including NPI), but it could have passed, and caused significant trouble.
Eyman is a perfect example of how the process has been abused. And naturally, if you're the abuser, you want to keep things the way they are so you can keep abusing.
Some of the proposed reforms - like requiring paid signature gatherers to be paid by the hour (instead of by the signature) are indeed sensible, needed reforms. The purpose of these bills is to start a discussion about reforming the process - because it needs to be reformed.
The question is: What's the best way to fix the problem?
Eyman is urging his supporters to bombard legislators with emails yelling at them for trying to "tamper" with the initiative process. Eyman constantly defames the Legislature (those "politicians"), even though he himself is a politician, and a highly paid one at that.
The sponsors of the bills listed above ought to be commended for recognizing this problem and taking steps to end abuse of the initiative process.
The committee's calendar for tomorrow morning's 8 AM hearing (which Eyman is exhorting his supporters to come to) includes the following:
- SB 5556 - Requiring initiatives and referenda to set forth repealed language in full. (Fraser)
- SB 5412 - Modifying the impact of statewide initiatives on local tax authority (Prentice)
- SB 5879 - Prohibiting out-of-state contributions to gambling ballot measures. (Prentice)
- SB 5147 - Prohibiting payment of petition signature gatherers on a per-signature basis. (Kohl-Welles)
- SJR 8201 - Amending the Constitution to remove initiatives and referenda powers. (Jacobsen)
But it's not that mysterious once you think about it. The current system is easily manipulated. The initiative process has been hijacked by special interests which are using it to thwart the Legislature's work.
Take last year's I-912, an attempt to destroy the Legislature's 2005 Transportation Package. It failed thanks to a lot of hard work from many organizations (including NPI), but it could have passed, and caused significant trouble.
Eyman is a perfect example of how the process has been abused. And naturally, if you're the abuser, you want to keep things the way they are so you can keep abusing.
Some of the proposed reforms - like requiring paid signature gatherers to be paid by the hour (instead of by the signature) are indeed sensible, needed reforms. The purpose of these bills is to start a discussion about reforming the process - because it needs to be reformed.
The question is: What's the best way to fix the problem?
Eyman is urging his supporters to bombard legislators with emails yelling at them for trying to "tamper" with the initiative process. Eyman constantly defames the Legislature (those "politicians"), even though he himself is a politician, and a highly paid one at that.
The sponsors of the bills listed above ought to be commended for recognizing this problem and taking steps to end abuse of the initiative process.
