Washington’s values need defending: Why Redmond must oppose Tim Eyman’s I‑1366

Editor’s Note: Tonight, North­west Pro­gres­sive Insti­tute Advi­so­ry Coun­cil mem­ber Kath­leen Reynolds and I attend­ed a spe­cial meet­ing of the Red­mond City Coun­cil to urge Red­mond’s sev­en elect­ed law­mak­ers to take a posi­tion oppos­ing Tim Eyman’s I‑1366. The fol­low­ing is a revised and extend­ed copy of my remarks. 

Good evening, May­or Machione and mem­bers of the Red­mond City Coun­cil. For the record, my name is Andrew Vil­leneuve. I am a life­long res­i­dent of Red­mond, and the founder and exec­u­tive direc­tor of the North­west Pro­gres­sive Insti­tute, based here in the Bicy­cle Cap­i­tal of the North­west. The pur­pose of my tes­ti­mo­ny tonight is to urge you to adopt a res­o­lu­tion oppos­ing Ini­tia­tive 1366, the most dan­ger­ous and destruc­tive ini­tia­tive that Tim Eyman has ever sponsored.

I‑1366 is a hostage-tak­ing ini­tia­tive that attempts to coerce the Leg­is­la­ture into invok­ing its pow­er to pro­pose con­sti­tu­tion­al amend­ments. The ini­tia­tive demands that the Leg­is­la­ture sab­o­tage our Con­sti­tu­tion’s major­i­ty vote require­ment to per­ma­nent­ly require a two-thirds vote to pass any bill that rais­es rev­enue. If leg­is­la­tors do not do so by April 15th, 2016, the ini­tia­tive would cut the state sales tax by about fif­teen per­cent, result­ing in the loss of $8 bil­lion over six years.

I have been orga­niz­ing oppo­si­tion to Tim Eyman’s ini­tia­tive fac­to­ry for over thir­teen years, and this is with­out a doubt the most dan­ger­ous, mean-spir­it­ed Eyman ini­tia­tive I have seen yet. It needs and deserves the oppo­si­tion of our city.

I want Red­mond to have a great future. I care deeply about this com­mu­ni­ty and its well-being. It’s what prompt­ed me to become an activist back in 2002. I felt I could no longer stand by and watch as Tim Eyman spon­sored ini­tia­tive after ini­tia­tive to under­mine our Con­sti­tu­tion and destroy pub­lic trust in our gov­ern­ment, which belongs to all of us. I was dis­gust­ed when Eyman made it his mis­sion to destroy Sound Tran­sit and pre­vent it from con­struct­ing the light rail sys­tem I knew our region des­per­ate­ly need­ed. So I went into politics.

Thir­teen years lat­er, I’m still fight­ing to pro­tect Red­mond’s future and defend Wash­ing­ton’s val­ues. I’m here to ask you to join me in the noble and impor­tant cause of bring­ing Wash­ing­ton togeth­er to defeat this ter­ri­ble initiative.

The stakes could not be high­er. But not many peo­ple appear to be aware of what’s on the line. Vot­er turnout in elec­tion so far has been abysmal – few­er than 10% of reg­is­tered vot­ers in King Coun­ty have returned bal­lots. We have 28,168 reg­is­tered vot­ers in Red­mond, accord­ing to King Coun­ty Elec­tions, but only 2,542 have returned bal­lots. That’s 9% turnout. And the vot­ing peri­od is halfway over.

To put it anoth­er way: 91% of Red­mond res­i­dents have yet to vote in this election.

It is vital that the City of Red­mond declare its oppo­si­tion to Eyman’s I‑1366. Coun­cilmem­ber Kim Allen’s sub­sti­tute res­o­lu­tion would accom­plish just that, and I urge you to adopt it. Your coura­geous vote tonight can make a difference.

I’ve heard it said that res­o­lu­tions like these are tan­ta­mount to telling vot­ers how to vote. Not so. By pass­ing this res­o­lu­tion, you are pro­vid­ing guid­ance and coun­sel to the vot­ers while they con­sid­er I‑1366, as express­ly per­mit­ted by state law. By pass­ing this res­o­lu­tion, you demon­strate that you are more than just elect­ed rep­re­sen­ta­tives – you are lead­ers who val­ue good governance.

The vot­ers will decide the fate of this ini­tia­tive, but you can help them cast an informed vote by adopt­ing this res­o­lu­tion and putting our city on record as opposed to the destruc­tive, mil­i­tant pol­i­tics of hostage-taking.

It’s clear from the way Tim Eyman is cam­paign­ing that he is attempt­ing to get vot­ers to endorse the pol­i­tics of hostage-tak­ing through decep­tion. He does not want to have a dis­cus­sion about the costs and the con­se­quences of his black­mail scheme. Those of us who believe in respon­si­ble gov­er­nance must insist on hav­ing that con­ver­sa­tion and ensur­ing the vot­ers know what Eyman is real­ly up to.

As Red­mond’s leg­is­la­tors, each of you are reg­u­lar­ly called upon to help neigh­bors and con­stituents make sense of com­plex issues. It’s part of your job.

Col­lec­tive­ly, you have the oppor­tu­ni­ty tonight to help the peo­ple of our city under­stand the grave harm Tim Eyman’s I‑1366 would inflict on Redmond.

All vot­ers see when they go to vote on I‑1366 — unless they look at the voter’s pam­phlet, go online to do research, or hap­pen to read about it in the news — is a one para­graph descrip­tion that is utter­ly lack­ing in context.

I‑1366’s bal­lot title does not dis­cuss the grave ram­i­fi­ca­tions that would result from its enact­ment. It does not cau­tion that pas­sage of this ini­tia­tive would set a hor­ri­ble prece­dent, invit­ing all sorts of mis­chief from oth­ers in future years.

The bal­lot title does not explain that the peo­ple’s ini­tia­tive pow­er was intend­ed to be a tool that the cit­i­zens could use to bypass a grid­locked Leg­is­la­ture and make Wash­ing­ton a bet­ter state, but that Tim Eyman is try­ing to turn it into a weapon.

The bal­lot title does not point out that the demand­ed con­sti­tu­tion­al change is in deep con­flict with Wash­ing­ton’s val­ues, and would per­ma­nent­ly sab­o­tage the major­i­ty vote pro­vi­sion of our Con­sti­tu­tion that dates back to statehood.

It does not warn that requir­ing a two-thirds vote gives one fac­tion of one par­ty in one house veto pow­er over impor­tant bud­get­ing deci­sions, which is con­trary to the prin­ci­ples that Madi­son, Hamil­ton, and our Found­ing Fathers fer­vent­ly believed in.

Nor does the bal­lot title detail the enor­mous cuts that would result from the loss of $8 bil­lion in sales tax rev­enue over six years.

There will be destruc­tive ram­i­fi­ca­tions felt at the local lev­el in addi­tion to the state lev­el if the sales tax is slashed. As you all know, when the Leg­is­la­ture has a bud­get short­fall to fill, its favorite moves are account­ing gim­micks and fund transfers.

Pub­lic safe­ty grants to cities like Red­mond will be among the first items on the chop­ping block under Sce­nario 1 of I‑1366.

This is all infor­ma­tion that the vot­ers ought to know. The cities of Seat­tle, Spokane, and Kirk­land have adopt­ed res­o­lu­tions urg­ing the rejec­tion of Tim Eyman’s I‑1366. Now it’s time for Red­mond to lead.

Please vote yes on this res­o­lu­tion and recom­mit our city to the cause of build­ing a bet­ter region and a bet­ter state. Thank you.