Washington State's Unconstitutional Initiative: I-1053

On the merits, the central legal issue is straightforward: Even in conservative Alaska, the state supreme court rejected a minority-rule ballot measure as unconstitutional, because it tried to change the constitution without going through the required steps.

In fact, Washington is the only state in the nation where minority rule has been imposed through a regular law. (In 16 states, citizens have voted to amend their constitutions to enact minority rule on votes that increase (certain) taxes. These constitutional amendments were undemocratic and ill-conceived, but at least they were legally enacted.)

Repeat a lie often enough and people start to believe it.

That's the conservative approach to government. They keep repeating that taxes and regulations are the problem, and that private companies do everything better. But this isn't at all the case. Without government bailouts, we'd be in a serious depression. Government-run health care in many countries is both higher quality and much cheaper than America's insurance-based health industry. Without government research we'd have many fewer technologies. Reckless deregulation was a major cause of the subprime crash. Without government regulations, many of us would be dead or ill. Without the police and FBI, we'd be is sorrier shape. Without government, we'd in fact be hunter-gatherers. Government is like a computer's operating system: a response to libertarians and Bring on the Reagan Counter-revolution explain these points in more detail.

The article Will the Courts Overturn I-1053 explains how to overturn I-1053:

What could force the court to issue a judgment on I-1053's constitutionality? First, the legislature would have to pass a tax increase or something that had the same effect by less than two-thirds. That is, the legislature would have to ignore I-1053's minority-rule provisions.

Then, some outside party would have to bring suit against the tax as void because its passage violated I-1053. At that point, the courts would have little choice but to adjudicate the constitutionality of 1053.

Unfortunately, no such case will emerge unless leadership of both houses in Olympia ignore 1053. But Lieutenant Governor Brad Owen, who has presided in the state senate since 1996, has consistently enforced minority rule, under each variation that voters have approved.

Mr. Spitzer says that if and when the members of the court finally have the question squarely before them, they will almost certainly rule I-1053 unconstitutional.

I call on our legislators (Senator Brad Owen, in particular) to stand up for the State Constitution and vote to eliminate unfair and unsustainable tax exemptions.

No doubt the legislators fear voter backlash and wish to respect the will of the people. But I-1053 is clearly unconstitutional, and the elimination of unfair tax giveaways would, I believe, be consistent with the will of the vast majority of Washington voters.