This Washington
Amendment Filibuster Hits Signature Gathering Bill
Note: This post has been updated to clarify the increased filing fee.
Senator Sharon Nelson's (D-34, Maury Island) initiative reform bill ran into a stampede of amendments from Republican senators during this morning's meeting of the Committee on Government Operations and Tribal Relations & Elections. The legislation, as Sen. Nelson explained in an op/ed she wrote for PubliCola this morning, is aimed at preventing fraud and forgery by requiring paid signature gatherers to register with the state and that all gatherers print their names on petition forms.
The legislation would also raise the filing fee for initiatives from $5 to $500 - but only for those initiatives without 500 signatures at the time of filing ($450 would otherwise be refunded if a measure qualifies for the ballot). The change is meant, in part, to deter people from filing the same initiative multiple times in hope of being assigned a more marketable number.
The amendments offered by Sen. Don Benton (R-17, Vancouver) and Sen. Pam Roach (R-31, Auburn)— 18 in all—were aimed at completely dismantling the legislation. In a statement yesterday, initiative crusader Tim Eyman explicitly said as much, calling Roach and Benton's proposals "an amendment filibuster" aimed at throwing the legislative process into chaos.
"Pam and Don are, by far, the greatest champions and defenders of the initiative process in the Legislature and they are throwing the kitchen sink at Senate Bill 5297," Eyman wrote. "Chairman [Craig] Pridemore [(D-49)] and the other Democrat backers of this bill will likely not welcome the time, effort, and attention their amendment filibuster will bring to this anti-First Amendment bill."
The most egregious proposals came from Sen. Roach. In one amendment, she proposed returning $450 of the new $500 filing fee if an initiative is approved. The same amendment would have also required state legislators to pay a $500 fee for every bill they sponsor or cosponsor---of which $400 would be returned if a legislator's bill was passed.
Roach also submitted one that would require signature gatherers to sign their names on the back of the petition, rather than on the front (where people could actually see them), and another that would remove a $500 fine for failing to sign the petition and a $10,000 fine for businesses who employed signature gathers who weren't registered with the state.
Sen. Benton's amendments were also aimed at gutting the bill--- removing the increase in the initiative filing fee as well as the provision requiring signature gatherers to print their name on petition forms.
Nelson's bill did eventually pass out of committee with just one of the Benton/Roach amendments intact: a Benton amendment removing a provision that would have held signature-gathering firms liable for signature gatherers who break the law.
Senator Sharon Nelson's (D-34, Maury Island) initiative reform bill ran into a stampede of amendments from Republican senators during this morning's meeting of the Committee on Government Operations and Tribal Relations & Elections. The legislation, as Sen. Nelson explained in an op/ed she wrote for PubliCola this morning, is aimed at preventing fraud and forgery by requiring paid signature gatherers to register with the state and that all gatherers print their names on petition forms.
The legislation would also raise the filing fee for initiatives from $5 to $500 - but only for those initiatives without 500 signatures at the time of filing ($450 would otherwise be refunded if a measure qualifies for the ballot). The change is meant, in part, to deter people from filing the same initiative multiple times in hope of being assigned a more marketable number.
The amendments offered by Sen. Don Benton (R-17, Vancouver) and Sen. Pam Roach (R-31, Auburn)— 18 in all—were aimed at completely dismantling the legislation. In a statement yesterday, initiative crusader Tim Eyman explicitly said as much, calling Roach and Benton's proposals "an amendment filibuster" aimed at throwing the legislative process into chaos.
"Pam and Don are, by far, the greatest champions and defenders of the initiative process in the Legislature and they are throwing the kitchen sink at Senate Bill 5297," Eyman wrote. "Chairman [Craig] Pridemore [(D-49)] and the other Democrat backers of this bill will likely not welcome the time, effort, and attention their amendment filibuster will bring to this anti-First Amendment bill."
The most egregious proposals came from Sen. Roach. In one amendment, she proposed returning $450 of the new $500 filing fee if an initiative is approved. The same amendment would have also required state legislators to pay a $500 fee for every bill they sponsor or cosponsor---of which $400 would be returned if a legislator's bill was passed.
Roach also submitted one that would require signature gatherers to sign their names on the back of the petition, rather than on the front (where people could actually see them), and another that would remove a $500 fine for failing to sign the petition and a $10,000 fine for businesses who employed signature gathers who weren't registered with the state.
Sen. Benton's amendments were also aimed at gutting the bill--- removing the increase in the initiative filing fee as well as the provision requiring signature gatherers to print their name on petition forms.
Nelson's bill did eventually pass out of committee with just one of the Benton/Roach amendments intact: a Benton amendment removing a provision that would have held signature-gathering firms liable for signature gatherers who break the law.
