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Initiative Roundup
The Seattle Times has a good primer
on this year's ballot initiatives. The deadline to turn in the 241,000 valid signatures is Friday. (We posted a roundup, focusing on the funding, here.)
It looks like four campaigns are ready to turn in signatures: I-1183, a follow-up to last year's failed initiative paid for largely by Costco to privatize booze (this year's measure is also backed by Costco); I-1125, Tim Eyman's initiative to make the legislature—not the state transportation commission—responsible for setting tolling (after a battle with Eyman earlier this year , the commission held on to tolling authority for now); I-1130, an animal rights initiative to prohibit confining chickens to small cages on egg farms; and I-1163, a Service Employees International Union measure to require better training (and thus higher pay) for long-term health care workers.
The Times quotes backers of a fifth initiative—one that would decriminalize pot (not to be confused with a separate proposal in the queue for 2012 that would legalize and tax pot)—saying they're iffy about meeting the signature deadline.
One thing the Times article doesn't make 100 percent clear: Eyman's initiative would prohibit toll money from going to transit. (The Times simply says I-1125 is limited to the road or highway project being tolled, which theoretically could mean transit service for the project. But let's be clear. Eyman's initiative says: "Only allowing tolls to be used for purposes consistent with the 18th Amendment to the Washington Constitution." The 18th Amendment prohibits road money from being used for transit projects)
Eyman's initiative has serious implications for funding 520. The $3.8 billion project only has about $2 billion in state and federal funding lined up. Tolling (and perhaps tolling I-90 to help pay for 520) is key.
It looks like four campaigns are ready to turn in signatures: I-1183, a follow-up to last year's failed initiative paid for largely by Costco to privatize booze (this year's measure is also backed by Costco); I-1125, Tim Eyman's initiative to make the legislature—not the state transportation commission—responsible for setting tolling (after a battle with Eyman earlier this year , the commission held on to tolling authority for now); I-1130, an animal rights initiative to prohibit confining chickens to small cages on egg farms; and I-1163, a Service Employees International Union measure to require better training (and thus higher pay) for long-term health care workers.
The Times quotes backers of a fifth initiative—one that would decriminalize pot (not to be confused with a separate proposal in the queue for 2012 that would legalize and tax pot)—saying they're iffy about meeting the signature deadline.
One thing the Times article doesn't make 100 percent clear: Eyman's initiative would prohibit toll money from going to transit. (The Times simply says I-1125 is limited to the road or highway project being tolled, which theoretically could mean transit service for the project. But let's be clear. Eyman's initiative says: "Only allowing tolls to be used for purposes consistent with the 18th Amendment to the Washington Constitution." The 18th Amendment prohibits road money from being used for transit projects)
Eyman's initiative has serious implications for funding 520. The $3.8 billion project only has about $2 billion in state and federal funding lined up. Tolling (and perhaps tolling I-90 to help pay for 520) is key.
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