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Health & Fitness

Responsible Choices: How to Fix Our Initiative Process

Mary Lou Dickerson is fed up. The retired Washington State legislator spent 18 years as a progressive member of the State’s House of Representatives for Seattle’s 36th Legislative District. During that time she saw Washington’s initiative process go to pot. Now, Dickerson intends to leverage the weight of her experience to fix it.

Washington amended its constitution in 1912 and created a process for direct citizen legislation to weaken corporate influence over the State Legislature. Early attempts to create the initiative process in Washington were opposed by corporate interests and organized liquor traffic, the latter being concerned that Washingtonians would enact Prohibition measures (which they did in 1915). But those same corporate and special interests that initially opposed initiatives are now the process’s primary benefactors, while “the people” – you and me – to put it mildly, get the shaft.

That is why Dickerson founded a non-partisan coalition called Responsible Choices (ResponsibleChoicesWA.org). Its name might be vague: the group is not out to keep kids from taking drugs or doing the Cinnamon Challenge. Rather, Responsible Choices aims to educate voters on the top funders of initiatives, to identify for voters how current initiatives financially impact local and statewide services, and to develop an initiative curriculum for high school students.

Dickerson identified specific examples of how our State’s initiative process is failing. For example, the sheer amount of money spent supporting initiatives is too much on the rise. According to Dickerson, initiative campaign spending skyrocketed from about $2 million annually for each year between 1975 and 2001 to above $60 million in 2010 alone. Without a major bankroll, the private citizen can’t practically make use of the system.

Who funds initiative campaigns is also often unclear. For example, nearly $1 million has come from out-of-state interests recently in support of this year’s “No on I-522” campaign. Initiative 522 would impose labeling requirements for genetically modified foods, and will be on this November’s ballot. Though the “No on I-522” describes itself as a group of “Washington farmers, food producers, store owners, scientists, business and agricultural leaders, tax payers and consumers,” the money actually comes from entities such as Monsanto, a chemical company that produces genetically modified organisms.

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Perhaps the biggest problem initiatives pose is their potential to negatively affect the State’s budgetary process. “[T]he initiative process has become a substitute for thoughtful legislation, particularly on budget issues.” That’s according to Washington’s former Supreme Court Justice and former State Senator Philip Talmadge, who wrote a thoughtful introduction on the subject for Seattle University Law Review's 2001 Symposium on Washington’s initiative process. There, Talmadge recalls his days in the State Legislature by writing “It is nearly impossible to accomplish budgetary decisions when so much of the budgetary process has been affected by initiative measures.”

Citizens will recall the year 2000, for instance, when voters simultaneously enacted contradictory legislation that deeply impacted our State’s budget: Initiative 722 limited property and other taxes, Initiative 728 increased education spending, and Initiative 732 raised teachers’ salaries. Talmadge sums it up well by writing: “This is an irrational process for budgeting that no sensible organization would tolerate.”

Naturally, there are examples in which initiatives work: Dickerson co-sponsored the initiative passed last year that decriminalized pot, which could generate substantial revenue for Washington. And Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos gave $2.5 million to the successful marriage equality campaign. But these instances where direct citizen legislation works well are the exception, not the modern-day rule.

Responsible Choices will not address all problems related to initiatives, but Dickerson is optimistic that an educated electorate will make better decisions. First, Dickerson feels that voters need “easy access to information about the top funders for each initiative on the ballot.” Knowing who or what entity is funding an initiative will help voters understand an initiative’s true motivations.

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And to help counteract potentially negative budget effects, Dickerson says, Responsible Choices plans to provide voters with timely financial impact statements that are “clear, concise, and easy to understand.” These efforts, Dickerson feels, will help restore transparency and inform voters in a manner that upholds Thomas Jefferson’s maxim that, “An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people.”

Responsible Choices’ challenge will be in identifying a framework for how its Steering Committee can set aside party differences and make meaningful decisions with a unified voice. Responsible Choices’ organizational goal is to be non-partisan and so its Steering Committee includes both Democrats and Republicans.

Responsible Choices plans to work with economists and non-party affiliated lawyers to draft impact statements and to review constitutional issues posed by initiatives. Dickerson says the organization is also working to strengthen relationships between its Steering Committee members to avoid the risk of political fallout down the road.

Responsible Choices represents the outcome of a clarion call for change that is needed for Washington’s broken initiative system. Time will provide Responsible Choices the opportunity to build its own track record as proof of its hypothesis that educated voters can make better decisions on initiatives. New grassroots need time to take hold.

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Trent Latta is an attorney and is the current Chair of Washington’s 45th Legislative District Democrats. He can be contacted at TrentLatta@gmail.com.
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