So when the people pass a ballot measure cutting taxes or limiting government, somehow their will is inviolate, and legislators quake in their boots at the very thought of overturning a voter approved initiative.
But when the people pass a ballot measure directing state funds toward reducing class size or increasing teacher pay, or banning certain inhumane hunting techniques, or… say… mandating electric utilities get 15% of their energy from renewable sources by 2020… well, apparently legislators feel free to reinterpret voter intent, or even sacrifice it altogether in the name of political or economic expediency.
Go figure.
The same voters who passed the initiatives to reduce class sizes and raise teacher pay voted, in the same election, to defeat the tax increase that would have funded these initiatives.
What are legislators supposed to do when voters want the impossible? What if voters passed an initiative saying cows have to give cheddar cheese instead of milk?
There are times when the Legislature should — or must — override an initiative. There are times when voters are unrealistic, unreasonble (as when they expected to get a monorail for free), or just plain stupid (e.g., when they fall for Timmie Lieman propaganda). That’s why the Legislature is populated with human beings instead of computers.
That said, don’t think for one second, Goldy, that you can miss with our populist traditions here out West. This is the West. Nobody touches our cherished rights of referendum, initiative, and recall. Nobody. Got that?
The same seems to go for voting NO on a tunnel to replace the viaduct:
City of Seattle Advisory Measure No. 1 — March 13, 2007
30.35% YES, I PREFER THE SURFACE-TUNNEL HYBRID
69.65% NO, I DO NOT PREFER THE SURFACE-TUNNEL HYBRID ALTERNATIVE
And don’t go saying this is a “different tunnel,” voting is not about who reads the fine print.
Spot on @ 2,
But you forgot the other “Advisory Measure”:
City of Seattle Advisory Measure No. 2 **
42.7% YES, I PREFER THE ELEVATED STRUCTURE ALTERNATIVE
57.4% NO, I DO NOT PREFER THE ELEVATED STRUCTURE ALTERNATIVE
Given that both the surface option and the “do nothing” option were simply not viable plans for a state highway, the voters of Seattle really had no coherent advice to offer.
You know I’m fine with the legislature messing with this initiative as long as they:
1. Bring back the MVET statewide.
2. Remove the cap on local government raising property taxes.
3. Toss the initiative requiring a public vote in order to raise taxes.
In other words toss every single Tim Eyman initiative and every single law passed to “reflect the will of the voters” when one of Eyman’s poorly drafted pieces of shit was tossed out by the State Supreme court.
Let’s not forget the vote in Kalifornia about illegal immigrants that got overturned by the courts.
And now it looks like the vote on gay marriage is going to be overturned by the courts.
What’s the point of voting.
Hhmmm, that does work perfectly for the democrats.