Washington bill would require ballots to include initiative cost impact

OLYMPIA — A Senate committee will debate Monday whether voters should have to read on their ballots about the potential cost of initiatives.

The bill by Republican Sen. Joe Fain seeks to include the fiscal impact of the measure on the actual ballot if it costs or reduces spending by more than $25 million over two years. The wording on the ballot would tell voters that “other state spending may need to be reduced or taxes increased to implement the proposal.”

The bill follows the passage of Initiative 1351 in November — a measure that would decrease class sizes and is projected to cost about $2 billion through the middle of 2017.

Senate Bill 5715 is scheduled for a public hearing late this afternoon before the Senate Ways &Means Committee.

Another measure introduced — but since abandoned — by Fain would have prevented supporters from gathering signatures for initiatives whose costs fall outside the state’s four-year balanced budget requirement unless the measures specify which taxes will be raised or which programs will be cut. In 2012, lawmakers passed legislation requiring the state to approve a budget that was expected to remain balanced over a four-year period, instead of just two years.

Fain said that he decided to focus on the ballot-title bill after hearing feedback from his colleagues.

“We want something that will function and be useful,” he said. “Any time you insert factual information into an important discussion, it only helps people get to a better decision.”

Sen. Andy Hill, a Republican from Redmond who is chairman of the committee, said he supports the premise of the bill. Hill, who had signed on in support of Fain’s original constitutional amendment bill, said he thinks the ballot-title one is more feasible.

“We want the voters to have the opportunity to make the most well-informed decision possible,” he said before the hearing.

Initiative promoter Tim Eyman has slammed both of bills in numerous emails sent to his supporters and media.

“It is arrogant and condescending for legislators to blow up the initiative process because they’re angry with voters for approving some initiatives that they opposed,” Eyman wrote in a recent email.

In addition to writing a two-year state budget, lawmakers this session are tasked with addressing education funding in the state after the state Supreme Court found the state in contempt last September for lawmakers’ lack progress on that issue.

Under Washington law, voter-approved initiatives cannot be changed or suspended within two years of passage unless lawmakers approve it by a two-thirds vote in both chambers. After two years, they just need a simple majority vote for such changes.

Lawmakers have not hesitated to take such action on initiatives — including measures on teacher raises and class sizes — during tough budget years.