Work with Gary for More Community, Less Olympia

We can trust in the wisdom of voters. More and more often, incumbent politicians are acting against the clearly expressed will of the people. On the national level, politicians passed an extremely unpopular health care bill. On the state level, our politicians are even more flagrant in their disregard for the voters' wishes when they "suspend" the laws passed through our initiative process by a simple majority vote.

When politicians fail to act, we voters can create laws using our state's initiative process. We have used the process to attempt needed reforms such as funding our schools and capping our taxes. After we invest our efforts, time, and money to pass initiatives, our legislators regularly "suspend" our initiatives as quietly as possible and as soon as they can. Gary believes voters are the boss. In the private sector, if an employee goes against the boss's wishes, they get fired. Politicians who ignore voter wishes must be fired as well.

We must protect the initiative process. In 2007, Initiative 960 passed, requiring a two-thirds majority in the legislature to raise taxes.  In a recent statewide poll, 74% of Washingtonians approved of this new law. This year, our representatives quietly passed Senate Bill 6130 "suspending"  the two-thirds requirement so that they could raise our taxes over $700 million.

Voters put their priority on the services that matter. In 2000, 72% of voters approved Initiative 728 to fund smaller school classes. Politicians put their priority on special interests. In 2003, as soon as legally possible, I-728 was "suspended" by our legislators. This year the last of its funds were taken from the schools by our legislature.

Voters must trust the initiative process. This brings us to a new initiative, I-1098, an income tax for "high-earners." It promises to tax only the top 3% of incomes, but we know what our current legislators do. If we put them back in office, we will all eventually pay a state income tax.

A Common Sense Plan to Protect Voter Initiatives

The first step is easy. We must vote out incumbents who ignore voters' wishes. When we elect him, Gary will:

• Defend all initiatives passed by the voters.
• Stop any attempts to quietly suspend or change the terms of voter initiatives without broad public approval.
• Work for laws that would require a super-majority of both houses to change voter initiatives.