McKenna: Courts will throw the kitchen sink at anti-tax initiative
Nov 4, 2015, 7:47 AM | Updated: 9:31 am
Tim Eyman's anti-tax initiative was passing as of Tuesday evening during the general election. Even if it does pass, former Washington Attorney General and KIRO Radio political analyst Rob McKenna said the Supreme Court will fight it. (AP)
(AP)
Don’t expect the initiative that would cut Washington’s sales tax to go unnoticed by the courts.
Former Attorney General and KIRO Radio political analyst Rob McKenna told KIRO Radio’s Dave Ross and Jason Rantz that Tim Eyman’s I-1366 will be challenged.
“They’ll throw everything and the kitchen sink at it,” McKenna said as early ballot counts showed the initiative passing with 54 percent approval. “They’ll claim it violates the single-subject rule…”
Related: Tim Eyman turns in signatures for most ‘destructive initiative yet’
The initiative would cut sales tax by a penny unless the Legislature sends an amendment to the ballot to call for a two-thirds Legislative, or public, vote to impose future tax increases.
McKenna says the Supreme Court will argue that the measure violates the rule that ballot initiatives and legislation can only deal with one main issue. The court might also try to find a violation in the sense that the measure attempts to direct, or coerce, the Legislature to do something.
“This Supreme Court over the last several years has been pretty hostile to voter-approved measures,” McKenna said. “This is on the ballot because after a series of two-thirds measures passed … the Supreme Court finally knocked it down.
“This court has time and again gone against popular measures.”
Unless there is an avalanche of ballots voting against I-1366, it looks like it will pass, Ross pointed out. As of 7:41 a.m. on Wednesday, the state-wide initiative was passing with 479,058 votes to 408,015.
