Progressives’ plan could foil Tim Eyman’s efforts

Around the same time Tim Eyman was scooping a bowl of ice cream for Governor Jay Inslee, paperwork was being processed to make it more difficult for initiatives to pass.

Andrew Villeneuve, executive director of the Northwest Progressive Institute, says the institute is in the “research phase” of what they are calling the Majority Vote Protection Act.

If approved, the Majority Vote Protection Act would require more than 50 percent of voters to vote on initiatives in order to even make them eligible to pass. That means a small number of voters couldn’t make law for a much larger population, Villeneuve told KIRO Radio’s Dave Ross.

Related: Eyman brings new initiative, and ice cream, to Olympia

And that should be especially troubling for anyone trying to propose initiatives that seek a specific threshold of votes from lawmakers because there is a super-majority clause. If the Vote Protection Act becomes a reality, it would mean those initiatives with thresholds would need to be approved by voters under the same requirements. So an initiative requiring a two-thirds majority vote would need two-thirds approval from voters.

“If you can’t pass your own threshold, it doesn’t pass,” Villeneuve said.

Villeneuve said that few, if any, of Tim Eyman’s initiatives have passed with two-thirds majority from voters, including the one passed this month that would cut sales tax by a penny unless the Legislature sends an amendment to the ballot to call for a two-thirds vote to impose future tax increases.

Dave Ross asked Villeneuve if these efforts were directed at Eyman. Villeneuve says he just wants to know what the public thinks of the idea.

“We would not want to move forward unless voters want it,” he explained.

But if something like what Villeneuve is proposing passes, that would make it more difficult to do things such as increase school funding.

“Yes, it doesn’t discriminate.”