By Chris Hurst

Representative, 31st District

The budgetary crisis before the Legislature this year was significant, but was only part of the problem. Fiscal restraint has been a problem, but so has public trust. Too often the Legislature has turned a blind eye or outright ignored the will of the voters, and last fall the voters demonstrated clearly that they had enough.

What began several years ago in ignoring voter-approved initiatives came to a head last year when the Legislature voted to suspend Initiative 960. I stood up in caucus and argued against my party, telling them that this was the wrong way to go, and that the real solution was in partnering with the citizens of Washington, not dictating to them.

In the end, I voted no, but the Legislature went on to further ignore the voters by suspending I-960 and raising taxes. Last fall, the Legislature received a sharp rebuke at the ballot box: virtually all the taxes were repealed, and a new initiative, I-1053 re-imposed the 2/3 requirement on legislatively imposed tax increases.

This is a message Legislators need to take to heart – listen to and partner with the voters. Govern, not rule.

Not all lawmakers are getting the message. A perfect example was the introduction of House Bill 1668 and its Senate counterpart Senate Bill 5297, which would have virtually destroyed the initiative process in Washington.

The proponents of these bills claimed that the citizens’ right to initiative should be significantly curtailed by adding burdensome regulations and extremely high costs to the process. They claimed they were combating fraud, but the only documented case of fraud was one committed by a union volunteer, who would have been exempt under the bill. That person was eventually prosecuted and convicted of fraud under existing law.

It was clear from testimony, however, that the only real problem is that some Legislators did not like either the views of people proposing initiatives or the opinions of the voters when they passed them into law. These bills were a thinly-veiled attempt to take power away from the citizens and nothing more.

I think it’s important to restore citizen trust in government, and that starts by killing bad proposals that would erode the people’s right to participate in the Legislative process. That’s why I killed HB 1668, the House version of this idea by denying it the vote it needed to even move out of committee. My seatmate, Senator Roach was successful in killing the Senate companion.

This is just one bad bill I blocked in such a way, and I view this as one of my most important jobs as a Legislator. Killing a bill in committee is not as visible as a heated Floor debate, which garners a lot of public and media attention, but is nonetheless equally effective. My vote would have been the deciding, tie-breaking vote and as I was a no, the bill was not allowed to move.

The truth is, citizens like initiatives and the initiative process. They like having the ability to intervene when they don’t like what the Legislature is doing. Sometimes, this takes the form of repealing an ill-advised law, and others, by instituting a policy that the Legislature was unable accomplish. This is a healthy and vital part of the checks and balances of our form of self-government. The number of initiatives filed in the last several years has increased, with a near-record number making the ballot last year. This was due in part to people not trusting their government to listen to them.

We do live in a Representative Democracy, and as legislators, we make decisions all the time. However, when the voters clearly and repeatedly say that they want to be involved in certain discussions and decisions, like how tax dollars are raised and spent, we owe it to them to listen. HB 1668 and SB 5297 would have not only stifled the voice of the citizens, it would have further eroded the crisis of confidence that Legislators have been ignoring in recent years.

The real path to solving our issues, budgetary and otherwise, is in partnering with the citizens to build solutions they support and believe in. By doing this, we can restore their faith that their government is working for them, and that their tax dollars are being spent responsibly.

Rep. Christopher Hurst represents the 31st Legislative District, is Chair of the House Public Safety Committee and is serving his 9th year in the legislature.