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Friday, March 5, 2004
Court's message is voters beware
Had the message of yesterday's Washington Supreme Court ruling on Sound Transit been delivered in Latin, it would have read: "caveat emptor." It puts voters on notice to read all the fine print before buying a ballot measure.
Sane Transit had argued that taking three years longer to build a light rail line seven miles shorter than proposed in the 1996 ballot measure "substantially deviated" from what voters thought they had approved.
Yes, the Supreme Court said, it did represent a substantial deviation -- but it didn't matter because the voters weren't technically asked to approve 21 miles of light rail built over 10 years. Technically what voters were asked was to approve the taxes to build a system and to grant Sound Transit's governing board broad authority to decide how to best use the money. The full extent of that authority was referred to in ballot title "Resolution No. 75."
The Supreme Court's six-justice majority opinion rests on firm enough legal ground, but the dissenters raised compelling public policy concerns, including this from Justice Tom Chambers:
"I would not permit resolutions submitted to the people to incorporate other resolutions by reference. Each act submitted to the people should stand on its own merit -- at the very least, legislation submitted to the people must substantially comply with the representations made to the people in the voters pamphlet." That would be a good standard for future ballot measures.
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