I grew up in New Mexico, where there is no initiative system. There's also a fair bit of corruption. When I moved to Seattle for college, I was very impressed with the initiative system, and quite taken with the idea that citizens could do an end run around recalcitrant legislators.
I've lived here for thirteen years now, and I'm much less taken with the idea. In fact, the only initiative I would now sign to have placed on the ballot would be to change our state constitution to end the initiative process altogether.
The combination of populist rage, ignorant and shortsighted voters, as well as the greed of one man in particular has reassured me that the Founders distrust of the mob was justified. Additionally, the demagoguery paid for by corporations is turning our initiative process into a system just as corrupt as the legislature I left behind in New Mexico.
I'll start with the financial impact of the initiative system. No one jumps for joy when we pay taxes, and with our lack of an income tax, property and sales taxes in Washington are huge. We also used to fund a great number of transportation and other programs using car registration fees. They were damned high, and the state used a formula that overvalued cars as they aged. People were justifiably angry about this. What solution was floated? No, not one demanding a more accurate formula, but one that instead set a flat rate of $30.00 per vehicle per year. For some individuals with truly old cars, this was actually a tax increase, but it passed comfortably. Transit, health, and other programs were slashed, so it had the effect of encouraging the purchase of vehicles and discouraging the use of transit. Since then, Tim Eyman has been a one man initiative machine, profiting handsomely and attacking transit services ever since, including putting up for a statewide vote the taxes paid for by just four counties, all of which had approved the taxes, which paid for light rail.
I can't blame him alone. Many of these were declared unconstitutional, but the state legislature enacted them, fearing the backlash and abdicating their responsibility.
Washington is hardly alone in this. Proposition 13 was a massive overreaction to an unfair property taxation system in California. The "Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR)" that got written in the Colorado constitution came at such a high cost to education that it had to be amended. But at the same time as these tax cutting measures are put into place, service increases are voted for.
The year after 695 was passed, class sizes were capped and teachers' salaries were increased. The next year, when property taxes were capped, a new agency regulating elder care was mandated.
Next, let's deal with the bigotry. My first experience with this came when I went on vacation to Denver while they were attempting to repeal Amendment 2, which forbade cities or counties from enacting any anti-discrimination laws for gays. The number of these is hard to count. Seattle had one go down to defeat in the '70s, the same decade that such initiatives passed in Dade County and other locales under the leadership of Anita Bryant. State DOMAs have experienced plenty of success. All of this when civil rights should never be up for a vote. Minorities should never have to rely on the good will of the majority for the acknowledgment of civil rights. The various anti-affirmative action initiatives, Prop 187 in California, which forbade state services to illegal immigrants and required proof of citizenship before any state service could be granted, and a host of similar initiatives inflame bigotry, and lead to actual violence against minorities. These get thrown out after long court battles, generally, which makes them mostly just opportunities for bigots of all varieties to make minorities feel less than human. The Oregon vote that invalidated my marriage was particularly painful. Multnomah County sent us a refund check for our marriage license and frankly, we were too poor not to cash it, but damn, we were bitter about it.
Next, we have to face the fact that these have ceased being tools for the people and started being tools for the powerful. In California, you need around half a million signatures to get something on the ballot. That costs a fortune and there as elsewhere, paid signature gatherers do the job. These people have no interest in the impact of the vote, and only care about getting $1-$3 per signature. They have been caught lying many times, but you can't get on the ballot without these scumbags. Well, oil companies have a lot of money and can afford a lot of these guys. The logging and oil companies floated an initiative to overturn a tax on disposable grocery bags here in Seattle. A similar tax reduced the use of disposable bags by 95% in Ireland, and an outright ban in China saved millions of tons of oil. But it's going up for a vote entirely paid for by bag producers.
Finally, these let the legislators off the hook. Goddammit, we elect and pay them to make decisions, and in particular, decisions that are tougher than what the official state candy should be. We hire them as full time employees of the people to educate themselves on the issues and especially the budget and to make the hard choices. Yes, they should represent their constituents and respond to the will of the people, but they must balance that with their responsibility to do what's right. And we expect that of them, and it is not happening. In Washington, any tough call is sent to the voters and the legislature washes their hands of it. Give us hell. Let us know that our taxes determine our services and do what's right for our states. And help us get rid of direct democracy. Legislating really is a job that is best left to the professionals.