(WA) EFF testimony on emergency clause reform

Evergreen Freedom Foundation ^ | 2-27-07

[truth49]

Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify, and thank you to Representative Bailey for inviting me to comment on HJR 4218. My name is Jonathan Bechtle and I represent the Evergreen Freedom Foundation.

Article I, Section 1 of the Washington constitution says that “all power is inherent in the people, and governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed….” The right of initiative and referendum are a part of this power that the people reserved to themselves, so any attempt by the legislature to deny this power should be severely limited.

In recent years, however the referendum power has been repeatedly denied by improper use of the emergency clause. House Joint Resolution 4218 makes a change that we believe will address this problem by restricting the use of the emergency clause to true emergencies.

Article II, Section 1 of the constitution allows bills to be enacted immediately if “necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health or safety, support of the state government and its existing public institutions.” In other words, if there’s an emergency.

In 2005, 98 bills were passed with an emergency clause, fully 19 percent of all bills passed. In 2006, 34 bills passed with the clause attached, making up 9 percent of passed bills. One might think there are a lot of emergencies here in Olympia.

A closer inspection, however, reveals that a troubling number of these bills involve issues that citizens would likely want to vote on through the referendum process. Like funding for sporting facilities. This year, both the NASCAR racetrack and the Sonics stadium proposals have emergency clauses.

A similar 1995 funding bill for Safeco Field had an emergency clause attached, and last year an emergency clause was added to a bill eliminating a two-thirds vote requirement on tax increases passed by voters as a part of Initiative 601. Citizens attempted to run referendums on both the baseball stadium and the I-601 bill, but were stymied by the emergency clause.

Both cases went to the state supreme court, which undercut the right of referendum by deciding that nearly anything counts as an emergency. As Justice Tom Chambers wrote in his dissent, “If funding for a baseball stadium is an emergency, then very little is not.”

With the apathy of the court, the legislature must take immediate action to protect the people’s right of referendum. HJR 4218 will provide that protection by effectively limiting the use of emergency clauses to true emergencies. The exemption included for appropriation bills will also ensure that it doesn’t burden state operations.

I urge you to support this bill.

[truth49]

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