Who wins? The budget or the voters?

We’ve been an outspoken supporter of statewide initiatives over the years, primarily because we have a fundamental confidence in the common sense of the average voter. That’s not to say we agree with every decision the voters ever make but, on balance, the track record of the voters in supporting and approving demonstrably positive legislation is at least as good as that of the lawmakers they’d supposedly elected to do the job in the first place.

That said, the ongoing disagreement in Olympia over the current budget and voter-mandated cost-of-living raises for Washington teachers presents something of a dilemma.

Two years ago, voters statewide passed Initiative 732, which required yearly adjustments in teacher salaries. But just last week, the state Senate voted to suspend the initiative. “We have a $490 million obligation which we don’t have the money for,” said Sen. Dino Rossi, R-Sammamish, who chairs the Senate Ways and Means Committee. “When times get better, we’ll be able to do better. Right now, times are tough.”

Rossi’s point is well-taken. But it also begs the question, “If it’s OK to suspend I-732 just because it’s become inconvenient, what’s to stop lawmakers from ignoring any of the initiatives championed by Tim Eyman that limit the amount of revenue the government can collect from us?”

And Heaven knows most of them would love to do just that.

So what’s the answer? Looking at the situation practically, it’s easy to make a distinction between Eyman’s initiatives, which limit the state’s income, and I-732, which requires an expenditure. A rational person — that is, one who’s tried to run his or her household on a budget — understands it makes much more sense to curb your expenses when times are tough than it does to continue buying things you can’t afford and sticking someone else with the tab down the road.

Unfortunately, we’re not sure you could craft a law that allows the Legislature to ignore initiatives that affect expenditures while requiring them to honor those dealing with revenue.

Unless or until that problem can be worked out, our preference would be that the lawmakers continue to respect the will of voters as expressed by statewide initiatives in every case — including the ones they don’t like.

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