By Rachel La Corte
The Associated Press
OLYMPIA — An initiative that would limit the Legislature’s ability to raise taxes will appear on the November ballot, after the state Supreme Court on Friday refused to block it, as a lawsuit against the measure had sought.
The court said an opinion explaining the court’s reasoning would come later, but wrote that the group that had sued had “not made the clear showing necessary for injunctive relief.”
However, the court wrote that it would retain the appeal for a later decision on its merits.
Attorneys for Secretary of State Kim Wyman, who has taken no position on the measure, have said voters should be allowed to decide its fate, then courts could weigh in if it passes.
Initiative 1366 would decrease the 6.5-percent state sales tax to 5.5 percent unless the Legislature puts a constitutional amendment before voters that would reinstate a two-thirds legislative majority to raise taxes.
The state Office of Financial Management estimated that I-1366 would reduce revenue to the state budget by $8 billion through the middle of 2021, if its tax-cut element becomes law.
A lawsuit was filed by opponents who said the measure would essentially change the state constitution and was beyond the scope of Washington’s initiative law.
Last month, a King County judge said that while the initiative appears to exceed the scope of the initiative process, it was unclear whether free speech protections in the state and federal constitutions would preclude a pre-election challenge of the measure, and that the Supreme Court would have to make that determination.
Previous voter-approved initiatives required a supermajority vote, but the state Supreme Court struck that requirement down in 2013, saying it was unconstitutional.
