[NOTE: Washington State Wire reporter Erik Smith did not participate in these endorsements.]

We asked a collection of staff, readers, occasional contributors and capitol insiders to help us fill out our ballots. The Secretary of State’s office calls them “measurers.” Really, these are the critical or whimsical issues that are ignored by the Legislature as they tiptoe along their safe pathway of denial. Fortunately, in some cases, citizens have stepped in to do the job.

I-1185

Washington State Wire joins the state’s citizens who have four times told the Legislature that if they are going to raise taxes or fees, get together and delineate the need and the source to the point you can get a two-thirds vote of the House and Senate or a majority of voters to implement it. We say approve, once again.

I-1240

The state has been wallowing around in fringe arguments on this one for years to the point that we are surprised there is still oxygen left to debate it. Plainly put, it’s an idea whose time has come. Just this last weekend the Wall Street Journal reported the outcome of New York City’s recent experience with charter schools and it is a delightful one. K-12 is desperate for an injection of new energy and ideas. Meanwhile Olympia is just stuck in a different time. Who will change the K-12 paradigm? Inslee won’t, McAuliffe won’t, the WEA won’t, Randy Dorn won’t; this year we think the people will. We vote approve on 1240.

R-74

Like charter schools and the earth being round, we just can’t believe we are still debating this one. This past legislative session was something to behold. At the time we wondered if it was similar to Thomas Jefferson’sconflict as he wrote his abolition papers looking out over his fields where almost a thousand slaves were working to his economic benefit. In a few years people will ask the question. “Who thought they could ever control who I marry?”

Our grandchildren will be confused as to why we even debated it. Approve R-74.

I-502

You have to be unloading five bales of pot out of the back of a pickup truck, during broad daylight at Pike and 3rd to attract law enforcement interest in Seattle. While not heavily enforced, the antiquated pot laws are still on the books. And in non-urban areas the cops aren’t always as lenient. To pot-supportive critics of this initiative who argue the devil is in the details we say that this is a case of sacrificing a pawn to get the queen. While not perfect, on the whole much like we think liquor privatization moved us to a new and more favorable place of debate, I-502 will tilt the conversation going forward more heavily in pot’s favor. To those objecting less to the actual details and more to the loss of counterculture through broader acceptance, do be aware that plenty of us clipped our dreadlocks and put on a suit, but never lost our love for the ghanja.

We say approve on 502.

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