Long-term care initiative gets approval for statewide ballot

By Brad Shannon | The Olympian • Published September 06, 2008

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Initiative 1029 can go to the statewide ballot Nov. 4, the state Supreme Court said Friday in a short order it issued a day after hearing a legal challenge.

The ruling backed up Secretary of State Sam Reed's position on the measure, which proposes to license long-term-care workers and boost their training requirements to 75 hours, up from about 35.

Despite language on signature petitions that said it was an initiative to the Legislature, Reed's lawyers at the Attorney General's Office said sponsors and elections workers treated it all along as a ballot proposal.

The court will release its formal reasoning on what appeared to be a split decision later. Reed was in a hurry to resolve the issue by Monday, when decisions had to be made on the statewide voter pamphlet, followed by decisions later in the week about vote-by-mail ballots.

"I think it is a big victory for common sense," said Mike Subit, lawyer for People for Safe Quality Care. He warned the court that if it had ruled otherwise, it could open the door to initiative sponsors "gaming" the system by shifting their intent partway through the process.

The decision means a full political campaign now will get under way over I-1029's merits. I-1029 is financially backed by the Service Employees International Union as a way to improve care, but some care providers warn it will drive up costs and reduce options for people needing care.

Leaders with the Community Care Coalition of Washington, which sued over the issue, are stunned, said Deb Murphy, a spokeswoman affiliated with the DuPont-based Aging Services of Washington.

The coalition's attorneys argued that the court should respect the will of voters who signed petitions that called the measure an initiative to the Legislature.

"If voters can't rely on the plain operative language of the initiative that directs where this measure will be decided, it requires them to go through extraordinary measure to find out for themselves," Murphy said.

But lawyers for Sam Reed and the I-1029 sponsor, People for Safe Quality Care, said sponsors all along intended it as a measure for the ballot and that Reed had discretion in this case. More than 300,000 voters signed the measure.

Jeff Parsons, campaign manager for People for Safe Quality Care, said SEUI has contributed the vast majority of the nearly $665,000 his group has raised. It has about $30,000 cash on hand and expects to raise additional money to get out its message by radio and mail.

"We're going to be meeting next week as a coalition and determining and assessing what we have financially at our disposal to launch our campaign effort to fight against Initiative 1029," Murphy said. "But suffice it to say we do not have the financial backing and power of SEIU, and it's going to be very difficult for us to fight them dollar to dollar. We can't fight them dollar for dollar."

Opponents have reported raising $82,343 and spending $42,747. Murphy predicted a grassroots campaign to spell out what opponents think are wasteful and costly training requirements that families would have to pay. She said a more flexible training requirement is needed.

State elections officials said the timely ruling lets them properly prepare the voter pamphlets and ballots.

"We greatly appreciate the Supreme Court's prompt and timely consideration and decision in this case," state elections director Nick Handy said in a statement. "The 300,000-plus voters who signed these petitions will be pleased that this matter will be on the November ballot."