Lipstick on a pig I-1501

Unless you're a criminal, it's safe to assume you're for protecting the elderly and disabled. Adequate laws exist for doing so. The title of I-1501 is the lipstick that purports to further defend the weak, when in actuality the fine print reveals the foul, mud-covered pig the measure really is.

A careful reading of it shows that SEIU, the only money supporting it, is really hoping to hoodwink the voters into protecting the union's revenue stream. Since 2014, SEIU has struggled in Washington courts to prevent public access to the names and mailing addresses of caregivers who have yet to learn that the U.S. Supreme Court said they could stop paying union dues. The courts have consistently ruled against SEIU's shenanigan-filled challenges, maintaining that this information will remain available under the Public Records Act.

Initiative 1501 asks voters to block access to the list to everyone except the union. This would prevent educational mailings to caregivers, languishing, ignorant of their rights. Recent history shows that when people learn they can no longer be forced to pay union dues, they don't. SEIU obviously does not like this. Hence, their attempt via the initiative process to keep the annual $600 per payer average flowing. Furthermore, in a more righteous world, SEIU would have had to first get written permission to extract dues from our paychecks. In our bass-ackwards universe we have to tell them not to.

This story was originally published November 1, 2016 at 8:41 AM with the headline "Lipstick on a pig I-1501."