I agree with City Council about petition

I applaud the city of Olympia in seeking court relief from a nonsensical petition. This petition purports to pass an income tax on rich people to make college free. The fine print instead reveals an excise tax on local families and individuals from which corporations and outsider owned businesses are exempt.

It is simply unconstitutional to pass such a tax that applies to people and not corporations. It also has no cost control mechanisms, so rather than making college free it would make college more expensive for everyone.

Direct democracy is a great idea, but we need to know what laws mean before we vote on them - and this petition confuses even the experts. Asking a judge for a ruling beforehand so we at least know what we’re voting about is the only sensible route. The petition itself purports that “The provisions of this chapter shall be interpreted and implemented in a manner consistent with the United States Constitution, the Washington Constitution, and federal and state laws and regulations.”

The city is only following the directive of the petition itself in seeking a ruling on the legality of the petition contents. The negative reaction by the petitioners only demonstrates that those gathering signatures don’t understand what they were asking people to sign, that they never read and comprehended the petition themselves. The city is doing exactly what the petition asks, and yet the petitioners are dismayed because they never read their own petition.

This story was originally published August 12, 2016 at 8:33 AM with the headline "I agree with City Council about petition."