Issues May Share Ballot This Spring Same-Sex Marriage, Seahawks Stadium May Be Together In June

Sponsors of a ban on same-sex marriage are arranging to share a June ballot with a proposed plan to finance a new $400 million stadium for the Seattle Seahawks.

Backers, worried that the measure could stir public passions on both sides of the marriage issue, also are calling for swift punishment of hate crimes that could occur during the campaign.

The state House is preparing to vote next week on a referendum that would send the same-gender marriage ban to the ballot. Gov. Gary Locke vetoed such a bill last month and the Senate failed to override. Republican majorities now plan to bypass him and place it directly before the voters.

Such a vote typically would be conducted as part of the November general election. But a new draft released Wednesday by House sponsor Bill Thompson, R-Everett, calls for a vote five months earlier - at the June 3 special election being promoted for a vote on the Seahawks stadium.

If the Seahawks funding package fails to pass the Legislature this spring, the marriage referendum would go on the November ballot.

The idea of the earlier election on the marriage measure - and a strongly worded statement in the bill against campaign-related hate crimes - is to keep the lid on a potentially volatile situation, Thompson said.

In other developments:

Land-use planning

A much-trumpeted agreement among lawmakers and the governor to revise the state’s land-use planning law unraveled Wednesday when a Republican House panel rammed through a bill that critics say would gut the law.

Democratic members of the House Government Reform and Land Use Committee angrily stalked out of the meeting rather than take a final vote on the bill. Among other things, the measure would eliminate the state boards that enforce the 1990 Growth Management Act and greatly ease land-use rules affecting rural areas.

The act requires counties to plan ways to reduce urban sprawl and preserve forest, farmland and open space. Builders complain the law inhibits reasonable growth.

Committee Chairman Bill Reams, heavily lobbied by the Building Industry Association of Washington, declined in an interview to characterize his measure, HB2244, as “anything major.”

In a later news release, Reams, R-Bellevue, said the bill better responds to concerns by “agriculture and livestock interests” who have been “left out of the loop” on land-use decisions. He said it also “allows counties to develop their own vision of what is rural in terms of open space, natural landscape, traditional rural lifestyles, rural-based economies and absence of urban government services.”

But Democrats on the panel were livid, saying it basically would repeal the law and destroy an agreement announced last month by Gov. Gary Locke and the two GOP chambers to fine-tune the act based on recommendations from a special study commission. At the time, Reams had appeared with Locke at a news conference to promote that deal.

The House bill would eliminate the three regional state planning boards that enforce the law by the end of the century and replace them with local government control over land-use planning.

It also would reduce protections against urban sprawl in rural areas, as well as make it more difficult to protect “critical areas” such as water resources and fish and wildlife.

Park fees

If Locke has his way, you’ll have to pay to park in a park.

Locke’s proposed $19.2 billion state budget includes a $3-per-vehicle charge for people who visit popular state parks. The charge would not apply to people who arrive by foot or bicycle.

“It’s not wrong to at least consider a day-use fee,” Cleve Pinnix, director of the Parks and Recreation Commission, said Wednesday.

Pinnix said the idea has been floating around for at least four years, but either the Legislature or former Gov. Mike Lowry were against the idea.

If the fee goes into effect, it will raise about $6 million in the next two years. The money would help the parks system’s budget shortfall of $1.7 million. If the shortfall isn’t met, a dozen parks are in danger of being closed.

Locke’s proposed budget, released Tuesday, would have the commission getting $75 million in tax dollars and fees.

The commission will look at a variety of options, including having some days where the parking fee is not be collected. It also will determine which of its 125 parks would have the fee.