Initiatives

Voters reject money for schools

Voters on Tuesday rejected a penny-on-the-dollar sales-tax increase to raise money for education, turning down a well-financed appeal for greater investment in the state’s young people.

With 30 percent of precincts reporting, Initiative 884 was opposed, 64 percent to 36 percent.

“With the current high sales tax that we have, it was a tough leap for voters to make,” said Charles Hasse, president of the Washington Education Association, the statewide teachers union that was a strong supporter of Initiative 884.

“I don’t think that translates to a lack of support for public schools,” Hasse said. He added: “I think the coalition that worked on this is ready to try again to provide for students in Washington. People will continue to work on this.”

The League of Education Voters, a coalition of teachers, parents, business leaders and others that drove the campaign, said the sales-tax boost would generate more than $1 billion annually to transform education from preschool through college.

“I’m not ready for concession remarks. I’ll concede we’re in a hole, but not more than that,” league spokeswoman Lisa Mcfarlane said.

Opponents – outspent 60 to 1 – were wary of the tax bite and dubious about the benefits, fearing the initiative would simply pump more money into faltering programs.

The initiative called for a 1-penny-per-dollar increase in the state’s 6.5 percent sales tax, a 15.4 percent increase in a tax already viewed as burdensome for the poor.

Initiative 892: Slot machines

Voters were rejecting a measure to expand gambling in Washington state in early returns, apparently unswayed by Initiative 892’s promise of lower property taxes.

I-892 would have allowed as many as 18,000 new electronic slot machines in casinos, bars, restaurants and bowling alleys. A 35 percent tax on the machines would pay for property tax relief.

With 26 percent of precincts reporting across the state, 59 percent voted against the measure and 41 percent voted for it.

The ballot measure created a political showdown between casino-owning Indian tribes, which now have exclusive rights to offer electronic slot machines, and non-tribal casinos yearning for a piece of that action.

Opponents argued the initiative would dramatically intensify gambling in Washington, put slot machines in neighborhoods and create a slew of gambling-related problems.

Referendum 55: Charter schools

State voters rejected charter schools for the third time in a decade.

Late Tuesday, the measure was losing, 59 percent to 41 percent.

“This is no doubt a big disappointment,” said Steve Mullin, of the Washington Business Roundtable, a key supporter of the pro-charter school campaign, in a statement. “Charter public schools would have provided another tool for parents to ensure their children were getting the education they deserve.”

Washington voters had rejected charter schools twice already, turning down citizen initiatives in 1996 and 2000. This time they rejected a charter school law approved by the Legislature last session.

“It is unfortunate that the vocal opposition of our opponents has prevented the passage of a measure that would have helped thousands of children in our state,” said Jim Spady, who led the 1996 campaign and remains an ardent supporter of the concept.

Initiative 297: Hanford waste

By a roughly 2-to-1 margin, voters overwhelmingly approved an initiative to bar the federal government from sending nuclear waste to the Hanford Nuclear Reservation.

Initiative 297 would block the U.S. Department of Energy from sending more waste to the Hanford nuclear site until all the existing waste there is cleaned up.

In early returns, about 67 percent of voters were supporting the measure, and 32 percent were opposing it.

The 586-square-mile reservation in south-central Washington, which was created in World War II as part of the top-secret Manhattan Project to build the atomic bomb, remains the most contaminated site in the nation.

Supporters called the initiative a no-brainer: Don’t add more waste until the existing waste is cleaned up. The roughly $1 million cost of the initiative was largely financed by its sponsor, Seattle-based Heart of America Northwest, a Hanford watchdog group.

“It’s clear that the rule of the people of the state of Washington is that Hanford needs to be cleaned up before more waste can be dumped there,” said Gerald Pollet, executive director of Heart of America. “We are overwhelmed in terms of the size of our victory.”

Opponents feared that barring waste shipments to Hanford could backfire if other states take similar steps to ban imports of Hanford waste.

The Energy Department took no official position on the measure.