Property measure rejected

Wed., Nov. 8, 2006

Richard Roesler Staff writer

Despite appeals from farmers who say government regulations threaten to drive them off their land, Washington voters on Tuesday overwhelmingly rejected a property rights initiative.

By an even larger margin, they also said “no” to a proposal to do away with the state’s estate tax.

Voters seemed to be giving the thumbs up, however, to an initiative requiring power companies to get more electricity from renewable resources.

By far the most expensive proposal was Initiative 933, which would have required government compensation – or a waiver – when land-use regulations or other rules hurt property values. It was a $5 million battle. Proponents said the measure’s only fair. Critics predicted a zoning free-for-all, with farmland sprouting subdivisions and strip malls. I-933 – which is similar to Idaho’s Prop. 2 – was failing late Tuesday, 57 percent to 43 percent.

In 1995, voters rejected a similar measure, Referendum 48.

“We got outspent six to one,” said Dan Wood, director of government relations for the state Farm Bureau, which wrote the measure. But he said that the campaign had made lawmakers and Gov. Chris Gregoire aware that unfair regulations are hurting people.

“We have moved the ball forward and we will hold the opposition and the governor accountable to deliver on their promises,” he said.

The vote was even more decisive on the estate-tax measure: Initiative 920. Businesses – led by Seattle developer Martin Selig, who pumped more than $1 million into the $1.3 million campaign – say the tax hurts family businesses and is unfair.

But the state teachers’ union and other education advocates argued that only about 250 wealthy Washingtonians pay the tax annually, and that the resulting $100 million a year goes toward public schools. The proposal to do away with the tax was failing, 60 percent to 40 percent.

Amber Carter, a business lobbyist who led the campaign to torpedo the tax, said her side was outspent and hurt by misleading ads that wrongly implied that losing the tax money would shut down schools.

The third major measure, Initiative 937, requires large utilities to get 15 percent of their power from new renewable energy by 2020. Critics – including Avista Corp. – said that utilities are buying all the green energy they can find and that the mandate will simply inflate power bills. Voters were apparently undeterred, however. The measure was narrowly passing late Tuesday, 52 percent to 48 percent.

Also on the ballot was a proposal to boost the personal property tax exemption from $3,000 to $15,000. It was passing overwhelmingly.

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