Lawmakers won't act on WA long-term care ballot initiative ( www.seattletimes.com )

OLYMPIA — Democratic leaders in the Washington Legislature said Friday they would not act on a citizen initiative that would let Washingtonians opt out of a payroll tax that funds a state long-term care insurance program, meaning the question will very likely go directly to the November ballot.

Senate Majority Leader Andy Billig, D-Spokane, and House Speaker Laurie Jinkins, D-Tacoma, also said Friday they would hold hearings on three other citizen initiatives later this month.

Their announcement means that legislators have now laid out publicly what the next steps will be for the slate of six initiatives filed and sponsored by the state Republican Party chair, Jim Walsh, and bankrolled by Redmond businessman Brian Heywood.

With each initiative, the Legislature has several options. They could do nothing, in which case the initiative would go directly to the ballot in November. They could pass an alternative policy to appear alongside the initiative on the ballot. Or they could pass the initiative into law.

Billig and Jinkins said earlier this week that they wouldn’t hold hearings on efforts to repeal the state’s capital gains tax and its carbon market, both recently established by legislation and both big drivers of the state’s revenue growth. Altogether that means they’re not acting on three initiatives, which means those three will almost surely be go before voters, but they could act on the three others.

“The three initiatives we are not taking action on would have a dire effect on the day to day lives of every single Washingtonian,” Billig and Jinkins said in a joint statement Friday. “These initiatives would dramatically decrease quality of life and devastate progress on K-12 education, child care, clean air, clean water, climate action, and aging with dignity — matters that are important to people across the state.”

The three other initiatives that lawmakers do plan to hold public hearings on would lift some restrictions on when police can chase suspects, require parents of public school students to be able to review curriculum and be notified of their student’s medical care, and bar the state and local governments from imposing an income tax.