BELLINGHAM, WA (MyBellinghamNow.com) – A recently authorized initiative heading to the November ballot is instead going to the courts first.
Initiative 1 looks to remove a property tax that funds childcare services within Whatcom County.
The proposition to establish the Healthy Children’s Fund passed in 2022 by just 20 votes and increased property taxes by 19 cents per $1,000 assessed value.
The Whatcom County Council voted 4 to 2 with Councilmember Tyler Byrd abstaining Tuesday to send the repealing initiative to the Whatcom County Superior Court to evaluate its procedural validity. The council expressed concerns on whether a referendum that repeals the law would be better suited rather than an initiative that takes over half as many signatures to get on the ballot. A referendum requires 11,034 petition signatures versus an initiative’s 6,392 signatures – over 42% more petitioners.
Councilmember Kaylee Galloway voted yes on sending the initiative to the court along with Todd Donovan, Jon Scanlon and Barry Buchanan. Scanlon noted that sending this initiative to the court would assure both its validity and future initiatives viability. The county’s deputy civil prosecutor George Roche said Whatcom County has a poor track record of passing citizens’ initiatives.
“I think if this is a faulty initiative, then that’s just going to delay problems down the road,” Galloway said. “So, if we can try to be preventative today, we’re going to save a lot of time and money and public trust.”
Councilmembers Mark Stremler and Ben Elenbaas voted against it and Elenbaas says that the council should not intervene in the initiative’s path to the ballot.
“I think all that’s trying to be done here is muddy the water on what the citizens are asking for and they did it to the best of their abilities and the guidance that they were given,” he said. “In the end if it gets challenged in court, that’s one thing, but that’s not our place.”
Roche says that the legal fees for sending the initiative to court would be at least $100,000 as the council would need to hire an outside legal counsel and potentially a special prosecutor.
An item the council introduced Tuesday would place an alternative council initiative on the ballot alongside the citizens’ initiative. It would aim to fix holes spotted in the citizens’ initiative but would not change the intent of the original measure.
