Olympia sees emergencies

Legislators are once again putting "emergency clauses" on bills in order to short-circuit the public's right of referendum.

In this session, these include bills to allow unions to spend nonmembers' dues, a bill to require signature gatherers to disclose their home addresses, a bill to subsidize a Sonics stadium and a bill to subsidize a NASCAR track. Car racing may have many virtues, but surely it is not "necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health or safety." However, the 57-page bill introduced by Rep. Geoff Simpson, D-Covington, ends with these words:

"This act is necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health or safety, or support of the state government and its existing public institutions."

This is the emergency clause. It is also the last clause in the basketball-stadium bill introduced by Sen. Margarita Prentice, D-Renton.

Rep. Joe McDermott, D-Seattle, and Sen. Darlene Fairley, D-Lake Forest Park, included emergency clauses in their bills to allow unions to spend nonmembers' agency fees on political campaigns.

McDermott also put an emergency clause in a bill requiring that signature gatherers write their home addresses on the backs of initiative petitions.

The emergency clauses are on these bills for a reason. These are bills that have passionate opponents. Under the state constitution, if the bills become law, the opponents can circulate petitions to put the law on the ballot for a public vote. This is the referendum provided by the state constitution.

It is the same as a voter initiative, except that it requires only half the number of signatures in order to qualify. It is a powerful tool of popular democracy. The emergency clause nullifies it.

Years ago, when citizens challenged emergency clauses, the Washington Supreme Court used to toss out the bogus ones. Since the Mariner case a decade ago, in which the Legislature declared that a baseball stadium was "necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health or safety" in Seattle, our highest court has accepted every emergency presented to it, no matter how farfetched.

Our highest court should overrule the Mariner decision and once again subject legislative emergencies to rational thought. Until it does, legislators should restrain themselves from this form of constitutional abuse.