Late yesterday both legislative houses in Washington state passed three of the six citizens' initiatives that had been submitted to them in December. Citizen initiatives do not require the governor’s signature, and so the three that passed will become law 90 days after March 7th, which is the last day of the legislative session (known as "sine die"). The vote tallies for each initiative were as follows:

Even as the measures passed with bipartisan majority support, several lawmakers gave floor remarks about how some of the initiatives were "confusing" or "unnecessary." For example, Rep. Nicole Macri (D-Seattle) urged a no vote for Initiative 2081, claiming the language of the law could be wrongly interpreted or misapplied, but under correct interpretation wouldn't make substantive changes to the existing law.

Rep. Chipalo Street said of Initiative 2111, "I'm voting no because this measure doesn't actually do anything, and we should be balancing our tax code so that it's more fair and more equitable." It seems that a more honest assessment of these sentiments is that the lawmakers voted against the initiatives precisely because they do change things which the lawmakers themselves may not support. For instance, banning state and local income taxes may not change the current tax realities in Washington, but voting against a clearly stated ban seems to be a tacit endorsement of an income tax. 

In spite of these few outliers, most lawmakers seem to have felt the pressure from the strong message sent to them from the public on these three initiatives. Legislative leaders said they are not willing to consider the other three popular initiatives that citizens submitted: I-2109 to repeal the capital gains income tax, I-2117 to repeal the carbon tax, and I-2124 to make the WA Cares long-term-care tax voluntary. Since the legislature will take no action, these three initiatives will appear on the November ballot, and Washington's voters will be able to make their voices heard again at that point.