Court Opinion

ID: 9593847
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 00:25:19.825466+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:03:02.906947
License: Public Domain

Andersen, J.
(dissenting) — What the majority is saying here is that a trial court can allow an argumentative and misleading ballot title to go on the ballot and this court is powerless to do anything about it. I strenuously disagree.
Both Initiative Measure 97 and the legislative alternative, 97B, comprehensively address the hazardous waste problem in the State of Washington. Initiative Measure 97 has 26 sections in it; Alternative Measure 97B has 70. Some of the provisions in the two measures are essentially the same but many are not.
The ballot title for Initiative 97 reads as follows:
Shall a hazardous waste cleanup program, partially funded by a 7/10 of 1% tax on hazardous substances, be enacted?.
In view of the numerous differences between the two measures, the Attorney General utilized a parallel construction *842for the ballot titles. Consequently, Alternative 97B was entitled as follows:
Shall the legislatively enacted hazardous waste cleanup program, which includes an 8/10 of 1 % tax on hazardous substances, be retained?
The title for Alternative 97B was then changed by the trial court. It no longer parallels the Initiative 97 title and now reads as follows:
Shall the legislature's cleanup program, with 0.8% hazardous substance tax raising less money, with less coverage of petroleum, be retained?
(Italics mine.)
Whether Alternative 97B would ultimately raise "less money" than 97, as the 97B title now declares, is a hotly disputed issue of fact; the tax rate in 97B is greater than the tax rate in 97, but the tax base is smaller. Neither measure designates or otherwise identifies a precise number of dollars which would be raised by the tax. Nor does either measure provide for any revision of the tax rate if the revenue either exceeds or falls short of a particular dollar total. It seems obvious from a reading of the two measures that the amount of revenue raised by either will probably depend in large part on future happenings in the marketplace with reference to hazardous substances, particularly as to whether the quantity or value of petroleum exports increases or decreases.
Thus, which of the two measures would raise the most in taxes can only be guessed at or, at best, "guesstimated". Yet the ballot title approved by the trial court determined as a matter of law that Alternative 97B would raise "less money" than Initiative 97! The courts should not allow ballot titles to be used which are tilted either for or against any measure. To do so is to run the very serious risk of misleading the voters who justifiably rely on official ballot titles. The importance of this could not be more clearly expressed than this court recently did in the case of In re Ballot Title for Initiative 333, 88 Wn.2d 192, 198, 558 P.2d 248, 559 P.2d 562 (1977):

*843
We can safely assume that not all voters will read the text of the initiative or the explanatory statement. Some voters may cast their votes based on the ballot title as it appears on their ballots. Thus, the outcome of the vote may be affected by the tenor of the ballot title.

(Italics mine.) The proponents of these two measures should be permitted to take their respective cases to the people on the issue of which measure raises the most money and which raises the least. Then the electorate could decide that issue. Instead, any meaningful debate on that issue was foreclosed by the manner in which the ballot title approved by the trial court was phrased.
The law of this state requires that a ballot title be true and impartial; it . . shall not be intentionally an argument, nor likely to create prejudice, either for or against the measure.'" In re Ballot Title for Initiative 333, supra at 196. See also RCW 29.79.040. The 97B ballot title approved by the trial court fails this test; it is both argumentative and misleading.
The issue before this court is not which of the two measures, Initiative 97 or the legislative alternative, 97B, is the most meritorious. That is for the people to decide by their ballots. The issue, rather, is whether or not the ballot title for 97B is fair. For the reasons stated, the ballot title is not fair.
Hazardous waste cleanup and the " superfund'' are matters of great importance to the people of the State of Washington. The two alternatives on the ballot for decision by the voters are complex and hotly contested. It is unacceptable to hold, as the majority does, that as the Supreme Court of this State we have no power to review and correct an argumentative and misleading ballot title placed on the ballot by a trial court.
I would hold that this court does have original jurisdiction to review the trial court's order and correct the Alternative 97B ballot title. This jurisdiction and authority is based on the principle enunciated in State ex rel. O'Connell v. Meyers, 51 Wn.2d 454, 459-60, 319 P.2d 828 (1957), *844quoting State ex rel. Malmo v. Case, 25 Wn.2d 118, 123, 169 P.2d 623, 165 A.L.R. 1426 (1946), wherein it is declared that
. . the established rule seems to be that as original jurisdiction is conferred in order that the court of highest authority in the state should have the power to protect the rights, interests, and franchises of the state, and the rights and interests of the whole people, to enforce the performance of high official duties affecting the public at large, . . . the court is vested with a sound legal discretion to determine for itself, as the question may arise, whether or not the case presented is of such a character as to call for the exercise of its original jurisdiction.
See also State ex rel. Kurtz v. Pratt, 45 Wn.2d 151, 157, 273 P.2d 516 (1954); State ex rel. Seymour v. Superior Court, 168 Wash. 361, 12 P.2d 394 (1932); In re Ballot Title for Initiative 333, supra.
I would have ruled as follows in this case:4 grant review; reverse the trial court's order changing the Attorney General's ballot title for Alternative Measure 97B; and reinstate the Attorney General's original Alternative Measure 97B ballot title.
Thus, I dissent.
Brachtenbach, J., concurs with Andersen, J.
Reconsideration denied March 22, 1989.

 This case was actually decided by this court on August 15, 1988. It was on that date, pursuant to the decision of a majority of this court, that the following order was entered herein by the Chief Justice:
Pursuant to a vote of the majority of the Court,
It Is Hereby Ordered:
(1) The petition against the state officers is denied;
(2) Further relief from the trial court's decision is likewise denied; and
(3) Explanatory opinions will be issued in due course.