Seattle’s New ‘Democracy Vouchers’; Plastic Bag Wars Continue in California

Here’s some of what we’ve been reading today ...

SEATTLE, Washington: Stymied on the federal level, campaign finance reform efforts increasingly are going local. Seattle voters delivered a first-of-its-kind reform plan on Tuesday, according to The Seattle Times. The city will now levy property taxes equal to roughly $9 per year on a $450,000 house to offer “democracy vouchers” to voters who can then donate them to the candidates of their choosing. The program offers a public financing option to combat the dominance of elections spending in the city by wealthy elite, according to supporters. The newspaper explains how the program will work:

For each city election cycle, or every two years, the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission (SEEC) will mail four $25 vouchers to each voter. They can only be used in Seattle campaigns for mayor, city council and city attorney.

Voters will assign the vouchers by signing and mailing them to candidates or to the SEEC, or by submitting them online.

The SEEC will release money to the candidates that agree to follow I-122’s rules, which include participating in three debates and accepting lower contribution and spending limits.

I-122’s rules will prohibit candidates from receiving contributions from any person or company with at least $250,000 in city contracts or $5,000 in lobbying expenses. It also will bar elected officials, and their top aides, from lobbying the city for three years after leaving their City Hall jobs. 

The Times also notes that the “Honest Elections” campaign that won over voters to the plan pulled down the majority of its money in big donations that came from outside of Seattle. [The Seattle Times]

SACRAMENTO, California: The plastic bag lobby is not giving up on great big, wealthy California, reports The San Jose Mercury News. The Golden State passed a law banning plastic shopping bags in 2014. Now the bag companies are financing an effort to repeal the ban and, in what the paper calls “the political equivalent of a trick play in football,” is also sponsoring a proposal pitched as a environmental move that would force retailers to charge customers for non-reusable bags. Retailers would not be able keep the money they charge for the bags, however; they would be forced to deposit it into a state environmental fund. The measure is designed to be odious to customers and retailers. Election experts say the strategy also leans on ballot-crowding chaos theory. "Voters faced with too many choices get confused, and confused voters tend to vote no on everything," John Matsusaka, director of the Initiative and Referendum Institute at the University of Southern California, told the newspaper. "In this case, that's exactly what the proponents of the referendum want." [The San Jose Mercury News]  

MADISON, Wisconsin: Gov. Scott Walker, off the presidential campaign trail and back at home in the Badger State, approved a rule that will move the state toward drug testing applicants for publicly funded food stamps, job training and unemployment insurance programs, reports The Capital Times. Opponents say the plan targets poor people, that it will be expensive to implement and the effect will be to discourage people from applying for help. The drug-testing proposal was attached to the state budget in the last legislative session. In other states, opponents have amended such proposals to include drug testing for elected officials, a move that, in Indiana, led the bill sponsor to withdraw his proposal. At least 12 states have passed laws similar to Wisconsin’s. Attorney General Brad Schimel has sued Wisconsin, arguing that the plan to drug test food aid recipients is illegal. [The Capital Times]

AUSTIN, Texas: The Lone Star State’s Railroad Commission has ruled that oil-and-gas companies drilling and filling deep hydraulic fracturing waste-water disposal wells are not responsible for the series of earthquakes that have rocked North Texas towns like Reno and Azle over the last two years, reports The Texas Tribune. The commissioners agreed that the growing number of scientific studies linking so-called injection wells to earthquakes are solid, and it called the Southern Methodist University study that concluded well activity was most likely responsible for the quakes in North Texas a “commendable first-order investigation.” Ultimately, however, the three-member all-Republican panel sided with the companies working the wells—Houston-based EnerVest and ExxonMobil subsidiary XTO Energy—which argued that the evidence in the case was less than concrete. [The Texas Tribune]

BALTIMORE, Maryland: As part of an annual public schools review, city officials are considering shuttering Renaissance Academy High, a school lauded for its enlightened mission in the local and national press last year, reports The Baltimore Sun. Renaissance is located a mile from where 25-year-old Freddie Gray was arrested and then allegedly killed in police custody, setting off protests and riots in the city, making international headlines and triggering an investigation into police misconduct. The school’s student population is two-thirds male. It has been praised for its creative and effective mentoring programs. The decision is set to be announced by the school board on Nov. 10. [The Baltimore Sun]