When Seattle voters cast their ballots by November 3, they will decide on Initiative 122. It would create a voucher scheme allowing every Seattle voter to donate $100 – of taxpayer money – to city candidates.
I-122 would require Seattle candidates to opt into a system to go after voters who would each have four $25 vouchers to donate to their favorite candidates. Another property tax hike would fund the $100 vouchers, meaning that homeowners will provide the cash for others to give away. I-122 is estimated to cost these taxpayers $30 million over a 10-year period.
Of course, I-122 contains a loophole for big labor unions. Large special interest groups are free to bundle the vouchers obtained from their members and direct the large contribution to their preferred candidates. For this reason, among others, the Seattle Times has urged readers to reject I-122.
The initiative is also being promoted by hypocritical means. As Shift reported, I-122 is being funded by a handful of rich outsiders. KIRO Radio’s Jason Rantz recently questioned Heather Weiner of Honest Elections Seattle, a group backing the initiative, about the obvious hypocrisy. MyNorthwest.com,
“Rantz notes that the organization has received $200,000 from one out-of-state donor. Then there’s a $5,000 donation from an Issaquah man — in state but out of town. Two Seattle donors each gave $10,000.
“‘Doesn’t that show you that it’s not necessarily bad for big donors to give money to causes they support?’ Rantz asked.
“‘I recognize the irony that in order to fight big money, you need big money,’ Weiner responded. ‘Just like fighting fire with fire.’”
Weiner, openly admitting to the hypocrisy of it all, exposes the mentality all too prevalent among Democrats. The “do as I say, not as I do” approach to life. It’s okay to rely on big donors to fund liberal measures. Yet, liberals are always the first to attack Republicans at any whiff of big donors.
In the end, I-122 is not about “leveling the playing field.”
Rather, rich outsiders funding I-122 are using the initiative as a test. Seattle is the entry point to try and push a statewide initiative, all with a national agenda in mind. Ironically, that’s the very definition of rich people buying elections… with a long-term outlook twist.
The true intention of I-122 is not only to push Seattle further to the left, but also to see if the strategy is viable on a larger scale.
Essentially, I-122 advocates are peddling a snake-oil form of “democracy” meant to further empower the far left.
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