State Supreme Court rejects immediate challenge to Whatcom County ballot measure ruling
Washington State Supreme Court justices won’t immediately decide a challenge to a Whatcom County judge’s ruling that scuttled a 2024 ballot measure challenging a voter-approved property tax to support child care and early childhood programs.
Justices rejected initiative supporters’ request for a “direct review” of the case, and the state Court of Appeals Division 1 in Seattle will hear the case instead. A date hasn’t been set.
“While we hoped for immediate review by the state Supreme Court, we’re confident that this appellate review will advance our efforts to let voters decide,” plaintiff Tim Koetje said in a statement from Washingtonians for a Sound Economy, a political action committee.
Koetje is suing Protect Whatcom Kids and Whatcom County officials in an effort to revive the effort to overturn Proposition 5, which passed by 20 votes in the 2022 election.
Washingtonians for a Sound Economy collected signatures to place the measure on the November 2024 ballot, but Whatcom County Superior Court Judge Lee Grochmal ruled in October that the initiative violates the contracts clause of the Washington Constitution.
Whatcom County Council member Barry Buchanan told The Herald that county officials are continuing to watch the case.
“We want to see it play out in court. We want a fair and just ruling,” Buchanan said.
Proposition 5 charges property owners 16.75 cents for every $1,000 of assessed valuation, raising an estimated $10 million annually for the programs supported by the county’s Healthy Children’s Fund.
