Advisory Votes

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Last year when I opened my ballot, I was bombarded with a dozen confusing, nonbinding advisory votes that use complicated language and lack context. Advisory votes have been around for over a decade. And while I think there’s some merit to the concept in general, this specific policy as we’ve seen in practice for the last 10 years is a failed experiment.

It’s a waste of taxpayer dollars that’s designed to instill distrust and cynicism in government and the decisions made by elected leaders. These advisory votes are required to be written in such a way that clearly encourages people to vote a certain way. Requirements like:

  • stating the taxes were approved by lawmakers “without a vote of the people,”
  • projecting 10 YEARS of costs, and
  • saying it’s for “government spending” without any additional context.

That’s all coded language designed to encourage people to vote no.  These are not advisory votes. These are push polls.

In 2017 we saw just how flawed and wasteful this policy is. For well over a decade during the McCleary years, the Legislature had been hearing from constituents in every corner of the state: fully fund our public schools.

This, of course, required raising new revenue, which we did with HB 2242. The advisory vote that year stated there would be a nearly $13 BILLION tax increase for “government spending.” To no one’s surprise nearly 60% of voters said the tax should be repealed despite the overwhelming demand of our constituents to fully fund schools.

Had that question been asked in a more fair, objective way like listing the average annual tax increase per family and stating that the funding is being used to ensure our public schools are fully funded, I think the result would have been more supportive.

To put it simply, the current policy is bad policy. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Constituent feedback is a good thing. I think lawmakers would value genuine feedback from voters. But not through a push poll.

It’s long past time to end this failed experiment of state-funded push polls and have a serious conversation about collecting genuine constituent feedback on the work we do in the Legislature.

TVW VIDEO: My committee testimony calling for an end to taxpayer funded push polls. Click here to watch the full public hearing on SB 6610.