KVI’s John Carlson and Brian Heywood discuss the 11 citizen initiatives being put forward by his group, Let’s Go Washington. The initiatives fall into three categories: Public Safety, Cost of Living, and Good Governance. Roughly 380,000 signatures need to be collected by the end of the year.

Gov. Inslee cannot veto initiatives if passed by legislature

John Ley 
For Clark County Today

Have you heard about the 11 initiatives to the legislature that will help return power to the people? These initiatives make an effort some call “the Project to Restore WA.” You can learn more and read the specific language of each initiative at Let’s Go Washington. 

The leader and underwriter of the effort is a private citizen, Brian Heywood. “One of the things he believes in is that the people of Washington state are far more in touch with what we need to do than some of the politicians we’ve been sending to Olympia,” said KVI radio host John Carlson while introducing Heywood.

Heywood had recently experienced a problem in one of the companies he owns, and the “top-down” solutions weren’t working. “When we unleashed the employees, we started getting products and solutions to things that we didn’t expect and we couldn’t have seen ourselves. It really, really changed my thinking about how to solve problems,” he said.

The Let’s Go Washington project is 11 Initiatives to the state legislature. They are designed to fix much of what’s broken in Washington state.

Citizens have until mid-December to collect around 380,000 signatures of registered Washington voters for each initiative. If enough valid signatures are collected, the initiatives are presented like bills to the state legislature. If the legislature passes them, the initiatives become law without the governor’s signature. They are not subject to the governor’s veto.

“I’m all in with the Project to Restore Washington,” said Clark County resident Sally Snyder. “A lot of hard work has gone into these 11 initiatives.”

She mentioned a recent community forum hosted by Patriots United, where they embraced these initiatives. “We collected over 200 signatures that night. I’m all about school curriculum transparency. Whether these are passed by the legislature, or the people, they are not subject to the governor’s signature or veto! People were very excited about that!”

Carlson gave a specific example. “We’ve got an obvious problem with police no longer being allowed to do police pursuits,” he said. “The legislature knows about this problem but they, the Democratic majority in the Senate particularly, refused to change their law.”

Heywood shared an almost unbelievable tale. “There’s a story of a 9-1-1 call that a criminal here in Washington was running away. He called 9-1-1 and said, ‘hey, the police are pursuing me. Tell them that that’s illegal.’ 

“When you have that kind of nonsense happening,the majority of people have got to say, that’s enough,” Heywood concluded.

Carlson identified another problem that Olympia caused. The state Supreme Court invalidated Washington’s law against illegal drugs because the law did not have one word. The word knowingly. “The criminal knowingly possessing illegal drugs.’’ 

“All the legislature had to do was add that word,” Carlson said. ”The left wing of the Democratic House and Senate said let’s not do anything so that this now becomes the law. And we’ve just legalized all hard drugs.”

The 11 initiatives fall into three categories: Public Safety, Cost of Living and Good Governance. Here they are.

Public Safety

I-1474: Restore Police Pursuit. “Don’t let the bad guys get away!”

I-1510: Make Hard Drugs Illegal Again. “There’s nothing compassionate about overdose deaths.”

I-1512: Keep Guns Away from Criminals. “Prosecute criminals, not law-abiding citizens.”

Cost of Living

I-1475: Trim Sales Tax 1%. “Keep more of your own money!”

I-1508: Cut State Gas Tax by 24.7 Cents a Gallon. “Save money when you fill up.”

I-1509: Property Tax Exemption of $250,000. “Make home ownership more affordable for everyone.”

I-1491: Repeal the Capital Gains Income Tax. “There is no greed worse than government greed.”

Good Governance

I-1480: Emergency Powers Limit (30 Days). “Emergency Powers shouldn’t last forever.”

I-1495: K-12 Curriculum Transparency. “Our kids’ education should not be secret.”

I-1502: Electoral College Reform. “Make Washington state’s presidential vote matter!”

I-1505: WA Voter Protection Act. “A bi-partisan review of all election results.”

Rep. Jim Walsh (Republican, 19th District), called this “a common-sense list of needed reforms.” He emphasized “you don’t need to support all 11 to support the project. You can support some…you can support one…and still get involved!”

Here in Clark County, you can sign the petition at US Digital, 1400 NE 136 Ave, Vancouver. The Clark County Republican Party headquarters also has petitions at 11215 NE 28th St. #J4, Vancouver. The CC GOP office is normally open Tuesday through Saturday from noon to 4 p.m.. In Cowlitz County, petitions are available at the Cowlitz County GOP office at 314 Academy St, Kelso. More businesses and locations will be added to the statewide list. 

This is a grassroots movement, with many groups helping. Three of those groups are: Restore WA, the WA State Tea Room and Let’s Go Washington! Click on each initiative number for more detailed information on each one.