Voting starts this week

This sleepy, off year election has two important contested local races and 24 total items needing your attention and decisions. Incumbent La Conner School District directors are challenged in district 1, where John Agen runs against five year veteran Kate Szurek, and district 2, which has Marlys Baker facing Board Chair Janie Beasley. Incumbent Lynette Cram in district 4 is unopposed as is appointed director Susan Deyo in district 5.

Voters will decide on three changes to state law: Referendum Measure 88, which the legislature placed on the ballot; Initiative 976, on the ballot by petition; and Senate Joint Resolution 8200, a constitutional amendment proposed by the legislature.

Referendum Measure 88 is a result of voters petitioning after the legislature passed Initiative 1000 addressing affirmative action and remedying discrimination against certain groups. If passed, the state can allow and implement affirmative action for certain groups, without using quotas or preferential treatment as the terms are defined in public education.

Passing Initiative 976 will reduce and limit annual motor-vehicle-license fees to $30, allowing only voter initiatives to approve fee changes. Vehicle taxes would be based on Kelly Blue Book value.

Resolution 8200 adds “catastrophic incident” as a specific time of emergency in which the legislature may take certain immediate actions to ensure continuity of state and local governmental operations.

The 12 advisory votes on $9.76 billion in taxes passed by the legislature are non-binding referenda to express citizen sentiment to maintain or repeal a wide variety of taxes placed on goods, services and limiting tax exemptions. The revenue estimates for the first ten years range from $2.76 billion on petroleum products (No. 27) to $178 million on vaping products, to $21 million on the timber industry (No. 21).

Voters will express their opinion on business and occupation taxes raised in the next ten years on a range of service sectors, including financial institutions (No. 25), $1.04 billion; remote sellers (No. 26), $1.05 billion; travel and tour operations (No. 30), $28 million; and international investment managers (No. 31), $367 million.

Finally, La Conner residents will re-elect Mayor Ramon Hayes and Councilmembers Jacque Brunisholz and Mary Wohleb, running unopposed. Voters in the area will also re-elect Port of Skagit Position 1 Commissioner Kevin Ware and Cemetery District 1 Position 2 Commissioner Eric Anderson. Both are running unopposed.

All voting information and sample 2019 general election ballots with complete text for each measure are available on the VoteWa.gov website.