Initiatives on minimum wage, paid sick leave, guns likely on November ballot



less After a march from St. Mark's Cathedral, members of the congregation at St. James Cathedral raise candles in an act of solidarity and hope for victims of the Orlando shooting. The rash of mass killings -- Newtown, San Barnardino, Cafe Racer, Orlando -- have spawned a gun safety movement in Washington. It sponsored I-594, the background check initiative, in 2014. This year, it is behind I-1491, allowing courts to issue extreme risk protection orders. After a march from St. Mark's Cathedral, members of the congregation at St. James Cathedral raise candles in an act of solidarity and hope for victims of the Orlando shooting. The rash of mass killings -- ... more Photo: LACEY YOUNG, SEATTLEPI.COM Photo: LACEY YOUNG, SEATTLEPI.COM Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Initiatives on minimum wage, paid sick leave, guns likely on November ballot 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

A pair of ballot initiatives, designed to put more money in peoples' pockets and keep guns out of the hands of the potentially violent, have garnered signatures needed for a place on Washington's November ballot.

Initiative 1433 would increase the state's minimum wage, currently at $9.47 an hour, in phases to $13.50 an hour by 2020. I-1433 would allow workers to earn an hour of paid sick leave for every 40 hours spent on the job.

Initiative 1491 would provide for extreme risk protection orders, allowing family members or law enforcement to ask that courts temporarily suspend a person's access to firearms if there is documented evidence that a person's access to guns threatens his/her life and that of others.

"Proud to be helping with both: Expect to win by huge margins on both," said Nick Hanauer, a Seattle entrepreneur who has argued that higher minimum wages increase buying power and help income earners at all levels.

Hanauer was also attacked by the National Rifle Association in 2014 for backing I-594, the measure that requires criminal background checks for those purchasing firearms at gun shows as well as on line.

I-1491 sponsors expect to turn in 330,000 signatures to the Secretary of State's office on Thursday. They need 246,000 signatures for a place on the fall ballot.

"These measures are the exciting part of Washington's progressive agenda this year," said Andrew Villeneuve, founder of the Northwest Progressive Institute, who has spent much of his political life working to head off Tim Eyman initiatives.

Labor unions and Democrats have been rooting on the two initiatives -- Initiative 1433 in particular -- in hopes they will boost the fall turnout of voting groups that it is usually hard to turn out.

But there is a big social justice component in both.

"You know our economy is broken when thousands of nurses and teaching assistants are working full time and living in poverty," said Collin Jergens of Fuse Washington, the state's largest progressive political group.

"The outpouring of support for I-1433 shows Washington voters are ready to build an economy that works for everyone, not just the wealthy few. Our state has led the nation before in creating healthy, thriving communities and voters are ready to take the next step by raising the minimum wage in November."

I-1433 would hike the state's current $9.47 an hour minimum wage to $11 in 2017, to $11.50 in 2018, up to $12 in 2019, and to $13.50 in 2020.

I-1491 has been inspired by stories from family members who have who have seen tragedy coming while finding themselves powerless to prevent it.

The most famous case is that of Elliot Rodger, who in 2014 shot and stabbed six people to death and injured 14 more around the campus of the University of California-Santa Barbara, before exchanging gunfire with police and then taking his own life. The young man's parents had sought law enforcement intervention.

Cheryl Stumbo, horribly wounded a decade ago in the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle shootings, waited for years for the political climate to change, and collected hundreds of signatures for I-594. She is hopeful for I-1491.

"If something like this had been in place in 2006, my shooter's parents might have been able to prevent the shootings at the Jewish Federation," Stumbo said Tuesday. "I know they were worried about his state of mind and his access to guns, from his testimony in his trial."

Extreme risk protection orders got nowhere this year in a Washington Legislature still in the grip of the Gun Lobby. I-1491 would require a person deemed a threat to surrender his/her firearms, and not to buy, sell, or possess other guns for a period of up to one year.

"I find it reassuring that the people know how to speak even when too many of our politicians don't," said the Very Rev. Michael Ryan, pastor of St. James Cathedral.

A gun safety movement grew up in Seattle, and spread around the state, in the wake of the December, 2012, assassination of 20 first graders and six adult a Newtown, Connecticut, elementary school. Such horrors as the Cafe Racer shootings in Seattle have given it added emphasis.

The mass killings at an Orlando, Florida, gay nightclub promoted a mid-June march between St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral and St. James, the second such march against gun violence between the Seattle cathedrals.

"With this latest initiative, the citizens of this great state, bearing its true populist colors, are sending a message to our politicians that it is our collective will that we have safe gun legislation: Our children deserve nothing less," said the Very Rev. Steve Thomason, dean of St. Mark's.

And from another corner of the Seattle faith community, which gave birth to the movement, Rabbi Daniel Weiner of Temple de Hirsch Sinai stated:

"I am immensely proud that this is yet another example of the way in which Washington voters are able to change policy for the better despite the paralysis and pecuniary influence affecting state and federal government."