SEQUIM — A state Supreme Court ruling announced Thursday will save Sequim residents money, the city manager and attorney say.
The justices in Olympia ruled 5-4 to throw out the 10-year-old Ratepayers Responsibility Act, an initiative that would require the city to gain voter approval before issuing revenue bonds to finance its capital projects.
The initiative passed by a wide margin in the 1996 election, after Sequim residents Paul and Margie Malkasian campaigned to put it on the ballot.
The city has fought the law since, with its attorney, Craig Ritchie, arguing the appeal to the state’s highest court.
Holding an election every time the city needs to issue a bond, Ritchie said, would cost the people plenty.
“The reason we fought it was to save taxpayers money,” he said.
The administrative costs of putting an issue on the ballot run into the tens of thousands, he added.
Impeded the city
And putting every project bond before the voters would prevent the city from doing its job, which is to build facilities for its citizens, added City Manager Bill Elliott.
Had it held up in court, the Malkasians’ initiative might have set a dangerous precedent, spurring other Washington residents to push for similar measures in their cities.
Sequim’s retention of its freedom to issue revenue bonds will keep its bond rating high, Elliott added, so the interest rates will be favorable, meaning another cost-saving to taxpayers, he said.
The Malkasians, a retired couple who spend part of the year in Sequim, said their utility bills skyrocketed after the city issued revenue bonds in the 1990s.
Water suddenly became so expensive that people on fixed incomes stopped irrigating their lawns, Margie Malkasian said.
‘Gravel yards’
“This used to be a beautiful city,” she said.
“People had flower gardens. . . . Now we have a bunch of gravel yards.”
Foisting bond-funded projects on Sequim’s limited-income population, she said, raises utility rates and drives people out.
“It’s cruel and inhuman.”
