The Colorado Experience

I have endorsed initiative 1033 in the past.  Detractors of this initiative have sited the experience of Colorado with a similar measure.  Note that they point out that the measure was passed in 1992, then point out economic problems that the initiative supposedly caused from 2001-2006.  So these problems happened in the period from nine to fourteen years after the initiative passed.

In the first place the law is unlikely to remain in effect for nine to fourteen years.  Even if such a law would cause economic problems if it were to remain in effect for that long, this is irrelevant.  The state legislature can override the law long before this point.  In fact they have not let such laws remain in effect for that long in the past.  If voters want this initiative to be in effect for that long, they will have to pass similar initiatives in the future.

In fact voters suspended the law in 2005 according to this account.  Far from indicating a failure, we should note that the voters of Colorado decided to allow the law to remain in effect for 13 years.

The account fails to note that during most of the period when the law was in effect economic growth in Colorado exceeded that in the nation as a whole.  Colorado experienced rapid growth in the 1990's followed by poor performance since 2000.  Granted the economy would likely have grown even without the measure, but it seems quite a stretch to say that if a similar measure were passed in the state of Washington, that it would endanger the economy.