Voters Overhaul Vehicle Tax in Washington State

Washington state voters approved America’s most sweeping tax-revolt plan, slashing their automobile tax and giving citizens veto power over all future tax and fee increases.

Oregonians defeated a measure that would have allowed murder convictions by an 11-1 jury vote instead of a unanimous one.

Washington’s Initiative 695, a citizen plan that developed when the state amassed a billion-dollar surplus but lawmakers did nothing to reduce one of the country’s highest auto license fees, passed 613,903 to 459,925, or 57% to 43%.

To broaden the measure’s appeal, sponsors included a requirement for a public vote on all future tax increases at the state or local level.

The measure substitutes an annual fee of $30 per car to replace a much-maligned tax of 2.2% of the vehicle’s value--hundreds of dollars for many motorists--for a total tax break of $1.1 billion in the 18 months remaining in the biennial budget.

For the second time in four years, Washington voters also rejected a proposal to ban most commercial fishing nets from state waters. Supporters said it could save taxpayers’ money in the fight to restore dwindling salmon runs; opponents argued the measure would cripple an entire industry. It was rejected, 58% to 42%.

In Maine, voters soundly defeated, 55% to 45%, a referendum to ban so-called partial-birth abortions and overwhelmingly favored, 62% to 38%, an initiative authorizing possession and use of marijuana for specific medical conditions when patients are advised by a doctor they might benefit from the drug.

Since 1996, California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Arizona and the District of Columbia have passed medical marijuana initiatives.

Also in Maine, Falmouth residents soundly rejected a ballot measure that would have nullified a homosexual rights ordinance adopted unanimously by the Town Council last spring.

Among other measures:

* In a nonbinding referendum, the city of Ketchum, Idaho, decided to keep the 25-year-old tradition of a mock six-gun shootout on Main Street during the community’s annual Wagon Days festival.

* Voters in Missoula, Mont., defeated a measure to adopt a higher minimum wage of $8 an hour for municipal employees and people whose employers receive at least $5,000 in city assistance. (The federal minimum wage is $5.15.)

* A constitutional amendment to restrict Mississippi state legislators to back-to-back terms was defeated. Mississippi, which has a history of long-serving politicians, becomes the first state to reject limits after 18 other states adopted them in recent years.