End Prison Industrial Complex v. King County

Summary

The Washington Supreme Court held that a challenge to a county ballot title alleging noncompliance with former RCW 84.55.050 was subject to RCW 29A.36.090's ten-day objection period. Because End Prison Industrial Complex filed its challenge nearly four years after the ballot title was filed, the court held the claim untimely, reversed the Court of Appeals, and affirmed the superior court's dismissal.

Holdings

1. A claim alleging that a local ballot title omitted information required by former RCW 84.55.050 is a ballot-title challenge subject to RCW 29A.36.090's ten-day filing deadline.
2. Former RCW 84.55.050 does not exempt levy lid lift ballot-title objections from RCW 29A.36.090's ten-day deadline or make a later implementation challenge timely.
3. Ordinance 17304 plainly authorized a property-tax increase for nine consecutive years and described the taxation structure implemented by King County; the ballot title did not control over the ordinance.

Questions Presented

1. Whether EPIC's challenge to the ballot title for King County Ordinance 17304 was subject to RCW 29A.36.090's ten-day period for objecting to a local ballot title.
2. Whether the ten-day period applied even though EPIC characterized its action as a challenge to King County's later tax implementation rather than as a ballot-title objection.
3. Whether former RCW 84.55.050's express-statement requirements for levy lid lift ballot propositions altered the ten-day deadline or gave the ballot title substantive force independent of the underlying ordinance.

Disposition

reversed