07/05/2005: "Judge Rules on the Nonewgastax.com Case"

Thurston County Judge Chris Wickham ruled on Friday that the Nonewgastax.com committee had "failed to make timely and complete report of the source if (sic.) its support as required.." The bottom line of the Court's decision was that the Nonewgastax.com committee cannot spend any money that is not declared. The controversial aspect of the lawsuit brought by SJC Prosecutor Gaylord (and prosecutors from two other counties) LAW SUIT STORY was the claim that Fisher Communications was contributing free air time for the Nonewgastax.com committee, and that this was also subject to the Public Disclosure regulations. In what may be seen as a slight dodge around the charges of the suit, the Court simply stated that "If no Gas cannot provide an exact valuation of the in-kind contributions…it shall make a reasonable and good faith effort to make such a valuation and state its basis for doing so." The Court did rule that if a complete report is not provided by the Nonewgastax.com, then any money not reported cannot be spent by the campaign.

San Juan County Prosecutor Randy Gaylord's office released a statement on the recent ruling, in which Gaylord is quoted as saying "the benefit of the ruling is that citizens will be able to relate the success of the signature gathering to an advertising campaign by KVI radio and that the County " joined the suit with the approval by the County Commissioners, because the Commissioners support the public¹s right to know."

Brett Bader, a spokesman for The No New Gas Tax origination, told The Island Guardian that while they were disappointed by "some aspects of the judge's rulings…nothing that was done will, in any way, stop us from moving forward. We will still qualify I-912 for the ballot in a historically short period of time with an all-volunteer signature gathering effort, and I am confident that voter will repeal the gas tax hike in November"

According to Gaylord, his office was assisted in the case by the Seattle law firm. Of Foster Pepper & Shefelman. It is not known at this time what expenditures, if any, were made by San Juan County to enter into the lawsuit.