A King County Superior Court judge has ruled that Initiative 1366 is unconstitutional. I-1366 was passed by voters in November.

According to the judge's order, I-1366 violates article XXIII of the constitution (amendments must be proposed by the Legislature) by

usurping the role of the legislature by proposing precise terms for a constitutional amendment while applying compulsion to quickly move it forward.

The initiative also violates the single-subject rule — according to the order, the sales tax reduction and proposed constitutional amendment to require a two-thirds vote for tax increases represent "two separate actions of law that lack rational unity."

Finally:

It is impossible to determine how many people voted for this initiative because they desired adoption of the constitutional amendment at its heart and how many voted for it because they desired the short-term relief of the immediate reduction in the sales tax.

Thus, the sales tax reduction part of I-1366 cannot stand on its own, and the entire initiative is struck down.

This order will probably be appealed to the state Supreme Court. The Court previously allowed the initiative to go to the ballot, but that ruling specified that it did not give an opinion on the underlying constitutionality of I-1366.

If the Supreme Court agrees with the Superior Court judge, it will make this session a little less complicated for legislators. They won't have to worry about losing $1.590 billion in the current biennium if the sales tax reduction were to go into effect and they won't have to deal with enacting a constitutional amendment. (Of course, even if the Supreme Court finds I-1366 to be unconstitutional, that would not preclude the Legislature from going ahead on its own and putting forward a constitutional amendment requiring a supermajority for increasing taxes.)