We’ve paid a lot of attention to SeaTac’s Prop. 1, establishing a $15 minimum wage and paid sick leave for some workers. Our special report on the measure is here.

Less noticed on the west side of the state has been the efforts of a couple of groups in Spokane to establish a community bill of rights and restrict business involvement in municipal elections and lobbying. The measures, however, will not be on the November ballot.

Superior Court Judge Maryann Moreno sided with a coalition of government and business interests, which argued that the initiatives attempted to create regulations and protections that were not within the city’s power to enact. They also said the initiatives would hurt local government and business.

Moreno said that while she admired the “passion and advocacy” of the initiatives’ sponsors, the provisions within the measures either conflicted with state and federal law or infringed on the powers of local government to set policy.

Greater Spokane Inc. was one of the groups challenging the initiatives. From their June press release:

Alliance members believe that the initiatives that Envision {Spokane] and [Spokane Moves to Amend the Constitution] have put forward would have significant and negative consequences, including taking away Constitutionally-guaranteed free speech rights from businesses, nonprofits and individuals.

That’s an understatement. Check out Envision Spokane’s statements on their proposed  “bill of rights.” Then read the SMAC statement, which is another overwrought attack on Citizens United.

The Envision Spokane initiative appeared on the 2009 and 2011 ballot in Spokane, garnering 49 percent of the vote in 2011.

We’re seeing more of these campaigns play out at the municipal level, a shift of tactics that brings a whole new dimension to the classic refrain, “all politics is local.”