Gov. Inslee is not a ‘tyrant.’ Legislature gave him emergency powers | Editorial

In an emergency, decisions must be made as quickly as possible.

Our state legislators understood this, and that’s why — in 1969 — they gave the governor sweeping authority to take charge in times of crisis.

It was a wise decision.

No doubt their idea of an emergency was a natural disaster or major power outage.

They probably didn’t consider the threat of a deadly disease with no cure and no vaccine invading our communities, or what might happen if that disease lingered for months on end and continued to kill people.

Even so, few citizens complained when Gov. Jay Inslee used his authority in February to call a state of emergency in response to the coronavirus.

When the governor later closed schools and shut down businesses in order to slow the spread of the disease, most understood the necessity of that decision — to keep hospitals from being overwhelmed.

But now, as Inslee’s stay-home order continues until the end of the month and probably longer, people are questioning the extent of the governor’s powers. And they are doing this while deaths from COVID-19 continue to spike.

Lawsuits have been filed against Inslee’s “overreach,” and Republican legislators are pushing Inslee to allow others to take on some of the decision-making.

And businesses are opening up in defiance of the governor’s orders because if they don’t, their owners won’t be able to pay the rent.

The coronavirus outbreak has exposed kinks in the state-of-emergency system. We imagine that come next legislative session, there will be attempts to rein in the governor’s future authority in times of crisis.

If that happens, we caution against an overreaction.

Adjustments to the law are in order, but gutting the governor’s authority is unwarranted. Emergency situations cannot be managed by committee.

States where the governor’s power is too limited have become mired in partisan politics, stalling decisions needed to manage the outbreak.

The Washington state constitution and state laws grant broad powers to the governor in a state of emergency. Under RCW 43.06.220, Inlsee has the authority over activities as he “reasonably believes should be prohibited to help preserve and maintain life, health, property or the public peace.”

That language gives the governor a lot of latitude to do whatever he thinks is necessary to protect the public.

In addition, this section of the law does not require the governor to seek legislative approval — and that has some people riled.

Franklin County commissioners last month tried to reopen the county in defiance of Inslee’s order, but later rescinded the action when told by state officials they lacked the authority to override the state mandate.

This led Franklin County Commissioner Clint Didier to join gubernatorial candidate Tim Eyman and other Tri-Citians in filing a federal lawsuit against Inslee for “creating an unacceptable tyranny in the state of Washington.”

Four Republican state House members say the coronavirus no longer presents an emergency in the state, and they also have filed a lawsuit against Inslee, saying he is violating the U.S. Constitution.

And Rep. Chris Gildon, R-Puyallup, gathered support among Republican lawmakers and sent a letter recently asking the governor to “decentralize” his authority and allow county officials to take over local control.

Yet, with the state law behind him, Inlsee is sticking to his stay-home strategy.

He recently revealed a four-phase approach to reopening the economy, which does not appear to move as quickly as other states.

We encourage Inslee to consider the livelihoods of people who are suffering under his stay-home order, and allow them to get back to work as quickly as possible while abiding by social distancing guidelines.

That said, we don’t agree that the COVID-19 emergency has passed. It was because of Inslee’s quick response that the coronavirus has been controlled as well as it has.

More cases of COVID-19 are being reported every day throughout the state, and the COVID-19 death count continues to rise — particularly in Benton and Franklin counties, where health officials say it has yet to peak.

For now, Inslee has a decades-old statute backing his authority. If he had not been able to use his executive powers as quickly as he did at the beginning of the outbreak, we hate to think what the state’s death count would be right now.

Lawmakers may want to tweak the state’s emergency laws, but we advise against going too far and hindering a governor’s ability to make immediate decisions during a crisis.

This story was originally published May 8, 2020 at 12:12 PM.