Don Brunell - Oct. 22, 2009

Maybe it’s something in the water, but there are some screwy ballot proposals popping up these days -none wilder than Spokane’s Proposition 4.

Proposition 4 is the brainchild of a group called Envision Spokane, a coalition of left-leaning activists, union members and environmentalists who pooled their wish lists into “a community bill of rights.”

Proposition 4 amends the city charter to create an expansive and expensive bundle of vague new rights.

For example, Prop.

4 would extend the prevailing wage and apprentice quota requirements to all private construction projects larger than $2 million,...