The answers are: A) 59 B) 57 C) 58

And now the questions:

A) What percentage of American voters chose Ronald Reagan in the 1984 presidential election – a margin invariably described as a “landslide”?

B) What percentage of Washington state voters in November 2000 said “yes” to anti-car-tab Initiative 695, a margin invariably described as “overwhelming”?

C) What percentage of Bainbridge Island voters gave their support to the park district levy on the Feb. 5 ballot – a number sitting comfortably between “overwhelming” and “landslide,” yet unavoidably described with an altogether different term: “defeat”?

We hope readers answered all three correctly. We also trust one notices the disparity between the first two answers and the third, and how what constitutes success in one electoral arena is a maddening failure elsewhere.

That’s because, under our Washington state constitution, “excess levies” – those that exist on top of taxes not requiring voter approval (the city property tax levy, for instance) – require a supermajority of 60 percent for approval.

The recent defeat of the park levy illustrates the absurdity of this arrangement. A local citizen campaign urging voters to “say no this time” went generally unheeded, and the levy earned solid 58.4 percent support.

And yet it failed, leading to a costly second election in the coming months.

Legislation is now in the works to amend the state constitution and eliminate the supermajority requirement for some excess levies. If two-thirds of both houses approve the change, the amendment goes on the statewide ballot, where the final decision will be left to the citizens (ironically, by a simple majority). Unfortunately, the measure is limited only to school levies, and does not extend to other so-called junior taxing districts such as park districts.

That oversight is apparently a function of politics, not logic.

While conceding that non-school districts could make “parallel” arguments for the end to supermajority standard, Rep. Phil Rockefeller (D-Bainbridge Island) told us this week that various districts have “different constituencies,” and that the present measure was pushed only by school interests.

We applaud the bill that will make our school levies easier to pass; our legislators should approve this common-sense reform and send it to the voters with all expedience.

But it clearly doesn’t go far enough.

In fact, the recent popularity of the initiative process has created a double standard for public participation in taxing issues. After they’ve gathered the requisite signatures, those using initiatives to slash funding mechanisms like the Motor Vehicle Excise Tax need need only get 50 percent plus one vote to eliminate an entire class of taxes.

But those working to maintain funding for schools, park systems and the like must overcome the entrenched opposition of “no on everything” voters, plus rally enough supporters to the polls to clear the supermajority hurdle. And not even for tax increases, mind you – 60 percent is needed simply to renew a levy at its current level.

It’s time to end the supermajority requirement, and the tyranny of the minority it allows.

When overwhelming, landslide support still isn’t enough, what is?