The only thing worse than a brazen attempt to thwart the expressed will of the state’s voters is knowing it came from someone in your own backyard.

Twenty-sixth District Rep. Larry Seaquist, a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, last week introduced, with no prior warning or debate, an amendment to the state’s supplemental budget that would have delegated responsibility for setting ferry fares and bridge tolls from the Legislature to the State Transportation Commission.

The measure would have been odious enough under normal circumstances. But considering state residents had just this past November overwhelmingly approved Initiatve 1053, whose sole purpose was to require a vote of the Legislature before any taxes or fees were raised, the “Seaquist Amendment,” as it quickly came to be known, was nothing short of a betrayal of the public trust.

Nonetheless, the measure passed 16-11 in committee, with Seaquist and his fellow Democrats all voting for it and all the Republicans opposed.

Four days later, however, the full House — including Seaquist — voted 98-0 to strip the amendment from the budget bill.

Hopefully, public outrage over such blatant disregard for a ballot initiative approved by 64 percent of voters statewide and 69 percent within Seaquist’s own district was enough to shame the lawmakers into doing the right thing.

I-1053 was passed so that lawmakers like Seaquist had to put themselves on the record when they wanted to take more money out of our pockets. But apparently he’d rather hand the tough calls off to unelected bureaucrats than take responsibility for his own actions.

Again, it’s bad enough when the Legislature as a whole spits in the eye of the voters. But the crowning insult for those in the 26th District would be for one of our own to wield the knife being plunged into our back.