Tim Eyman’s new initiative, which will be on your ballot in
November, seems simple enough. It would essentially limit the amount of
money the government can collect from taxpayers based on how much it
collected the previous year, adjusted for inflation and population
growth. Any surplus the state collects would go toward reducing
property taxes. Eyman says Initiative 1033 would stabilize the
legislature’s “fiscal roller coaster, overextending themselves in good
times—creating unsustainable budgets—which led to slashing
during bad times.”
So what could go wrong?
If passed by voters, the measure would lock Washington into its
current budget—the worst budget the state has had in decades,
owing to the recession—and prevent the budget from expanding when
the economy improves. So the state at its leanest—like right now,
with a budget requiring the state to lay off roughly 3,000 teachers and
cut basic health services for 40,000 people—would become the most
robust the state could ever be. In addition, the gap between costs and
revenue would steadily grow, because costs for services and shifts in
demographics (like more students in schools and old people in nursing
homes) outpace inflation and population growth.
“Eyman is the master of taking very complicated situations and
making them seem simple,” says Bill Williams, director of the
Washington State Parent Teacher Association, which voted in August to
oppose Eyman’s Initiative 1033. “It is a terrible way to make
policy.”
Indeed, even the early forecasts of I-1033 show potentially
devastating impacts on the state’s budget for education, health care,
and vaccines. As a result, class sizes could grow, increasing numbers
of poor and elderly people would be kicked off state-funded health
programs, and response to natural disasters and disease outbreaks would
be minimal because the state couldn’t run surpluses to pay for them.
The first official indicator of 1033’s repercussions came in a
mid-August report from the state’s Office of Financial Management
(OFM), which found that by 2015, revenue to the state’s general fund
could be down $8 billion.
“The timing is terrible,” says Aisling Kerins, the campaign manager
for No on I-1033. “Things are tough enough right now, and Eyman’s
initiative is only going to make this worse. It is the same failed idea
that devastated Colorado.”
In 1992, Colorado became the only state to cap revenue. Data
collected there shows a state in a tailspin. Higher-education funding
dropped 21 percent in four years, according to the Bell Action Network,
a nonprofit research organization in Colorado. The group also found the
number of children without health insurance doubled and immunization
programs for children were suspended—until voters put the law on
hold for five years to let the state recover from its effects.
Although I-1033 gives lip service to population growth and
inflation, it doesn’t account for the expenses associated with
demographic shifts. For example, the OFM found that while the
population in Washington State grew only 11.7 percent between 2000 and
2008, the number of people over 65 years old grew by 16.5 percent.
Those people need more health care, and the rising cost of health care
(and other services) outpaces the rising costs of goods, which is what
inflation calculations are based on. In short, more people are going to
need more expensive things, but we would always be restricted to the
same amount of money to pay for it.
While the state Republican Party endorsed I-1033 in August (and
groups including the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce opposed it),
several organizations are scrambling to calculate the sour effects of
the sweet-tasting initiative. Remy Trupin, director of the think tank
Washington State Budget & Policy Center, says the legislature is
constitutionally bound to fund certain things, like K–12
education, but it would be forced to take from other basic services,
such as nursing homes, community colleges, and vaccination for kids.
“Those are always programs that are on the chopping block,” he says.
you can easily spot people who don’t understand this issue because they turn to personal attacks.
steve zemke, i appreciate your comments and i think you’ve pointed out key problems with tim eyman’s campaigns. that is, his failure to express the sound logical foundations of his proposal.
Let me just say that I think it’s hilarious that Tim Eyman is not only commented on a story in The Stranger, but that he is engaging in debate in the comments sections.
No Tim, please *don’t* go away. Keep debating on the blogs! Hopefully you’ll be writing less initiatives. Perhaps you can find conservatives to fund you in that endeavor.
As for those who don’t like taxes: why don’t you vote for someone who will lower taxes, or run yourself? Let’s hear your list of programs you’d like have cut. Which nursing homes should we close? Which children should lose health care? Who is going to pay the EMTs and the morgues to clean up the mess when the Viaduct topples over? How about the increased unemployment when our youth can’t get a college education?
Lower taxes always sounds great when you’re not actually responsible for maintaining the state’s functions. Hey I’d like lower taxes too, but I’m not willing to live in an urban wasteland in order to get them.
Tim, you have my support.
From this article: “If passed by voters, the measure would lock Washington into its current budget—the worst budget the state has had in decades, owing to the recession—and prevent the budget from expanding when the economy improves. “
DUH! This is why we are having our current budget shortfall in the first place. Stranger, thank you for confirming I made the right choice to support 1033.
Stranger Staff –
PLEASE PLEASE give the campaign against this referendum more attention. This will have a bigger impact than any other referendum up for vote this year. Any. And that includes Ref71 (all for it).
Colorado is a good example of the consequences. But California is too.
Now even the CA state supreme court is speaking out against such types of referendums…even the Republicans.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/11/us/11c…
Spread the word and tell people to vote NO on Eyman’s latest scheme to pick your pockets for the wealthy. Because I-1033 is really a wealth transfer scheme, taking tax dollars paid by renters and others without property and using it to help pay the property taxes of the wealthy.
Here are some of the things your tax dollars go for now:
educating our children
providing health care for seniors and children
mental health services
repairing roads and bridges
keeping parks and libraries open
paying for police and fire protection
paying for courts and jails
cleaning up Puget Sound
providing clean water and clean air
sidewalks and bike paths
affordable public transit
emergency services
services for seniors and disabled
and the list goes on.
But here is what your tax dollars above Eyman’s recession level will go for if I-1033 passes:
paying property taxes
That’s all.
http://www.dw.courts.wa.gov -> name search -> enter Tim Eymans name. There are 42 cases that appear for him. It’s no wonder he wants to reduce government, they’re still trying to collect from. The only perk to his initiative is the possible reduction in judges that could delay any further court hearings, thus reducing his abilty to drain the courts of their time.
I think we need aninitiative to remove the people that abuse the systems they say they are trying to protect. Tim Eyman should be promoted to astronaut so we can leave him on the space station. It would certainly symbolize the distance he has from the reality of the needs of the voters. Tim Eyman has had his 15 minutes of fame. Now he needs to move on. Put a rifle in his hand and send him to Afgahnistan.
My Property Taxes have doubled in the last 10 years what else has doubled in 10 years? Has salaries doubled, cost of an automobiles doubled? No! Washgington Government is OUT OF CONTROL!
I am voting YES for I-1033 because we the people are more intelligent than our politicians to do the right thing for Washington.
I’m with #59, above. The reality is that we all have to live within our means and that applies to government too. There is an abundance of fat in the ranks of government – efficiency and competitivness is simply not in their agenda. Especially with the State (WA) being essentially a playground for free-spending Democrats, Socialists and other like-minded redistributionists. If these folks want to allow government to have more money for their pet projects and constituencies then let them pay-up. The likes of bill Gates sheeling out $100k, or the unions at several hundred ‘k’ apiece tells you all you need to know. They just want to keep their snouts in your pockets as deep as they can. For Gates, or his Dad, if they are som concerned about this let them spend some of their billions, or run for office, or better yet, support a 10% income tax for those earning over $250k household income. There’s lots of ways to solve the fiscal crisis that the Democrats who are in charge of everything here have created, but spending as usual is coming to and end, I hope.
“Frankly I think the Doom and gloom sayers that surface every time some one wants to limit taxes are idiots. NO PEOPLE the world will not come to an end if taxes are not raised.”
Well you just make the dumbest posts on every 1033 article, don’tcha?
You heard it here folks, education and health care are PET PROJECTS of BIG SOCIALIST GOVERNMENT. We need to roll them back, clearly the wise and efficient hand of the free market will be there to pick up the slack.
Since when is going to voters and asking for more money to fund something and proving why it needs funding BEFORE they spend OUR money a bad thing? It can’t be and they can’t be trusted to do it on their own anymore. They made this budget now they have to prove they can manage it. Class rooms shouldn’t have to go anywhere, if the do, it will just prove Christine cannot and should not govern. Let’s say we cut her 450k budget for communications in half, stop paying dead or ineligible pensioners 615k and 66k for CHRISTMAS TREE INSPECTIONS and the list goes on and on and on and on…sorry, oh! and a couple of more faves…we fund housing “lofts” for those who chose to be artists, wtf! and that 1/2% of 1% of construction projects going to art? How about to kids with Leukemia or no home or education? Puuleeeze, I really don’t need to view salmon in the cement while I am driving thank you!
Make our Government responsible. Don’t cave to the scare tactics of ruining our children’s educations. Not a big Tim fan, but I will be voting for this Initiative because I am just so sick of all the crap spending!
I am 78 years old and have lived here since 1979 paying $60.K for my home hoping to die in it some day. Since purchase 30 years agoI have paid $58,543,16 in property taxes watching it rise from $221.20 per year in 1979 to $3,626.08 in 2009. The cost to live in my free and clear home is $302.09 per month tax which is more than my original loan payments. For older people retired this is difficult to maintain especially in today’s economic time. I see the WA Legislature spend into the future with money they don’t have, however, this is the norm for government both national and local. I would love to see some controls passed in both D.C and this state. I would like very much to be able to die in my house. Just remember some day you will be old never thinking the property tax burden would be so much. So with this in mind I have to say—-go Tim Eyman! I love you.
I’ve been told the King County Library System is about to spend $10,000,000 for 80 new parking spaces at the Bellevue branch.
That is $125,000 per parking space.
Is this a wise use of taxpayer money?
Decisions like these are the kind of insanity that lead to the passage of initiatives like 1033.
Until “government” starts to restrain itself, angry voters will come out in force.
As several people here have commented, Washington State’s government spending is completely unrestrained. I-1033 isn’t some “poison pill” as crackpots like Steve Zemke would have you believe. Even if the initiative is passed, it’ll only stop property tax increases for a while, until it is declared unconstitutional by some partisan judge.
The fact that past initiatives like I-695 were declared unconstitutional shows how partisan our government has become. The problem is that the government, predominantly liberal, are HURTING the middle class with the combination of taxes imposed against the high cost of living!
The rich can AFFORD such high taxes! They WANT to maximize government spending because they have money to influence the way it’s spent! Bill Gates himself donated $100,000 to NO on I-1033 (http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/Wa…)
You think he did that out of the goodness of his heart? No, he did it out of his own self interest!
Are you middle-class opponents of I-1033 so blind to see that I-1033 can only HELP you by making government more accountable? We are in a recession and we need to use the money we have wisely, not waste it on exorbitant government salaries and superfluous projects. Did you know the UW university president makes over $700,000 per year? For the love of God, make the pain stop!
Every other commercial on tv is a vote no on 1033…wouldn’t all that money be better spent on the kids they so much want to help. You pay for your home for 30 years and by the time it is it is finally yours your taxes are so high you are basically renting it from the state…bs
Wasn’t the lotto supposed to help cover the schools?…
Every friggin election ask for more money to help the kids. If you can’t afford the kids don’t have them…I don’t have any, but yet I pay out the yazoo for them. I have 20 years left to pay on my house and am already worried about if I will be able to pay the taxes after that. Good job Tim and keep it up! I am voting YES.
I am paying $500 more a year in property taxes…about a 10% increase – give or take. Yet my income has stayed flat. So how about my economy? I just have my two properties as my retirement nest egg. I don’t have a pension or even health care. Am I suppose to live in a permanent recession so the state employees can live fat with all their benefits?
Kudos to you Tim Eyman. Keep up the good work and keep trying. The voters need to get more involved and it should be the voters who decide on new taxes. The state spends (and wastes) tons of money while the economy is good, and wants to continue to do the same thing while the economy is bad. The state government has a BIG spending governor who helped get the state into this big mess and we have a bad economy and guess what, now that 1033 has failed to pass, they are crying for more money. Bullshit. I wonder how many tax dollars were spent on all the anti 1033 propaganda that was sent out in the mail.
All you Sea-Tac lefty loons need to move to Russia. You’ll see all your dreams in action! Idiots.
At least he is doing something. The WA politicians are out of control. They’re spending money we do not have and hitting us tax payers like some kind of money tree whenever they want to spend more. Enough is enough.
Kick out every legislator that voted for the tax increase and suspended the taxing initiative which had been passed by the voters.
Then in the next session repeal the tax increases…
The I-Man is the largest charltan ever produced; he is the master of the sleight-of-hand. He has also abused the initiative process.
Send the I-Man a message: Vote NO on ANYTHING he proposes!
The I-Man is the largest charltan ever produced; he is the master of the sleight-of-hand. He has also abused the initiative process.
Send the I-Man a message: Vote NO on ANYTHING he proposes!
I say vote yes on anything I Man proposes. We’ve got to get these government leaches back into proportion. It doesn’t take over 55% of the people of Washington to run the day to day of our state and government business.
I’m tired of paying these entitlement people(government employees)and not have a say how my money is spent. Go Tim!!
Vote Yes.
We want a say how those idiots spend our money.