April 22nd, 2004
Eyman, hot on the rhetoric, needs to cool off!
Eyman continues to demagogue the issues.

Contact: Steve Zemke
206-366-0811
stevezemke@msn.com

Seattle, WA—Tim Eyman’s Initiative 864 threatens to cut the jobs of many local government workers.

These are people who live and work in our neighborhoods that help to make our communities a better place to live. Some of our local tax dollars from property tax pay these people because we have decided as a community that we want to have libraries, parks, public health hospitals, police and fire departments.

Recently some of the people who were faced with the loss of their jobs if Initiative 864 passed over reacted by sending out phone calls questioning the financial safety of people signing initiatives because of possible identity theft . Yes they over reacted but then how would you feel if someone repeatedly threatened to take away your job and repeatedly put down the work that you were doing on behalf of your community. Many of these people like police and firemen risk their lives on a dally basis protecting our community.

Eyman’s compliant against the Washington Council of Police and Sheriffs and the Washington State Council of County and City Employees was dismissed today by the PDC. They filed a campaign committee within the required 10 days under the Public Disclosure Law.

Because these people decided to fight back against Eyman and his troop of paid signature gatherers they are now “union goons”. Their “sleazy, slimy, misleading, and deceptive campaign tactic” is really not a lot different from ones Eyman has used himself.

Eyman remains a seasoned demagogue who for his own purposes including financial self reward has worked hard to inflame public emotion against local and state government. In the style of George Wallace, government is the enemy. In a March 31st e-mail Eyman says “Do laugh at the Chicken Little, sky is falling rhetoric of the politicians and the press. All they know is threats, lies and scare tactics.” Maybe its time for Tim also to cool down and start discussing the real impacts of Initiative 864.

These impacts include the fact that many local taxing districts like the independent fire districts, libraries and park districts get almost all of their revenue from property tax. A 25% cut in the revenue of fire districts, for example, means a 25% loss in jobs since over 80% of their budget pays the salaries of firemen. Another local government area that will be hard hit is cities, towns and counties in eastern Washington since their revenue source heavily depends on property taxes. They do not have the strong retail base that Seattle and many western Washington cities do.

Also overlooked in most discussions of I-864 is that it is an across the board 25% property tax cut on both residential and commercial property. Who benefits most from I-864? It is large wealthy property owners, large corporations, real estate developers and large private utilities. They will see tax breaks totaling a million dollars or more a piece. The average homeowner however will only see a small reduction in terms of actual dollars while also seeing roads not being repaired, parks not being maintained or closed, reduced library books, services and hours, and diminished public health care at public health hospitals to list just a few of the consequences.

Initiative 864 has drafting problems. The Dept of Revenue suggests that some cities like Seattle and Mercer Island will not see any tax reductions because of previous voter approved levy lid lifts while others will see the 25% reduction. This is not something Eyman understood when he filed I-864. The initiative does not affect everyone the same. This is sure to be an issue taken to court.

It is not “Chicken Little” to say the impacts will be huge for many districts which are already in tight budgets that have seen large cuts the last few years. And all of this reduction is going to be on top of a very under discussed reduction in revenue for all districts that is happening. . That is the fact that Eyman’s previously passed Initiative 747 to limit overall property tax increases to 1% or less a year is finally kicking in and reducing tax increase levels to less than the rate of inflation. It means government is already being forced to downsize even without I-864. Initiative 747 is already the strictest in the country for property tax growth. Initiative 864 is overkill.

Its time for both sides to discuss the real issues and skip the inflammatory rhetoric that does nothing to help voters understand what impact I-864 will have on the citizens of this state. The issues are too important to not be seriously discussed.
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