MajorityRules.org: Press Releases

July 2nd, 2004

Victory in Olympia! Eyman falls far short of necessary signatures to qualify I-864

Year long campaign by Eyman ends with a big pile of paper to recycle as much touted taxpayer revolt is really no revolt at all.

Contact: Steve Zemke

206-366-0811

stevezemke@msn.com

Olympia, WA—This morning at 10 A.M. Tim Eyman and the Fagins of Spokane struggled to carry in a table stacked with what they said were petitions with the signatures of 158,000 people.

Because they fell far short of the necessary 198,000 minimum number of signatures for the Secretary of State to accept, the petitions only served as a prop for their press conference, ending an effort Eyman started over a year ago to cut local property taxes 25%. It was a last gasp effort on his part to try to continue the illusion that the media has perpetuated for too long that he still has an active base of supporters willing to support his monologue of taxes as the source of all evil and radical tax cutting as the golden egg for all that is good.

In his last few e-mails to his supporters Eyman had asked them to show up in Olympia to show their support for his effort. No one besides Eyman, the Fagins and their wives were visible as Eyman supporters today. They were vastly outnumbered by Eyman opponents including librarians carrying signs denouncing I-864 and county and city employees and other Eyman opponents.

It is clear from both I-807 last year which also failed to get enough signatures and I-864 this year that Eyman is both vastly overrated as a successful organizer and proponent of tax cuts and that his volunteer base is rather shallow.

His e-mail list which once was labeled to "our over 30,000 supporters" for several years running has now become to "our thousands of supporters" because Eyman twice made the mistake of sending out the e-mail adresses of all his supporters. The list was less than 3,800. Politicians and legislators need to quit being worried about the illusionary clout of Tim Eyman and do their job by promoting real tax reform that addresses the regressivity of Washington's tax system. The issue is tax fairness.

Eyman's proposals continue to provide the greatest benefit to those with the most money and property and do not provide significant relief to lower and midle income taxpayers who need help the most. After his year long effort and spending $280,000 of his supporter’s money it is obvious that there is no huge grassroots outrage against property taxes. Eyman is far more of a leader in sending out e-mails across the state promoting himself than he is a leader with any practical solutions to address tax fairness. If anything he is the state's principal spokesman for the libertarian idea that the less government the better.

Members of the public looked at I-864 as having too severe an impact on local communities. They saw no justification for cutting fire districts or libraries 25% just because Eyman pulled this size of cut out of recycled libertarian and conservative Republican rhetoric voiced by people like Grover Norquist - a conservative tax cutter on the national level.

And what does Eyman do? He threatens to come back next Jan. with an even more stringent measure to punish the voters for not signing I-864. I’m not kidding, the guy has some type of character flaw that wants people to worship him and if they don’t then he will punish them. It is the same threat he made after the precursor to I-747, I-722 was rejected in the courts.

I-722 proposed a 2% limitation in growth of property taxes. He then out of spite filed I-747 with a 1% limitation in overall property tax growth each year. This is the most stringent limitation in the country and is now kicking in, impacting local governments such that they can not even keep up with inflation. To Eyman it all seems like a big game as he laughs at the voters and without any logic or public dialogue continues to push cutting taxes and cutting government services.

His proposals and actions seem divorced from the real world we live in. He seems to be a driven man but he seems devoid of either compassion for the lives of citizens in our state or the ability to consider the impacts of his actions. There is no free lunch except in Eyman's distorted view of the world. He ignores the benifits taxes have given him and wants to deny them to others.

The problem is that his proposals miss the real need in this state for tax reform. Across the board tax cuts like those proposed in I-864 and I-892 (the gambling industry’s initiative that Eyman is the water boy for) mostly benefit the wealthy property owners like real estate developers or large corporations like Boeing who has already been given huge tax breaks.

They do not provide tax relief of any significance for lower and middle income homeowners. A revenue neutral Property Tax Homestead Exemption for one’s principal residence would be much more help. Eyman instead would provide relief for someone with a vacation home, for shopping mall owners and large real estate developers. Does this make sense?

Initiative 892 with over 238,000 signatures turned in on Monday will be on the November ballot. More signatures were being turned in until 5 PM today. Initiative 892 is the gambling industries attempt to muscle their way into what they consider the lucrative Washington State market.

They have bought their way onto the ballot using Eyman as the figurehead to hide behind. Unfortunately for them, when you look at the money, it is all from casinos and the like including out of state and Canadian gaming interests and there is no grassroots support. Follow the money and all you see is gambling interests. Their goal is to bring over 18,000 new slot machines into the state and put them in local bars, taverns, restaurants and bowling alleys in every neighborhood.

These slot machines are not called one armed bandits for nothing. They would represent the largest expansion ever of gambling in Washinton state. It seems only fitting that Eyman is now associated with gambling interests. He has gone to the special interests to keep his agenda alive. Without their help Eyman would not be associated with any initiative success two years running.

Initiative 892 would have bought its way onto the ballot with or without Eyman. He was only the cover to try and deflect people away from the fact that this is the gambling industries initiative - right down to the exact wording that that had unsucessfully tries to get passed as a bill in the Washington State Legislature for several years running.

Despite all their money and the "cover" of it being Eyman's initiative the prospects look good that the gambling industry and Eyman will not be successful come November. A strong coalition is being put together to oppose I-892.