Majority Rules Blog

Urban Forest and Tree Protection Laws

2010-02-02T15:53:00.000-08:00

The Seattle Urban Forestry Commission is reviewing our tree protection ordinance and will be recommending chages needed to help increase our urban forest canopy to meet the 30% canopy cover adopted by the city. We are currently at about 23% canopy cover but are losing trees in our park areas due to invasive species like blackberry and ivy. The biggest potential new tree cover is private property. The city has actually mapped out potential areas for canopy growth. But a new ordinance and plan is necessary to effectively implement a policy to increase our tree canopy.

Here are links to some articles relevant to developing and strengthening our urban forest and tree protection laws that I found helpful:

Urban Tree Conservation: A White Paper on Local Ordinances
Sept 2007, Montgomery Tree Committee. 68 pages

This paper deals with”conservation of urban forests on private land” and is one of the best overviews I have found. It discusses and compares many different ordinances and approaches it from a holistic viewpoint, looking not just at trees but also biodiversity and ecosystem concerns.

Tree Ordinance Development Guidebook
Sept 2005 by the Georgia Forestry Commission, Urban and Community Forestry Program. 25 pages

This Guidebook is not very long but it has a good overview, including a Tree Board/Tree Ordinance Evaluation, and a Resource List.

Guideline for Developing and Evaluating Tree Ordinances
International Society of Arboriculture, Oct 2001. 181 pages a real compendium of information on tree ordinance issues

Seattle Urban Forestry Commission Off to a Fast Start

2010-02-01T12:19:00.000-08:00

The newly formed Seattle Urban Foresrty Commission held their first meeting in December. Since then the original 8 members have selected the 9th Commissioner, elected a Chair and Vice Chair, reviewed and approved their operating bylaws, held a half day briefing retreat and agreed to start reviewing Seattle's tree regulations in preparation for new legislation. The Commission is taking their charge seriously and are getting down to business.

The Urban Forestry's next meeting is this Wednesday Feb 3, 2010 from 3 PM to 5 PM in the Seattle Municipal Tower, Room 1940. Regular meetings of The Urban Forestry Commission will be held on the first Wednesday of each month. Meeting dates and locations are posted on the Urban Forestry Commission website.

Responding to public comment in their drafting of byalws, the Commission will allow 15 minutes at the beginning of their monthly meetings for public comment. Individuals will be limited to 3 minutes. Written comments will also be accepted.

The Commission also agreed to the posting of their meeting minutes and agendas on the internet, and most importantly, also posting of meeting handouts and briefing papers on their website. You can view these by going to Meeting Documents page. In particular two documents dealing with previous city review of its tree protection laws are available and will be discussed at their next meeting. These are:
Emerald City Task Force Recommendations - 2007
Environmental and Tree Advocates Recommendations -2008

Below are the names of the nine Commissioners and the positions they represent on the Board. Elizabeta Stacishin-Moura, a landscape architect, was elected the Commission Chair and Matt Mega of the Seattle Audubon was elected the Vice-Chair. They will each serve a term of one year in their positions.

1: Wildlife Biologist - Kirk Prindle

2: Urban Ecologist - John Small

3: Natural Resource Agency or University Representative - Gordon Bradley

4: Hydrologist or Similar Professional - Peg Staeheli

5: Arborist - John Hushagen

6: Landscape Architect - Elizabeta Stacishin-Moura

7: NGO Representative - Matt Mega

8: Development Community or Utility Representative - Jeff Reibman

9: Economist, Financial Analyst, Realtor or Similar Professional - Nancy Bird

Oh No, I Upset Senator Pam Roach!

2010-01-22T15:39:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I was in Olympia, testifying on SB 6665 before the Senate Committee on Government Operations & Elections. SB 6665 is an act relating to initiative filing fees and proposes to increase the fee from $5 to $250.

Times are tough in Olympia and our state is facing an additional $2.6 billion revenue shortfall in the current budget. This is not the only fee that the Legislature should increase but it has been at $5 for the last 99 years. What else do you know that still costs the same after a century? Certainly the costs of running government has not stayed the same for the last century.

Tim Eyman of course showed up to oppose the proposed fee increase that would more accurately reflect the increased cost of running government over the last 99 years. This of course is despite his yearly initiative push to cut taxes and revenue to fund government and his zest for reduced government spending.

Eyman argued that legislators don't have to pay $5 to file their bills so why should he. The Committee Chair responded that they have to run for office, whereas initiative sponsors don't.

But the fee itself is not the real issue as to why this bill should be passed. I've filed and run and won a number of initiative campaigns in the past and I'm a strong defender of the initiative process. I'm from back in the old days before paid signature gatherers, where we used volunteers to collect all the signatures. These days most campaigns raise $500,000 to $600,000 to pay for the signatures collected by contracted workers who get paid by the signature. This is what Eyman does. So in terms of the overall cost of a campaign to just get on the ballot, $250 is a reasonable fee.

But the real problem is that some initiative filers abuse the system. They file multiple initiatives to game the system to try to get a good ballot title. They also game it to try to get a good ballot number. Bill Sizemore did this in Oregon and 2 years ago the Oregon State Legislature made changes to their initiative law to stop this practice, by requiring that initiative sponsors show public support for their proposal before committing state resources and revenue to process an initiative. Oregon now requires that when an initiative is first filed that it include signatures of 1000 sponsors who are registered voters in the state.

What upset Senator Pam Roach was that I noted that Tim Eyman also did ballot title shopping. Ballot title shopping is where you file multiple versions of an initiative with minor word changes to try to get the most favorable wording of the ballot title and summary. This all runs up the state expenses to process and defend ballot titles if they are challenged by either the sponsor or someone else.

Last year Tim Eyman filed 24 initiatives, basically multiple versions on 3 different topics. Some were filed as initiatives to the people and some as initiatives to the legislature. He only collected signatures on one of these.

This year Eyman has already filed 5 versions of the same initiative, including 4 he filed on the first filing day for initiatives to the people. Obviously this calls into question Tim's explanation that he filed multiple versions to get feedback and make changes.

The reality is that you don't need to file multiple initiatives to get feedback. You can send anyone who want copies of the measures and ask for feedback on your draft before you file. This is the way most initiative sponsors do it. Copies can be sent to all the Legislators and the Governor and interested parties as well as lawyers. You can revise your drafts and ask for further comments.

Well in Senator Roach's opinion I had impuned the motives of Tim Eyman by noting that he ballot title shopped his initiatives. She started ranting that I should cease testifying and be removed from the hearing. Senator Darlene Fairley, the Chair of the Committee basically ignored her and allowed the Hearing to continue.

Pam Roach is an ardent Eyman supporter and is a sponsor of his current measure to try to reimpose, if repealed, the I-960 proviions that currently allow 1/3 of the Legislators to prevent 2/3 of the Legislators from raising revenue or repealing any under-performing tax exemptions. It is a backdoor governing approach that gives the conservative Republicans minority control over the state budget even though voters clearly elected a majority of Democrats.

What they can't win at the ballot box by electing a majority of conservatives and other Republicans to run the Legislature, they are doing by changing the operating rules of the Legislature to give a minority veto power over the budget.

Initiative 960 and Eyman's current initiative are unconstitutional. The Washington State Constitution says that the Legislature shall act by majority rule. The Legislature by simple majority vote can repeal I-960. They need to do that and move on to raise revenue to keep essential services. Cutting $2.6 billion means huge job losses which will make the recession even worse. It's time to eliminate the unconstitutional abuse of power by conservatives. Democrats need to step up and act.

Activist Supreme Court Rules for Corporate Domination of Campaigns

2010-01-21T10:25:00.000-08:00

The US Supreme Court today opened the corporate floodgates to unlimited spending on political campaigns by repealing key sections of the McCain Feingold Bill that placed limits on corporate and labor spending in national elections.

The decision makes a mockery of conservatives decrying judicial activism because the Supreme Court in a 5 to 4 vote reached beyond the initial case to review several recent Supreme Court decisions and overturn them. The decision enhances the influence of corporations and labor unions by equating money with free speech. The ability of corporations to spend money greatly exceeds that of labor unions.

Unfortunately we are not all equal in the amount of money we have so the decision further diminishes the influence of most voters to affect the outcome of elections. The conservatives on the US Supreme court ruled in favor of corporate paid speech over individual free speech and a fair playing field for political dialogue. They shifted the advantage to moneyed interest to dominate political campaign. This is not free speech, this is handicapping elections in favor of corporations and business. This is what you get with conservatives controlling the US Supreme Court as the result of appointments by Republican Presidents and points to the extreme importance of who is President and who they nominate to the US Supreme Court..

Obama in the White House will make a big difference in any future Justices appointed. While Democrats were caught snoozing in Massachusetts, allowing Republican to snatch the 60th vote needed to stop the filibuster; they now need to work harder to be organized and oppose any further erosion of Democratic support. A goal should be to get that filibuster proof majority back in the US Senate.

This Supreme Court decision is just another example of how a right wing conservative agenda is bad for America and its citizens. Corporations are not equal to citizens. There is an extreme danger in this ruling that money will be a more decisive factor in future elections than issues. Money buys exposure. Unfortunately the Supreme Court ruled against restraining special moneyed interests from dominating the political discourse. Democracy unfortunately is the victim and voters will suffer as a result.

The Democrats Failure.

2010-01-19T14:15:00.000-08:00

As we await the outcome in the Senate race in Massachusetts, one thing is certain. The Democrats are failing to articulate their message to voters. Nationally Democrats have become complacent, allowing right wing Republicans and the so called Tea Party fanatics to define what the Democrats are about. One has to wonder where is the vision, where is the voice articulating a progressive future for America.

Democrats have allowed conservative voices to dominate the airwaves with outrageous claims and make Democrats the issue rather than the failed conservative policies that contributed to our current recession. They have allowed the Tea Party rhetoric to switch the blame for failed conservative free market and de-regulation policies to Democrats who are struggling to clean up 8 years of failed fiscal policies under Bush.

EJ Dionne in a commentary yesterday entitled Mass. Senate raises lessons for Obama discusses the Democrat's problems:

"...the success of the conservative narrative ought to trouble liberals and the Obama administration. The president has had to "own" the economic catastrophe much earlier than he should have. Most Americans understand that the mess we are in started before Obama got to the White House. Yet many, especially political independents, are upset that the government has had to spend so much and that things have not turned around as fast as they had hoped.

It's also striking that most conservatives, through a method that might be called the audacity of audacity, have acted as if absolutely nothing went wrong with their economic theories. They speak and act as if they had nothing to do with the large deficits they now bemoan and say we will all be saved if only we return to the very policies that should already be discredited. ...

...the truth that liberals and Obama must grapple with is that they have failed so far to dent the right's narrative, especially among those moderates and independents with no strong commitments to either side in this fight."

Just winning the election was only 1 step. It's like scoring a touchdown and then walking off the football field before the game is over. It's like winning the first game of the season and then not showing up for the next game. You can't achieve change if you're not engaged in an ongong matter. And a big part of the game in politics is getting your message out there defining who you are and what you stand for and what you intend to do for the country; it's not by letting the fringe conservatives, with no agenda except being in power, define who you are by outshouting you.

America's free press is disappearing and real political analysis is being lost as polls, yelling and shouting replace political dialogue and serious discussion of the issues. Money exerts an even greater influence in driving politics as an independent press ceases to function and corporate conglomerates consolidate media power. TV, where most people get their news, loves a political circus with controversy. They love car crashes and political scandals more than hard hitting investigations and analysis of policies and programs that affect peoples lives every day. Not enough drama.

Citizens need to demand more from our media and more from our elected officials to engage the public in running our country. Democrats need to wake up and work for the future they want. No one is going to just hand it to them Let's hope the Democrat's in power wake up to this reality before the opportunity for real change passes us by again.

Need to raise $1.7 billion in revenues

2010-01-06T19:52:00.000-08:00

Advocates should be loud and assertive about the need to raise revenues. Governor Gregoire has said she would raise only $700 million of the deficit, about one-third in revenues, and balance the rest with cuts to essential services.

The King County Democrats take the position that we should raise two-thirds in revenues and cut one-third in services. The amount of the revenue goal will determine what kind of revenues are considered. It will be less painful to vote for a few large taxes than many small ones.The Governor has said she wants to address tax breaks. I suggest the legislature start with the largest non-performing tax break. That would be Boeing's 2003 $3.2 billion (over 20 years) for promising 1,200 additional jobs. Instead, last year alone they laid off over 10,000.

The Seattle Times on Sunday Jan. 4th ran an article about other states rescinding their nonperforming tax breaks and demanding refunds, or "clawbacks." We want to see that here, too. We don't appreciate being played for fools.

Extending the sales tax to all services, not just professional services, would do the most to fill the deficit gap. It would also be, in effect, progressive tax, since low-income people tend to hire few lawyers, accountants and financial advisers. I'll bet most moderate-income people would prefer to pay sales tax on haircuts, rather than see 65,000 people lose Basic Health plans. According to the Rebuilding our Economic Future Coalition, a recent poll showed that--after hearing how deep the cuts in services would be--65% of Washingtonians supported increasing revenues.

Legislators should also use this crisis as an opportunity to take needed steps toward an income tax for high-earners, couples making over $500,000. This 1% tax would be constitutional if Washington law defined income as different from property. Sens. Adam Kline and Rosa Franklin's SJB 8205 http://apps.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/summary.aspx?bill=8205&year=2009 addresses this and should be given an early hearing.

Most of all, Democrats should take courage, and note that Seattle passed the Seattle Housing Levy in a time of economic downturn by its biggest margin ever, 68%. Trust the voters to know that you're doing the right thing.
(This post first appeared as a comment on the Northwest Progressive Institute blog.)

Representative Cody Proposes Tax Increase on Tobacco to Raise New Revenue

2010-01-05T16:57:00.000-08:00

The State of Washington is facing an additional $2.6 billion shortfall in revenue for the remainder of the current biannual budget cycle. Critical state services will be cut unless tax revisions and proposals to raise new revenue are adopted by the Washington State Legislature.

Below is a copy of a just received press release regarding a proposal already adopted by a number of other states - namely raise the tax on tobacco products which contribute to health care costs in the state. Legislators should support this measure as a reasonable alternative to further budget cuts and further loss of vital state services.

Representative Cody Sponsors Bill to Increase Tobacco Tax
Health Care Committee Chair aims for $88 million in revenue and decline in smoking rates

Olympia – Representative Eileen Cody (D – West Seattle), chair of the House Health Care and Wellness committee, has prefiled a bill for the 2010 legislative session to increase the tax on cigarettes by $1 and raise additional taxes on other tobacco products.

“Studies show that an increase in tobacco taxes will help kids stop smoking and may even prevent them from starting in the first in the place,” says Cody, a nurse who has made public health a priority during her tenure in the Legislature.

“At a time when our state faces a $2.8 billion budget shortfall, we desperately need additional revenue,” she continued. “Taxing tobacco makes sense: we save lives and millions of dollars in health care costs and help balance the state budget.”

House Bill 2493 would increase the cigarette tax by $1.00 and close tax loopholes, bringing tax rates on other tobacco products to parallel levels. The proposal would raise annual state revenues by at least $88 million. Of that, $19 million would be used to fund programs that help smokers quit and keep kids from ever starting to smoke.

A coalition of health organizations attempted to pass a similar measure last year, but it was limited to cigarettes and the revenue was more targeted to cessation programs. This year, many lawmakers as well as anti-tobacco use advocates believe there are few health care services and programs that can withstand additional cuts and are more willing to consider taxes and a broader application of the revenue.

The inclusion of smokeless products in this year’s bill -- including deceptively marketed fruit-flavored products in bright packaging-- reflects a growing fear that tobacco companies are taking advantage cuts in tobacco prevention programs across the nation to ramp up their marketing to children. Raising the cost of products and protecting funding for cessation and education programs is one effective way to protect youth from starting to use tobacco products.

Additionally, there is growing public support for these taxes here in Washington State. According to a recent survey, 70% of registered voters in Washington favor raising taxes on tobacco products.

“The tobacco industry is getting more clever at marketing to kids. On a recent trip to the store, I found apple and peach-flavored chewing tobacco and blackberry-flavored cigars. These products are obviously targeted at youth,” said Erin Dziedzic, Washington State Government Relations Director for American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN).

”We know that raising taxes on smokeless tobacco, as well as cigarettes, will mean a drop in use especially among youth and young adults. For example, one study found that a 10 percent increase in smokeless tobacco prices reduces male youth consumption by 5.9 percent, with two-thirds of that reduction coming from kids stopping any use of smokeless tobacco at all,” said Lucy Culp, Washington Government Affairs Director for American Heart Association.

For Immediate Release: January 5, 2010
Contact: Erin Dziedzic, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, 425-466-5177
Lucy Culp, American Heart Association, 360-870-4016

King County Democrats Select 2010 Legislative Agenda

2010-01-01T12:04:00.000-08:00

In December the King County Democrats Legislative Action Committee met to finalize their Legislative Action Agenda for 2010. The 2010 Washington State Legislature convenes on January 11, 2010. The session only lasts 60 days. The main focus will be on dealing with a projected additional $2.6 billion shortfall for the remainder of this 2 year budget cycle.

The King County Democrats Legislative Action Agenda includes both short and long term priority goals, realizing that it will be difficult to enact new legislation in this short session under difficult budget constraints. The 2009 Legislative session raised no new revenue.

The King County Democrats support trying to bridge this new gap of an additional $2.6 billion shortfall by trying to raise 2/3 of it through new revenue and 1/3 by additional cuts. This will require suspending or repealing the constraints of Initiative 960 which require a 2/3 vote of the Legislature to raise any revenue or eliminate any special interest tax exemptions.

I-960, having been in place 2 years, can now be amended or repealed by a simple majority of the Washington State Legislature. I-960 is actually in contradiction to the Washington State Constitution which says the Legislature shall act by majority vote. I-960 allows a minority of Legislators to block any revenue increase and Legislators have been reluctant to question the constitutionality of I-960. A suit by Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown was not acted on by the State Supreme Court saying it was an internal issue for the Legislature, not the Courts, to address.

Below is the Adopted 2010 Legislative Agenda for the King County Democrats:

King County Democrats Legislative Action Committee

2010 Legislative Agenda

1. Revenue

• Repeal I-960 and raise revenue to provide adequate funding for vital state services – repeal provisions requiring supermajority votes to approve tax and revenue issues, raise at least 2/3 of shortfall via new revenue and repealing tax exemptions

2. Tax Reform

• Repeal non-performing corporate tax breaks, sunset tax exemptions every 5 to10 years

• Require Tax Expenditure Reports as part of state budget process, prioritize exemptions, require approval as part of budget process

• Implement a state income tax on high income earners over $250,000

• Tax reduction for low income households and small businesses - Homestead Exemption or circuit breaker legislation

3. Banking, Foreclosure and Predatory Lending Reform

• Require lenders to use mediation, require proper maintenance of foreclosed homes, give homeowners right to rent former homes, increase state enforcement powers, extend initial timeline to respond to foreclosure to 90 days from 30 days, and give whistle-blower protections to employees at lending institutions.

• Establish a public Washington State Bank similar to North Dakota’s for infrastructure

4. Human Services

• “Disability Lifeline”--Protect poverty programs: Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Apple Health for kids, Basic Health, Emergency Food Assistance, Medicaid, mental health, substance abuse treatment and General Assistance for people with disabilities

• Prohibit source of income (e.g., Sec. 8) as a means to discriminate

• Pass Fair Tenant Screening Act to regulate screeners and make reports valid for 60 days

5. Housing

• Promote State Housing Trust Fund at 50% of previous level of effort (or $50 million) as a shovel-ready jobs bill

• Workforce Housing Fund Construct or purchase 25,000 rental units through housing authorities for working families at or below 80% of median income

• Homebuilding Revitalization Act –give homeowners recourse to remedy defects in new homes that need repair

6. Environmental Priorities:

• Invest in Clean Water Bill (HB 1640) raise funds for clean water infrastructure and storm water control by imposing a per-barrel fee on petroleum products.

• Safe Baby Bottle Act will phase out harmful bisphenol-A (BPA) in baby bottles, etc.

• Oppose budget cuts to environmental programs

• Create recycling program for fluorescent lights - require lighting producers to provide a convenient statewide recycling program for fluorescent lights to prevent exposure to and release of toxic mercury

7. Public Health and Safety

• Secure Medicine Return - require drug producers to provide secure collection and environmentally sound disposal of unwanted, unused, or expired medicines, as they do in other countries.

8. Election and Initiative Reform

• Public Financing of campaigns for Washington State Supreme Court - optional public financing for campaigns, providing adequate sums to run competitive campaigns

• Universal Voter Registration – opt out, not opt in, legislation for motor voter registration

• Same-day voter registration

• Increase initiative filing fee to $100; $25 when file with Secretary of State, $75 when re-file for ballot title and summary; alt - $100 or 500 signatures

• Require signature gatherers to be Washington State residents

• Set up Citizen’s Initiative Review Process like recent Oregon legislation.

• Support initiative signatures being public

9. L&I “Retro Reform”

• Greater regulation and transparency of L&I insurance pool refunds(S 6035)

10. Labor

• Collective bargaining for musicians, early childhood educators, 2-year college faculty, lecturers and interpreters

• Require prevailing wages to be paid on all public private partnerships and projects involving public or private land

11. Education

• Redefining funding formula for basic education

• More options for helping underperforming schools

• Levy Equalization

• Include early learning education for at risk children in definition of basic education

12. Criminal Justice

• Revise three strikes and sentencing guidelines

• Change how juveniles are sentenced as adults

King County Democrats Legislative Action Committee

. – Sarajane Siegfriedt & Steve Zemke Co-Chairs

Adopted by Legislative Action Committee 12/13/2009

"Can't Keep Cutting" Washington State Budget says Representative Williams

2009-12-09T11:09:00.000-08:00

Representative Brendan Williams speaks out in his latest Legislative Update about the need to "invest" in our state. He argues that we can't keep cutting our state budget without killing the economic engine driving Washington State's future.

Watch here and urge your state Legislator to also step up, speak out and act to fund needed public services in the upcoming Legislative session starting in January. The current state revenue forecast points to another $2.6 to $2.7 billion shortfall next year from the previously approved budget. You can contact your legislator by going to www.leg.wa.gov.

Washington State Budget Deficit Now $2.6 Billion in the Hole

2009-11-21T13:56:00.000-08:00

Bad news for Washington State continues as declining tax revenues now put the state budget deficit at $2.6 billion. The November forecast by the Washington State Economic and Revenue Forecast Council projected an additional decrease of $760 million in revenue over the previous forecast.

This $2.6 billion deficit is the decrease in revenue projected through June 30, 2011 of the current biennial budget cycle. In a press release from the State Office of Financial Management Governor Chris Gregoire comments that:

“Since the Legislature left in April, our revenues have continued to decline .... Our projected shortfall for the remainder of the biennium is an additional $2.6 billion, for a total gap this two-year budget period of $11.6 billion. That’s almost a third of our last budget. We have not seen a shortfall like this in 80 years.”

In a transcript of comments by Governor Gregoire posted on NPI Advocate, Gregoire stresses the seriousness and severity of the shortfall and states that:

"An all cuts budget is not the value of the people of the State of Washington. We must step up, do our responsibility to this State, and look for revenue to get the job done."

This will not be an east task. First off the Legislature will have to repeal Tim Eyman's I-960 which requires the Legislature to pass by a 2/3 vote any tax or revenue increase or put it to a vote of the people. . Under I-960 Eyman also required that the repeal of any existing tax exemption also required a 2/3 vote of the Legislature or a vote of the people. The Legislature needs to step up and do this. The rejection of Eyman's I-1033 should give Legislators the needed courage to act to address the state's budget needs as voters overwhelming rejected Eyman's budget freeze proposal.

The Legislature has rested any real tax reform for years. We have a regressive tax structure on the state level that relies heavily on sales taxes. Last year some 54% of state tax revenue came from sales taxes. But as noted by Dr Arun Rahna in the press release from the Office of Financial Management:

"State revenues suffer when consumers hold back. The change in the revenue forecast is due mainly to a revised estimate of when households will regain the confidence to spend on the goods and services taat are subject to state taxes."

Meanwhile Washington State is 1 of only 7 states that do not have an income tax. Yet the conservative Tax Foundation says that we rank 8th highest in the country in terms of income per capita.

As a result we have once again been ranked as the most regressive states in the nation in terms of our state and local tax structure. In the November 2009 Report by the Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy entitled "Who Pays? A Distributional Analysis of the Tax Systems in all 50 States", Washington State is rated as the most regressive state in the country.

As quoted on the Seattle PI blog Strange Bedfellows:

"The lack of a progressive income tax to offset regressive sales and excise taxes, as well as property taxes, is the most important factor in making the Washington tax system so regressive. Taxes ought to be based on people's ability to pay them, which means that the share of income paid in tax should rise as income grows, not fall sharply as is the case in Washington," said Matthew Gardner, executive director of the Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy and the report's lead author.

As the "Who Pays?" Report notes, in Washington State, the poorest 20% of non-elderly taxpayers pay 17.3% of their income in taxes, the middle 60% pay 9.5%, and the top 1% pay only 2.9% of their income in taxes. Unless this disparity is corrected, any tax increase by the Legislature, like raising sales taxes or property taxes will only increase the tax burden on lower income taxpayers.

It's time for the citizens of this state and its political leaders to mount a real campaign for tax reform to correct the regressiveness of our tax system. Implementing a progressive income tax; while reducing regressive taxes like sales taxes; and either expanding the current Homestead Exemption now limited to low income seniors and the disabled or adding circuit breaker legislation to help low income homeowners and renters; are changes that need serious consideration and action.

The state is waiting for leadership. The question is who will step forward. There is no better time than now to reform our tax system. If we don't reform our broken system we can expect more measures like I-1033 to continue to fill this vacuum of leadership by progressives and liberals and those in the middle.

"The moral challenge of our generation"

2009-11-17T18:45:00.000-08:00

In advance of the December 2009 meeting in Copenhagen on climate change, the UN Environmental Program released in September a 68 page Climate Change Science Compendium. Ban Ki-moon the Secretary-General of the Unuited Nations, in the preface to the study, stated that:

The science has become more irrevocable than ever: Climate change is happening. The evidence is all around us. And unless we act, we will see catastrophic consequences including rising sea levels, droughts and amine, and the loss of up to a third of the world’s plant and animal species.
We need a new global agreement to tackle climate change, and this must be based on the soundest, most robust and up-to-date science available
Through its overview of the latest definitive science, this Climate Change Science Compendium reaffirms the strong evidence outlined in the IPCC’s 4th Assessment Report that climate change is continuing apace.
In fact, this report shows that climate change is accelerating at a much faster pace than was previously thought by scientists. New scientific evidence suggests important tipping points, leading to irreversible changes in major Earth systems and ecosystems, may already have been reached or even overtaken.
Climate change, more than any other challenge facing the world today, is a planetary crisis that will require strong, focused global action.
As pressures build for an internationally agreed response, we now have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to come together and address climate change through a newly invigorated multilateralism. This will be our chance to put in place a climate change agreement that all nations can embrace – an agreement that is equitable, balanced and comprehensive.
This Climate Change Science Compendium is.a wake up call. The time for hesitation is over. We need the world to realize, once and for all, that the time to act is now and we must work together to address this monumental challenge. This is the moral challenge of our generation"

The Climate Change Science Compendium is broken down into 5 sections. The first section, called Earth Systems, gives an overview of the leadup to the current situation.

The second section, called Earth's Ice, notes that "Accelerated shrinking of mountain glaciers on every continent, rapid reduction of Arctic sea-ice, disintegration of floating ice shelves, and increased melt rates of Earth’s three Ice Sheets—Greenland, West Antarctic, and East Antarctic—provide compelling evidence of our changing climate."

The third section, entitled Earth's Oceans, notes that "Over the last five decades, the world’s oceans have been subjected to fishery overharvesting, seafloor damage from bottom trawling, and habitat loss around margins from coastal development schemes. Climate change further threatens oceans with higher temperatures, increased acidification, and altered circulation and nutrient supplies."

The fourth section, entitled Earth's Ecosystems, states that "Since the compilation of the IPCC’s Fourth Assessment Report, serious and irreversible changes in Earth’s Ecosystems due to anthropogenic activities are increasingly recognized with greater confidence and better quantification of the processes."

The last section, entitled Systems Management, states that "A variety of actions are under discussion to manage the challenge posed by climate change: Cutting emissions, reforestation, and geoengineering are a few. Current research suggests that some of the possible actions are not only important but necessary for any chance of success—but no single action is sufficient on its own.

The last section, entitled Systems Management, concludes that "A variety of actions are under discussion to manage the challenge posed by climate change: Cutting emissions, reforestation, and geoengineering are a few. Current research suggests that some of the possible actions are not
only important but necessary for any chance of success—but no single action is sufficient on its own.

The 2009 Climate Change Science Compendium is serious business. It needs to be taken seriously. It's like the blinking red light going on in the car. Ignoring it because you're tired of seeing it, isn't going to make it go away. It's a warning light. Ignore it long enough and it may just stop blinking. By then it's too late because everything will have stopped running.

Is Congress Going to Cut Health Care Costs?

2009-11-16T18:10:00.000-08:00

Are there serious flaws in the approach Congress is taking on health care? Business Week estimates that some $700 billion of heath care costs each year are wasted and believes the current reform bills don't address this problem. They state that a new Thomson Reuters (TRI) report finds that:

a sum equal to roughly one-third of the nation's total health-care spending is flushed away on unnecessary treatments, redundant tests, fraud, errors, and myriad other monetary sinkholes that do nothing to improve the nation's health. Cut that figure by half, and there would be more than enough money to offer top-notch care to every one of America's 46 million uninsured.

The Business Week article attributes the $700 billion wasted as being the result primarily of the fee-for-service system that pays hospitals and doctors based on the quantity of medical services provided, rather than on the quality of care. Without fixing this flaw in the way we provide medical care, the article states health care costs over the next 10 years will double to some $5.2 trillion per year or about 21% of the nation's gross domestic product.

What is interesting about the article is that it is not against health care reform; in fact it's emphasis is on ideas that can be implemented now by the medical profession without legislation being required. A number of these ideas are ones that consumers and patients and the medical profession should be demanding that action be taken on because it is absurd that we have a health care system that is dysfunctional and outrageously expensive compared to that of other industrialized nations in the world.

Here is a list of their 10 ideas to cut health care costs now:

1.Crack down on fraud and abuse

2. Develop a healthy workforce

3. Coordinate care through family doctors

4. Make health a community effort

5. Stop infections in hospitals

6. Get patients to take their medicine

7. Discuss options near the end of life

8. Use insurance to manage chronic disease

9. Let well-informed patients decide

10. Apologize to the patient.

Eyman Sidekick Loses Bid for Spokane City Council

2009-11-06T23:52:00.000-08:00

Periodically it seems one of the taunts made to Tim Eyman has been to urge him to run for office and then see how he would deal with the reality of his tax cuts and the public demand for services. Well this year, one of his principal sidekicks, Mike Fagan of Spokane did just that. And he lost decisively. It's one thing to propose radical anti-government proposals like Initiative 1033. It's quite another to have to stand for election yourself.

Mike Fagan ran for the District 1, Position 2 seat against Amber Waldref. Fagan is a co-director with Tim Eyman of Voters Want More Choices which has run a number of anti-governemnt, anti tax initiatives, including this year's decisively defeated Initiative 1033, which proposed to freeze both state and local public services.

Amber Waldref is the Development Director of the Lands Council in Spokane. The Lands Council describes itself as a grassroots, nonprofit that has worked to protect the forests, water and wildlife on thousands of acreas of public lands in the Northwest.

Here are the vote totals.

Amber Waldref.....6411.....62.72%
Mike Fagan.....3811.....37.28%.

Fagan lacked in the money raising department as well as the voting department. Washington State Public Disclosure Records show that Fagan only raised $9,193 in cash and $2,749 in kind. He had a total of 53 contributions.

Meanwhile Waldref raised some $30,935 in cash and some $9,958 in kind. She had 277 contrbutions.

Interestingly Fagan did not report any contributions from Tim Eyman but he did get $500 from Michael Dunmire and $500 from Mrs Phyllis Dunmire of Woodinville. Dunmire contributed $300,000 to the I-1033 campaign and has been a long time contributor to Eyman and Fagan's initiative campaigns. Besides the Dunmires, Fagan also got
$2500 from Mrs Cynthia Zapotocky
$1000 from Monroe Court Limited Partnership
$500 from Leo Fagan
$500 from the Spokane County Republican Party

Waldref's largest contributors were:
$4015 Inland NW Leadership PAC
$5000 from IAFF Local 29 Political Action
$2000 from Washington St Council of County and City Employees
$1000 from Avista Corporation
$1000 from Spokane Com. for Political Education
$500 from Don Barberi
$500 from Paul Brainerd

Initiative 1033 lost decisively in Spokane County, with the latest percentage No vote slightly above the state average. The Spokane County vote was 70,729 (57.93%) No to .51.373 (42.07%) Yes for I-1033.

Tim Eyman's Initiative 1033 Goes Down the Drain!

2009-11-04T17:06:00.000-08:00

Tim Eyman's Initiative 1033 is still going down the drain by a decisive margin. The latest vote count on the Washington Secretary of State's website has it 56% NO to 44% YES. Ironically its symbolically what Grover Norquist, the national anti-tax fanatic that Eyman emulates, wanted to do with government - reduce it to a size he could drown in a bathtub and put down the drain. Instead it is I-1033 going down the drain.

Grover Norquit, now with Americans for Tax Reform, had been the National Taxpayers Union Executive Director in the past. On October 28, 2009 the National Taxpayers Union filed papers with the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission for a political action committee they named "Taxpayers for 1033". No money is listed as having been contributed to the PAC in Washington State.

Taxpayers for 1033 put up a website with a blog and news links and a donation page. At the bottom of the web page were the words "Copyright Yes ON 4 2009". Yes on 4 is the name of a political action committee that was supporting an initiative similar to I-1033 in the State of Maine known as Question 4.

Both Yes on 4 and Taxpayers for 1033 were right wing efforts by the National Taxpayers Union to help enact Colorado style legislation to freeze public services, cutting off the use of any revenue above this year's baseline spending for public services.

Question 4 in Maine was at last count also decisively losing by 60% NO to 40% YES; an even bigger number than preliminary numbers for I-1033.Voters in Maine defeated 2 previous efforts to enact TABOR measures in Maine. Question 4 lost by a latrger margin than when it was on the ballot 2 years ago in Maine.

Like in Washington State, the people in Maine supporting TABOR raised very little money for the actual ballot campaign. Most of their money was spent on paid signature gatherers to get on the ballot. It's pretty funny that these so called anti-government measures can't even recruit enough volunteers to get on the ballot without having to pay people to collect signatures.

The defeat of these two measures should quiet down the right wing's rabid thirst for killing taxes. They act like vampires, wanting to suck the life out of government services. But voters have seen the effects of the cuts and job loses on local and state governments due to the current recession and reject the notion that this is something government brought on itself. In Washington State this year severe cuts were made in public services without raising taxes.

Of course the National Taxpayers Union was hoping one or both of these measures would pass to keep their fundraising going by declaring taxpayer revolts at the state level. So far out of dozens of these measures on the ballot over the years, only Colorado voters have passed one.

What people actually see today is that it is the lack of government oversight that contributed to the current recession and if anything, know that unregulated financial institutions are more of a threat than paying taxes for public services used by everyone - like parks and libraries and roads and schools and health care and public transit and much more.

There is always a need for safeguards to prevent waste and to maintain a balance between taxes and spending but the public also knows and appreciates the value of the public safety net to help those needing help and the cooperative relationship between the public and private sector needed to keep a healthy community functioning. Freezing public budgets is not an answer to efficient functioning government. Neither is requiring future budgeting by repeated referendums by the voters.

Eyman threatens to come back with another initiative next year. No surprise here. Besides 1033, he has filed some 19 other initiatives with the Secretary of State this year. His multiple filings of initiatives are his attempt to score a favorable ballot title from the Attorney General as he changes a few words each time.

Here is a prime example of how a private interest, a business that makes money filing initiatives, is wasting public resources for private gain. He pays the state $5.00 to file an initiative, and forces state workers using taxpayer dollars to review the measures and come up with a ballot title and summary for each separate measure. One version of a measure is reasonable; 8 or 10 diferent versions with only a few words changed is not.

A higher filing fee would at least give some money back to taxpayers for the public costs involved. But another idea might be to do like Oregon does and require that before someone can get a ballot title at public expense, they need to also file a thousand signatures of registered voters as sponsors of the measure to show that they are serious about actually doing an initiative. .

People also need to take their time and read and understand what it is they are signing before they commit all of us to vote on poorly thought out measures like I-1033 again. Too many people sign initiatives based on phrases and slogans that really do not describe what happens if the initiative in question becomes law. Read before you sign and we will all be better off.

A Plethora of Blog Posts AgainstTim Eyman's Initiative 1033

2009-11-03T13:54:00.000-08:00

We've written quite a few posts against Tim Eyman's budget freeze Initiative 1033 over the last several months. You can check them out here:

Initiative 1033 is a Freeze on Public Services

Great Grassroots Video Telling the Truth About I-1033

Initiative 1033 Transfers Tax Burden onto Lower Income Taxpayers

A Better Way to Help Struggling Families than I-1033

Are You Ready to Play a Game of TimCity 2009?

Washington State on Path to Dysfuctional Government?

No on 1033 Releases First TV Ads

Initiative 1033 is Recycled Discredited Trickle Down Theory

Washington State Democrats Oppose Initiative 1033 and Support Referendum 71

The Joke is Eyman's Initiative 1033

Initiative 1033's Fatal Flaw

No on I-1033 Officially Kicks off Campaign

No on Initiative 1033 Campaign Releases Video on Colorado's Experience

The Hidden Agenda to Radically Change Representative Government and Our Tax System in Eyman's Initiative 1033

Realtors Vote to Oppose Eyman's Budget Freeze Initiative 1033

Tim Eyman Thinks Voters are Dumb

Initiative 1033 Will Dig Us Deeper into Recession Economics

What's Wrong with Eyman's Initiative 1033?

A Better Alternative to Help Struggling Property Owners than Initiative 1033

Kemper Freeman's Shortsighted $25,000 Contribution to Eyman's Initriative 1033

A Warning on Initiative 1033 from California

Initiative 1033 Cuts $8.7 Billion from Public Services by 2015

Initiative 1033 - Abolishing Local Control of Cities and Counties

Initiative 1033 - Eyman's Sugar Coated Poison Pill

Renters Beware! Eyman's Initiative 1033 Will Rip You Off

Eyman's I-1033 Says Paying Corporate Property Taxes More Important than Educating State's Kids

Initiative 1033 Offers Taxpayers Free Lunch

Watch Video on Why I-1033 Would be Bad for Washington State

Why I-1033 Limits on Spending Growth Won't Work

Eyman Continues to Use Erroneous Information to Support I-1033 Overtaxed Rant

Did Eyman Forget to Turn in all His Petitions for Initiative 1033?

List Growing of Organizations Opposing Initiative 1033

Tim Eyman's Initiative 1033 Overtaxed Hoax

Tim Eyman's Initiative 1033 Grassroots Joke

New Report Confirms Initiative 1033 Will Make Recovery Worse for Washington State

Initiative 1033 - Eyman's Latest Wealth Transfer Scheme

Locations in King County to Drop off Ballots until 8 PM on Nov 3, 2009

2009-11-03T12:38:00.000-08:00

Here is the link to King County Elections to see a map and locations where your ballot can be dropped off today, Election Day, Nov 3, 2009 up until 8 PM.

http://www.kingcounty.gov/elections/voting/ballotdropboxes.aspx

Here are the King County locations:

•Auburn Library, 1102 Auburn Way S., Auburn, 98002

•Library Connection @ Crossroads, 15600 NE 8th St., outside of Suite K-11, 98008

•Black Diamond Library, 24707 Roberts Dr., 98010

•Covington Library, 27100 164th Ave SE, 98042

•Des Moines Library, 21620 11th Avenue S., 98198

•Earlington Business Center, 919 SW Grady Way, 98057

•Fall City Library, 33415 SE 42 Pl., 98024

•Federal Way Library, 848 S 320th St, 98003

•Kent Regional Library, 212 2nd Ave N, 98032

•Lake Forest Park Library, 17171 Bothell Way NE, 98155 near the lower level mall entrance

•Seattle, King County Administration Building, 500 Fourth Ave., 98104

•Seattle, White Center Library, 11220 16th S.W., Seattle, 98146

•Tukwila, King County Elections Headquarters, 9010 East Marginal Way S, 98108

•Woodinville Library, 17105 Avondale Rd NE, 98072

also these Seattle Neighborhood Service Center locations

•Ballard, 5604 22nd Ave NW, 98107

•Central, 2301 S Jackson, 98144

•Delridge, 5405 Delridge Way SW, 98106

•Lake City, 12525 28th Ave NE, 98125

•Southeast, 3815 S Othello St, 98118

•University, 4534 University Way NE, 98105

Latest Fundraising Totals in Seattle Races

2009-11-02T16:20:00.000-08:00

Campaign Disclosure Information can be found at the Washington State Public Disclosure website , as well as at the City of Seattle Ethics and Election Commission website. You can get more detailed on these races, including who gave them money, how much and how the campaign spent it. This information is what was reported as of Nov 2, 2009.

Seattle City Mayor - no incumbent
Joe Mallahan ......raised $711,205 .....spent $655,524

Michael McGinn .....raised $204,912 .....spent $166,774

City Council Position 2 - Incumbent is Richard Conlin

Richard Conlin .... raised $175,980.... spent $134,283

David Ginsberg.... raised $41,177.... spent $42,044

City Council Position 4 - no incumbent

Sally Bagshaw .... raised $224,134.... spent $172,104

David Bloom .... raised $93,907 .... spent $85,411

City Council Position 6 - Incumbent is Nick Licata

Jessie Israel .... raised $184,213.... spent $170,664

Nick Licata.... raised $138,021.... spent $128,843

City Council Position 8 - no incumbent

Mike O'Brien .... raised $129,103 ....spent $99,886

Robert Rosencrantz ....raised $222,022.... spent $208,794

Seattle City Attorney - Incimbent is Tom Carr

Thomas Carr .....raised $92,006 .....spent $77,440

Peter Holmes .....raised $85,521 ......spent $78,949

Seattle School District #4 - Michael DeBell is incumbent

Michael DeBell .....raised $5,505 .....spent $3,491

Seattle School District #5 - Iincumbent is Mary Bass

Kay Smith-Blum .....raised $54,910 .....spent $48,904

Mary Bass .....raised $35,006 .....$34,377

Seattle School District #7 - no incumbent

Betty Patu ......raised $11,291 ....spent $8,275

Wilson Chim .....raised $53,513 .....spent $40,866

We're Number 37

2009-11-01T18:43:00.000-08:00

Here's a great YouTube video celebrating our position as number 37 in the world in terms of health care.
Come on folks. It's time for a change. Contact your Senators and Representatives and urge they act on reforming healthcare in the good ol USA.

Protecting Aerospace Workers in Washington State

2009-10-29T19:17:00.000-07:00

An Open Letter to the Washington State Legislature:

Yesterday, the Boeing Company announced that they intended to move production to South Carolina in order to have planes built by inexperienced non-union workers making an average of less than $14 per hour rather than having planes built by highly skilled and highly experienced union workers in Washington State making an average of $26 per hour.

This is one more step in what many have called the “disappearing Boeing Airplane” during the past 20 years. While some have blamed the union and/or the Legislature for this problem, the truth is that both the union and the Legislature have made billions of dollars in concessions to the Boeing company. These billions of dollars in concessions were then used by Boeing to help finance their multi-billion dollar plant in South Carolina.

This latest decision by Boeing’s upper management is perplexing because the South Carolina plant has already made numerous errors which set back production of the Boeing Dreamliner by years. Further investment in South Carolina appears to be throwing good money after bad and places the future of the entire Boeing Company in doubt. This is not just my opinion. It is also the opinion of nearly every airline industry analyst. The upper management of the Boeing Company appears to be cutting their own throat- as well as sticking a knife in the back of aerospace workers in the State of Washington.

This problem concerns me because my grandfather, William Gunnerud, helped start the Machinists Union in the 1940’s and spent his whole life building Boeing Airplanes. Many members of my family worked for Boeing. While there may not be much we can do about the reckless decisions of Boeing’s upper management, there are some steps we can and should take now to protect the aerospace industry and aerospace workers here in the State of Washington.

The Legislature should draft and pass a bill authorizing public–private aerospace partnerships. We attempted to do this in giving billions of dollars in tax breaks to Boeing in the past 10 years. But the money was given away without any conditions. In hind sight, that was a mistake. This new partnership must include several specific conditions:

· First, it must include an employee cooperative so that the employees are the owners of the company. Employees are much less likely to outsource their jobs than employers. Also, Washington State has a long history of successful cooperatives (such as Group Health Coop) and we should form a similar public private aerospace partnership here in Washington State.

· Second, such a cooperative should receive the maximum possible tax advantages including exemption from our State sales and B & O taxes for at least the next ten years and until such time that it turns a profit of at least one billion dollars.

· Third, as a condition of receiving these billions of dollars in tax breaks, this new employee owned company would agree that as much production as possible, including sub-contractor work, would occur here in the State of Washington.

· Fourth, should this new company ever leave the State of Washington, they would be required to pay back all tax breaks given to them.

· Finally, in order to pay for the tax breaks to be given to this new company, we should immediately eliminate any further tax breaks to the Boeing Company and require them to pay their full share of State sales taxes and B & O taxes. In short, we should only give tax breaks to companies who are committed to protecting and preserving the aerospace industry here in the State of Washington.

We may not be able to do much about the upper management of Boeing committing suicide, but we can and should protect the aerospace industry and aerospace workers in Washington State from going down with them. I therefore hope you will consider drafting such a bill for consideration and approval during the 2010 legislative session.

Regards,
David Spring, M. Ed.

Democrats Ask Murray and Cantwell to Support Electronic Filing of Campaign Disclosure

2009-10-29T15:59:00.000-07:00

Last night the King County Democrats unamiously passed a resolution asking Washington State's two Senators to become co-sponsors of legislation requiring US Senate candidates to join the electronic filing era of campaign disclosure. Below is the text of the resolution:

Resolution in Support of S 482 requiring electronic filing of campaign disclosure information by U.S. Senate candidates

WHEREAS the U.S. Senate still does not require filing its campaign finance forms electronically; and

WHEREAS this hinders and delays the ability of the public to have timely access to important campaign finance data; and

WHEREAS the transfer of data to electronic form for filing would save taxpayers $250,000 a year according to the Campaign Finance Institute; and

WHEREAS S 482 – the Senate Campaign Disclosure Parity Act has been introduced by Senator Feingold in February 2009 to require that all Senate candidates file designations, statements and reports in electronic form; and

WHEREAS candidates for the House of Representatives, President and Political Action Committees already file electronically; and

WHEREAS 41 other Senators are currently co-sponsors of this legislation; and

WHEREAS Washington State has been a leader in campaign finance disclosure statewide and nationally with the passage of I-276 in 1972; and
WHEREAS Washington State requires electronic filing for all candidates raising over $10,000; and

WHEREAS candidates filing for President who raise over $100,000 are already required to file monthly reports

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the King County Democrats urge Senator Patty Murray and Senator Maria Cantwell to become co-sponsors and work for passage of S 482 in time for next year’s U.S. Senate elections and that they sponsor an amendment requiring monthly reporting as is done for Presidential candidates and in Washington State.

Join with the King County Democrats and urge Senator Cantwell and Senator Murray to co-sponsor S 482 and work for its passage. You can e-mail them here:

Senator Maria Cantwell

Senator Patty Murray

Initiative 1033 is a Freeze on Public Services

2009-10-29T14:51:00.000-07:00

Eyman is dishonest about the actual impacts of I-1033 on this state and cities and counties. Eyman is in essence proposing repealing existing taxes; he is not allowing government to function as a representative democracy but wants to impose budgeting by referendum.

When the economy improves, sales tax revenues under the present system would go up. There is no increase in sales tax rates. Taxes are not being increased. More taxes at the same tax rate are being collected because of a more robust economy. We would have more revenue to reinvest in our cities and counties and state and restore some of the services lost due to the current recession.

But Eyman is saying anything above this year’s recession level of public spending is increasing taxes. This is false. There is an increase in tax revenue but it is not raising your tax rate. Eyman is pandering to people's fears and misrepresenting our actual tax collection process.

He then says that by allowing for a slight adjustment for inflation and population he is allowing government to grow. This is also false. Public services per person are not growing; by adjusting for population, you have more people needing government services. And adjusting for inflation only means that you can buy this year’s services next year at their inflated price. Because a gallon of gasoline costs more for a fire truck next year and you adjust so you can pay the inflated price, you still only have purchased a gallon of gasoline.

Thus at it’s simplest I-1033 is a freeze in public services. But it is also reducing taxes by changing our current tax collection system and imposing an artificial limit on the amount that can be collected. Services are reduced because it is taking all money above this year’s recession level spending and saying it can only be used to cut property taxes.

Normally this increase in money from an improved economy would help funds schools and roads and parks and much more. But it would no longer be available under I-1033 without a public vote. This would institute a series of votes to budget by referendum, which is a costly and time wasting process. And Eyman knows it is more difficult to ask for this money once he has committed it to pay property taxes.

Eyman’s intent as always is to just reduce government and taxes without regard for that impact on the community. We’re not an overtaxed state compared to other states. The conservative Tax Foundation notes that we are in the bottom 1/3 of states in terms of state and local tax burden. We are 35th lowest (with 1 being the highest).

I-1033 isn’t needed and will severely impact state and local government’s ability to function efficiently and provide basic needed services. Vote No on this tax shift that mainly benefits rich property owners and locks us in a permanent recession.

Vote No on Initiative 1033.

Onion Alert: Morons March on Washington State

2009-10-26T12:27:00.000-07:00

For a little levity here's the link to a humorous Onion article out of Olympia, Washington entitled Nation's Morons March on Washington State.

Note:
Ccontrary to what you might initially think, this article is not about Tim Eyman or the teabaggers that gathered in Olympia in the past.
Contrary to what you might think in reading this story, this article is not about Tim Eyman or the teabaggers that gathered in Olympia in the past.
Contrary to what I might say, you can think anything you want about whether this story has any relation to Tim Eyman and the teabaggers that gathered in Olympia in the past.

For the record: This story might have something to do with Tim Eyman and the teabaggers that gathered in Olympia in the past; but then it might not.

You can think what you want or not.

Great Grassroots Video Telling the Truth About I-1033

2009-10-26T11:10:00.000-07:00

Tim Eyman's Initiative 1033 will be bad for Washington State. Lynn Allen of Rebuilding Democracy has put together a great video summing up the arguments against I-1033.

Please forward this video to others. And urge everyone to vote and vote no on I-1033. We need to defeat I-1033. Thanks

Initiative 1033 Transfers Tax Burden onto Lower Income Taxpayers

2009-10-25T15:21:00.000-07:00

Tim Eyman's Initiative 1033 points out the difficulty of trying to write complex legislation and budget by initiative. Tax and budget issues are not simple and most people do not understand our tax and revenue system

Eyman proposes to freeze government services at this year's level and transfer any revenue received over that limit to reduce property taxes.

I-1033 winds up being a wealth transfer scheme. On the state level, revenue to the current budget comes from several sources.

retail sales taxes 54%
Business & occupation tax 19.5%
property taxes 10.4%
real estate excise tax (on sales of homes) 4.1%
other 13.4%

Taxes come in from multiple sources but Eyman does not propose people get rebates for what they have paid in taxes. Rebates only go to property owners. Some 35% of households are renters. Sales taxes everyone pays.

This scheme shifts the tax burden to low and middle income taxpayers to only benefit people who own property including commercial property. The rebate is not proportional to the taxes above that anyone paid, only to the amount of property one owns.

I-1033 has people without property paying taxes for property owners. Renters lose twice by not getting any rebate or seeing their tax dollars go to fund services they need or could use.

I-1033 has many unforeseen consequences. Most voters can not understand what it does based only on reading a simplistic ballot title on their ballot. Even reading the initiative does not make it clear.

People would be wise to vote No on such a complex measure that in my opinion is not going to help them. A property tax homestead exemption on ones principal home makes a lot more sense. Eyman opposes that. Eyman's scheme just transfers more money to people with lots of property.

For example Kemper Freeman who owns Bellevue Square gave Eyman $25,000 to get I-1033 on the ballot. He stands to see a $1.7 million reduction in his property taxes each year. You and I would be paying for that.

Vote No on I-1033 and keep Tim Eyman's hands out of your pockets. Times are tough enough without transferring more tax burden onto low and middle income taxpayers or freezing government servies at their current recession level.

for more info see:
http://www.leg.wa.gov/Senate/Committees/WM/Documents/Publications/BudgetGuides/2009/CGTB09.pdf

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/dannywestneat/2010058262_danny14.htmlowners.

A Better Way to Help Struggling Working Families than I-1033

2009-10-24T11:31:00.000-07:00

Tim Eyman's Initiative 1033 claims to be helping "struggling working families and fixed income senior citizens" pay their property taxes. Instead it is a wealth transfer scheme that takes sales taxes and other fees and uses them to only pay property taxes. It results in a tax shift putting even more of the tax burden on lower and middle income taxpayers.

Eyman claims I-1033 is the only constitutional way to reduce property taxes. Forget of course that property taxes are already limited by the Washington State Legislature enacting I-747 which the Washington State Supreme Court overturned. That limits overall property tax collections, except voter approved levies, to 1% per year. Also the Washington State Constitution limits the tax per property to 1% of its valuation per year.

Also forget that the conservative Tax Foundation in comparing all states for property tax burden found that Washington State ranked right in the middle at 25 out of 50 states.

To the constitutional issue, Tim as usual is only telling you part of the story. The Legislature has the power to provide special property tax exemptions and has done so for low income seniors and disabled people.

http://dor.wa.gov/Docs/Pubs/Prop_Tax/SeniorExempt.pdf

If Tim was concerned about seniors staying in their homes he would increase the Property Tax Exemption for seniors and the disabled and extend it to all taxpayers. It has an income threshold so that people that can afford to pay property taxes do and those that are on limited or fixed income can get help. The current senior exemption is a form of Homestead Exemption in that it covers only one's principal residence.

This makes sense as there is no reason to give people a property tax break if they can afford a second home or vacation home or investment properties. Initiative 1033 takes the opposite approach in covering all real estate so that the more property you own, the larger your tax rebate.

Tim Eyman has said repeatedly that Homestead Exemptions and circuit breaker legislation are unconstitutional. That doesn't make it so. It might be true if he wrote the legislation like the many initiatives of his that have been overturned by the Washington State Supreme Court.

However like everything else, there are ways to draft legislation that would pass constitutional muster. The key is that the Washington State Constitution says all classes of property must be taxed the same, meaning commercial and residential property get the same tax breaks. Most other states do not treat commercial and residential property the same.

Here's one example of a solution that addresses this issue of constitutionality that would benefit both homeowners on their principal residence and small business owners. In the 2008 Legislative session HB 3162 was introduced with 24 sponsors. HR 3162 - Providing a property tax exemption for the first fifty thousand dollars of assessed value of commercial and residential real property.

The bill is short and the main text of interest here is:

"(1) Residential property is exempt from the state portion of the

property tax on fifty thousand dollars of assessed value.

(2) A commercial property owner may apply to the county assessor to

exempt fifty thousand dollars of assessed value for the state portion

of the property tax for a single parcel of property."

Realize Tim is not looking for solutions to just help those most in need with their property taxes, he is trying to get voters to freeze state spending and spending by all 281 cities and 39 counties in the state and is using his property tax reduction scheme to get you to also swallow his freeze on public services by freezing spending at the current recession level. He is also not looking to help those less well off as he has opposed expanding the Homestead Exemption in Olympia.

Eyman's property tax rebate scheme is the fatal flaw in I-1033 that should help defeat Initiative 1033. It takes sales tax dollars and other fees paid by everyone and gives it to just property owners. If you don't own property you get nothing. You will still pay the same taxes as before. It is a tax shift that hurts low and middle income taxpayers, while greatly benefiting wealthy property owners.

It just is plain wrong to tax people that have no property and use those taxes to pay taxes for wealthy property owners, like those who have vacation homes or shopping malls or real estate developers or corporate owners. This is a reverse Robin Hood scheme - tax the less well off and use the taxes to pay property taxes for the rich.

Initiative 1033 is a just another poorly thought out Eyman scheme that will hurt those who have the least while benefiting the wealthy. Vote No on I-1033.