Tim Eyman Thinks He's Funny

• What is deceptive about the I-1033 ballot title is that it talks about limiting growth, when it is really a budget freeze. The Washington State Attorney General's Office obviously did Tim Eyman a favor with this ballot title. Adjusting for inflation only allows you to purchase this year's goods next year at their inflated price. And in actuality an additional problem is that Eyman's proposed adjustment is for consumer prices, and that index does not tract government service costs like for Medicaid or education. There is no free lunch. We have already cut $1.5 billion from education this year. Let's guess how people will feel about the few dollars people might get rebated to them on their property taxes when they see the decreased education their children will get. Colorado passed a similar measure to Eyman's I-1033 and spending for K12 education went from 35th to 49th in the country. Maybe we can be 50th. Vote No on I-1033. Times are tough enough on people without making them worse as I-1033 would do.

• Be aware that Tim Eyman misrepresents our state and local tax burden in the Voter's Pamphlet. He says Washington State ranks 8th in tax burden. Tim tried to use this figure today on KUOW but was called on his misrepresentation. The problem is he included Federal income taxes in the figure he uses. We also just happen to be the 8th highest state in terms of income per capita. Initiative 1033 does not deal with Federal taxes; it is only involved with state and local taxes. And ranking 35th (with 1 being the highest) is a hard sell for him to convince voters that state and local taxes are "obscene and spiraling out of control." Eighth highest sounds so much worse even if it's not true regarding our state and local taxes. But who needs to be truthful if you can get people riled up and angry over taxes by fooling them. Tim can't keep his business going without the support of people who blindly believe what he says.

• Our state is the lowest taxed state for individual taxes. We are ranked 35th in terms of taxes as percent of income. Now I-1033 will bring us down BELOW Mississippi and South Carolina. Our state is the home of Boeing and Microsoft. We tout biotech and technology and now we are thinking about voting for an initiative that will cut education funding. I-1033 is an embarassment.

• Har, har, har, har! I laughed so hard I pooped in my pants!

• Tim's long rant is nothing new. His agenda is to reduce government at any cost and to reduce public services paid for by tax dollars. According to Tim government can do no good and all taxes are evil and all elected officials are pigs at the trough. This type of demagoguing is what's wrong with Tim's proposals and lacks credibility when it comes to the facts. Washington State last year ranked 35th lowest in terms of state and local tax burden according to the conservative Tax Foundation. Tim's just not believable. The state's projecting another bilion dollar shortfall for next year. We need to explore options to address that and that's all Gregoire is doing. Tim's just demagoguing.

• Well now ... here is the entire text our comiedian sent out in his email ... still so funny? You be the judge. RE: Gregoire rings the dinner bell on tax increases - NO campaign's new radio ad (it's really unbelievable!) Wednesday's newspapers reported that Gregoire now supports raising taxes and she's asking "lawmakers and interest groups" to tell her which ones to jack up. Dingdingdingdingdingdingding -- that's the sound of Gregoire ringing the dinner bell on tax increases. Anything goes people, you want higher sales taxes, Gregoire's your gal, a state income tax, Gregoire's on your side, increased property taxes, Gregoire's fine with that too, jacked up business taxes, utility taxes, gas taxes, death taxes, internet taxes, Gregoire's simply hunky-dory with all of them. In 2004, candidate Gregoire said "I'm not talking about taxes" - then she got into office in 2005, immediately got rid of I-601's inflation/population growth limit and raised taxes. Then she and the Democrats went hog wild and radically increased the growth of government (33% in 4 years), overextending themselves with completely unsustainable budgets. What happened? Gregoire and the Democrats made the bad times a whole lot worse, ending with a $9 billion deficit. Recognizing their lack of fiscal discipline, we introduced I-960 in 2007, knowing that it likely had a two-year shelf life. Gregoire's comment about I-960 in January, 2007: "the extra handcuffs aren't needed." Voters approved I-960 because they didn't believe her. With I-960's policies firmly in place, Gregoire "suddenly" switched back and decided that tax hikes were a bad idea. She said raising taxes in the middle of a recession will only make the recession last longer. Was I-960's two-year window the cause? Nah, said her supporters, she 'gets it now.' So now she's switched again. What could have happened? Two weeks ago, KING 5 UPFRONT's Allen Schauffler asked the SEIU's David Rolfe, the head of the most powerful public employee union, about his desire to have Democrats raise taxes in 2010 and 2011: "Raise taxes? How do you think they'll respond?" Without hesitation and without prompting, Rolfe replied that I-960's two-year expiration date is 'up' at the end of this year and his group and others will be making sure Democrats know that's what they want. As a public service, KIRO's Dori Monson provides us all with an audio clip about that (forward to 7:20): http://www.mynorthwest.com/resources/audio_headlines/audio_player.php?a=10840&f=/kiro/2009/09/p_Dori_Monson_Show_20090930_2pm.mp3 Tuesday's poll results among likely voters showed 61% yes, 31% no, 8% undecided. Obviously, voters opposed or undecided saw Gregoire as against taxes over the past two years and they likely believed that she'd stick with that position going forward -- they likely believed that I-1033 wasn't necessary because Gregoire 'gets it now.' Not any more. Gregoire's 'anything-goes-on-tax-hikes' re-position undercuts that big time. The NO on I-1033's campaign theme is "we can trust the politicians." That ain't gonna fly anymore. Our source in the No on I-1033 campaign managed to sneak us a copy of the script for a radio ad they'll be releasing soon. The script indicates that it'll be read by a man with a deep barotone voice. Here it is: VOTE NO ON INITIATIVE 1033. Our state in heading toward a disaster of biblical proportions. What we mean is Old Testament, real wrath of God type stuff. Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies. Rivers and seas boiling. 40 years of darkess, earthquakes, volcanoes. The dead rising from the grave. Human sacrifice, dogs and cats, living together, MASS HYSTERIA. VOTE NO ON INITIATIVE 1033. Paid for by the NO on I-1033 campaign, top contributors Washington DC's AFSCME, SEIU, and NEA. Any similarity to the movie Ghostbusters is merely coincidental. It's unbelievable! Because of the extraordinarily strong support I-1033 enjoys in the polls, these guys are so desperate they're willing to say anything from now until election day. They've got millions of dirty dollars from Washington DC's most powerful labor unions to spread their threats, lies, and scare tactics. We have faith in the common sense of the average taxpayer to see right through it.

• Great article. You've hit it on the head exactly right. Initiative 1033 is a wealth transfer scheme, taking sales taxes and other fees paid by everyone and using them to pay property taxes for wealthy property owners when the economy improves and more revenue comes in above this year's recession baseline used by Eyman in I-1033. Last year sales taxes accounted for 57% of state revenue. We have the highest sales tax in the country. Eyman says the one and only priority of state and local government should be to use any revenue coming in above the baseline to help people who own property pay their property taxes. The fatal flaw in his scheme is that not everyone owns property. Some 35% of households in the state are not owner occupied. Our tax system is one of the most regressive in the country already. Now Eyman wants to have sales taxes paid by renters and senior citizens and working families without property be used to pay taxes for people who have property. Even for homeowners it's a rip off. The amount of rebate given under I-1033 is not based on the amount of sales taxes and fees you pay but on the amount of property you own. The more property you own, the more you benefit from I-1033. Also Eyman isn't going to tell the public that in addition some 40% of the rebate has to go to commercial property owners. Businesses already get a sales tax exemption for goods they resell. Consumers pay the sales taxes. So large commercial property owners, corporations like Boeing, mall owners like Bellevue Square and real estate developers all will benefit from I-1033. That's some joke for renters who will still pay the same taxes as before under I-1033 like sales taxes. Renters will both not get a tax rebate or see any services lost due to the recession be restored. They will also not see any new public services for the taxes they paid.

• I didn't read it, I can't read it, I'm going to trust you on this one. It's too sad.

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