Eyman's property tax initiative moves to ballot
OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) - A voter initiative aimed at lowering property taxes and limiting government growth appears likely to make the fall ballot after sponsors handed over an estimated 314,000 petition signatures to Washington elections officials Thursday.
The ballot measure, officially named Initiative 1033, is the latest project of Mukilteo anti-tax activist Tim Eyman and his Spokane-based partners, Jack and Mike Fagan.
If approved by voters in November, I-1033 would cap the amount of money flowing into the general checking accounts of state, county and city governments, tying revenue increases to the rate of inflation plus population growth.
Any tax income that exceeds the revenue cap would be used solely to lower property taxes in the following year. Voter-approved taxes would not be subject to the cap.
Opponents simultaneously launched the "No on 1033" campaign, with spokesman Christian Sinderman saying the measure could hamper the state's recovery from a major economic downturn, effectively creating a "permanent recession."
Under state law, Eyman needed about 241,000 valid voter signatures in support of the initiative to qualify for the November ballot; turning in more than 300,000 should provide plenty of cushion to account for duplicate or invalid signatures.
It will take a few weeks for elections workers to officially certify whether I-1033 has cleared the signature hurdle, after inspecting a random sample from the batch turned in Thursday.
Eyman immediately predicted victory in November, saying that supporters consistently beg him to address rising property taxes.
He has addressed the topic in the past, successfully capping the growth of annual property tax collections at 1 percent. Initiative 1033, however, takes the idea a step further by limiting the overall growth of general government revenue.
Eyman said that will stop politicians from raising other taxes to make up for lost property tax revenue, and will smooth out spikes in Washington's sales-driven tax system by instituting a steady, regular growth rate.
If that isn't enough money to satisfy government, then politicians will have to ask the voters for new tax streams that go around the revenue cap, he said.
"Government is going to grow. But it's going to grow at a rate that the voters can control," Eyman said.
The opposition campaign, however, said Eyman's measure would hopelessly hamstring government.
In a major economic downturn, opponents said, the economy may very well rebound faster than I-1033's growth cap, making it impossible for government to quickly restore services that were cut during budgetary triage.
Constantly asking voters for permission to skirt the revenue cap isn't a realistic solution, because many local tax levies expire after only a few years, while demand for government services continues, Sinderman said.
"We can't rely on three-to-five year boom-and-bust cycles of voter-approved levies," he said.
The ballot measure, officially named Initiative 1033, is the latest project of Mukilteo anti-tax activist Tim Eyman and his Spokane-based partners, Jack and Mike Fagan.
If approved by voters in November, I-1033 would cap the amount of money flowing into the general checking accounts of state, county and city governments, tying revenue increases to the rate of inflation plus population growth.
Any tax income that exceeds the revenue cap would be used solely to lower property taxes in the following year. Voter-approved taxes would not be subject to the cap.
Opponents simultaneously launched the "No on 1033" campaign, with spokesman Christian Sinderman saying the measure could hamper the state's recovery from a major economic downturn, effectively creating a "permanent recession."
Under state law, Eyman needed about 241,000 valid voter signatures in support of the initiative to qualify for the November ballot; turning in more than 300,000 should provide plenty of cushion to account for duplicate or invalid signatures.
It will take a few weeks for elections workers to officially certify whether I-1033 has cleared the signature hurdle, after inspecting a random sample from the batch turned in Thursday.
Eyman immediately predicted victory in November, saying that supporters consistently beg him to address rising property taxes.
He has addressed the topic in the past, successfully capping the growth of annual property tax collections at 1 percent. Initiative 1033, however, takes the idea a step further by limiting the overall growth of general government revenue.
Eyman said that will stop politicians from raising other taxes to make up for lost property tax revenue, and will smooth out spikes in Washington's sales-driven tax system by instituting a steady, regular growth rate.
If that isn't enough money to satisfy government, then politicians will have to ask the voters for new tax streams that go around the revenue cap, he said.
"Government is going to grow. But it's going to grow at a rate that the voters can control," Eyman said.
The opposition campaign, however, said Eyman's measure would hopelessly hamstring government.
In a major economic downturn, opponents said, the economy may very well rebound faster than I-1033's growth cap, making it impossible for government to quickly restore services that were cut during budgetary triage.
Constantly asking voters for permission to skirt the revenue cap isn't a realistic solution, because many local tax levies expire after only a few years, while demand for government services continues, Sinderman said.
"We can't rely on three-to-five year boom-and-bust cycles of voter-approved levies," he said.