Eyman's Back With A 900 Pound Gorilla

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By By Bryan Johnson

Summary

Initiative king, Tim Eyman, and the Washington State Legislature are locking horns over how the initiative process works.

Story Published: Jan 26, 2005 at 5:33 PM PDT

Story Updated: Jul 24, 2009 at 11:48 AM PDT

Eyman's Back With A 900 Pound Gorilla
OLYMPIA - Washington's so-called initiative king, Tim Eyman, has filed yet another initiative. This one is an attempt to convince the Legislature to keep its hands off the initiative process.

The measure would require a vote of the people if any changes are made in the processes governing initiatives and referenda.

A common scene in Olympia is Tim Eyman filing boxes and boxes of initiative petitions.

Some just don't like the idea that Eyman makes money doing this.

Representative Sherry Appleton is among those sponsoring legislature to change the signature gathering rules. "If you go back to the Constitution, it says initiative and referendum are the right of the people," she said. "It didn't say to put big bucks in your pocket."

Tim Eyman is back at it this year, with the measure he calls the 900 pound gorilla. It's an initiative requiring performance audits of government programs.

"We've already hired a paid petition firm that will be hitting the streets today or certainly this weekend," he said Wednesday.

But the state legislature is considering requiring that all signature collectors be paid by the hour, and that it would be illegal to pay them by the signature.

"If they ban paying people by the signature, they have effectively doubled the cost of qualifying initiatives in the state of Washington," said Eyman.

Representative Appleton countered: "The Tim Eymans of the world who have made the initiative a big business in putting money in his pocket paid $2.50 to $5 a signature, I don't see how it is possible that this would increase the cost."

Eyman is so upset he's filed a new initiative to force of vote of the people if the Legislature tries to change the rules. He says this is the people's initiative, not the Legislature's.

Eyman's new initiative also provides the means for people to challenge the so-called "Emergency clause" the Legislature often attaches to bills. Eyman says this is often done to prevent a referendum.

The new initiative would allow a vote to contest the emergency in Thurston County Superior Court in Olympia. It provides a decision of a judge there would be final.

Eyman says that part of the initiative is, in part, a response to such measure as the taxing bill which helped finance construction of the Mariner's Safeco Field; a measure which included an emergency clause. That particular clause was upheld narrowly by the State Supreme Court.