But what most people don’t know about Dino Rossi is his extremist positions – including his ties to initiative profiteer Tim Eyman, as well as his similarity to previous GOP candidates John Carlson (2000) and Ellen Craswell (1996).

Did you know that:

• Dino Rossi supported Initiative 200, Tim Eyman’s first initiative, which attacked affirmative action, back in 1998.
  • “He [Rossi] supported anti-affirmative action Initiative 200.” (Seattle Weekly, Dino Buys Big Time, 8/4/2004)
  • “He [Rossi] supported I-200, the successful anti-affirmative-action initiative championed by [John] Carlson.” (The Stranger, The Salesman, 8/19/2004)
• Dino Rossi supported Initiative 807, Tim Eyman’s 2003 attempt to require a supermajority vote of the Legislature for any tax increases.
  • “Rossi welcomed Eyman’s newest proposal. ‘I’m pleased he’s moving forward on this. If we (Republicans) get the majorities in the House and the Senate, we may save Tim the trouble,’ he said.” (AP, Eyman’s initiative would make it hard for legislators to raise taxes, 10/23/02)
• Dino Rossi supported Tim Eyman’s I-695, which slashed road and transit funding, and defended it in the spring of 2000.
  • ‘”There’s a lot of people politically in a little bit of a box,’ said Sen. Dino Rossi, the ranking Republican on the Senate Ways and Means Committee. ‘They [opponents] said the sky was going to fall if 695 passed, and unless a little bit of the sky does fall they’re going to sound like they were telling stories during the campaign.’” (Seattle Times, Legislators employ I-695 to promote long-held agendas, 1/9/2000)
• Dino Rossi supported slashing public services, sponsoring bills which proposed more tax cuts in the wake of I-695.
  • “Last year (2000), he [Rossi] was among several lawmakers offering tax-cut bills, catching the momentum generated by Initiative 695, [Tim Eyman's] $30 car-tab measure.” (Seattle Times, Property-tax-cut talk is big in 5th, 10/18/2000)
• Dino Rossi supported the “direction” of Tim Eyman’s I-745, which would have required 90% of transportation funding to be spent on roads.
  • “But Sen. Dino Rossi, R-Issaquah, the top Republican on the Senate Ways and Means Committee, said the state has barely tried to keep even with needed highway construction. [Of Eyman's proposal], he said, ‘It’s going in the direction many of us have been trying to push. That’s not to say mass transit doesn’t have a role, but it’s not the Utopia people say it is.’” (AP, Seattle P-I, I-695 sponsor sets sights on gridlock with initiative, 12/16/1999)
• Dino Rossi supported an unsuccessful Tim Eyman effort to kill Sound Transit’s light rail effort in 2003.
  • “Sen. Dino Rossi, R-Issaquah, said he hasn’t seen Eyman’s proposal but supports the concept of a revote because the light-rail project has changed in recent years. ‘Why not put it back on the ballot?’ said Rossi, chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee. (Seattle Times, Eyman kicks off effort to kill light-rail project, 2/15/2003)
• Tim Eyman endorsed Dino Rossi’s bid for governor from Day One, and has repeatedly referenced Rossi in his emails to supporters.
  • “Initiative king Tim Eyman cheered on Rossi from the crowd. ‘Taxes are out of control and tax increases should be a last resort,’ Eyman said later. ‘Rossi embodies that philosophy not by what he has said, but by what he’s done.’ After his speech, Rossi posed with his wife and four children as the crowd chanted ‘Dino! Dino!’” (King County Journal, Rossi says he needs $5 million, 11/11/2003)
  • “Our taxpayer-protection efforts over the past six years have changed Washington’s politics forever. This was an incredibly successful election for taxpayers: * Dino Rossi ran for Governor touting his courageous efforts to balance a $2.6 billion deficit without raising taxes. He’s on the verge of victory due to his efforts to protect taxpayers from the insatiable desire of politicians to raise taxes.” (Tim Eyman, Email to Supporters, 11/3/2004)

The Washington State Democrats also have a page where Dino Rossi’s conservative positions are outlined in comparison to Craswell’s and Carlson’s.

It’s clearly apparent, from their own words, that Tim Eyman and Dino Rossi are friends and allies, sharing the same ideals and philosophies on taxation.

Though Dino has supported many of Eyman’s initiatives, this year he tried to skirt the issue and refused to comment on supporting either I-864 and I-892 in order to soften his image as he ran for Governor.

And that bid for the governor’s seat was firmly and openly supported by a very eager Tim Eyman, who longed to see someone of his own creed occupying the Governor’s Mansion. Ever faithful, Tim has even recently urged his supporters to back Rossi’s call for a revote.

Permanent Defense exists to oppose people like Tim Eyman and Dino Rossi, who, in positions of power, have shown are capable of contributing to a more regressive tax structure and damaging the public services of Washington State.

Seeking to address the complaint, Mr. Eyman wrote a letter to the Public Disclosure Commission on September 10th which he made available to the media. He apparently sought to refute the charges, but all he ended up doing was confirming their legitimacy.

He admitted to the most serious charge – namely, that his campaign committee, Voters Want More Choices (VWMC), pays the all of the bills and expenses for Help Us Help Taxpayers, (HUHT), his personal compensation committee. Mr. Eyman states very clearly, “Our campaign committee [VWMC] pays for these mailings and the accounting and other costs associated with our compensation fund [HUHT].”

Though he was willing to tell the PDC the truth in his September 10th letter, Eyman did not tell the truth to his supporters. Throughout the Initiative 864 campaign, a standard disclaimer at the end of each fundraising email read:

“Voluntary donations to the 25% Property Tax Initiative will be used to qualify this important tax reduction initiative for the ballot. A different political action committee, Help Us Help Taxpayers, raises money for a compensation fund for Tim Eyman, Jack Fagan, & Mike Fagan. These two campaign committees are kept separate and donations and expenditures for each fund are publicly reported every month.”

Clearly, even according to Mr. Eyman, the committees are not kept separate because Voters Want More Choices is paying the bills and expenses for Help Us Help Taxpayers.

Eyman is using campaign committee funds to pay for personal mailings and other expenses to maximize the amount of money that he makes from his personal compensation committee. This transfer of funds is clearly an in-kind contribution, and it hasn’t been reported.

Permanent Defense Chair Andrew Villeneuve said, “Tim Eyman has long attempted to deceive the public and distort the truth about his numerous personal compensation efforts and compliance with public disclosure law. He claims that our complaint is all lies, and then in a letter to the PDC, he admits our main allegation is true.”

“He only tells the truth when it is most convenient, and even then, he tells his supporters something different.”

Besides investigating the main allegation, the PDC announced it will also investigate numerous other reporting violations, including failure to timely and accurately report contributions to Help Us Help Taxpayers, failure to report polling expenditures by Voters Want More Choices, and failure of Just Treat Us The Same to meet reporting deadlines.

The PDC has assigned the complaint Case No. 05-066 and Case No. 05-068.

Calling it “our opponents’ latest slime attack”, Eyman said he had reviewed the complaint “and it’s all lies.” But the initiative profiteer didn’t counter or address any of the charges against him.

If the contentions made in the complaint are so easily disproved, why didn’t Eyman try to refute them? His refusal to answer them lends credence to the truth of the contentions.

Eyman’s past history suggests that he is indeed willing to violate public disclosure law over and over again. He’s notorious for taking a salary while lying about it, but his history is more extensive than that.

More than once, he’s been late filing his records, has twice solicited supporters for personal checks made out to “Tim Eyman, Taxpayer Advocate” – even in the midst of one of his initiative campaigns.

It seems that Tim likes raising money even more than he likes running initiative campaigns. Why else would he be willing to apparently spend $26,305 of donations to Initiative 864 on a mailing for his personal compensation fund?

The answer is that Tim’s political activism is his income. He cares more deeply about making money than he does about making policy. Even when his initiatives fail, Tim comes right out and asks supporters to compensate him for his “effective work on behalf of taxpayers”.

To Eyman, supporters are like ATM machines. Punch in the right code and you can collect the money. And never mind that Tim Eyman is like an identity thief.

He promised supporters repeatedly that, “Voluntary donations to the 25% Property Tax Initiative will be used to qualify this important tax reduction initiative for the ballot,” and that Help Us Help Taxpayers was completely seperate.

Apparently, Help Us Help Taxpayers isn’t so seperate after all. It’s one thing to lie about taking money for personal use. It’s another to continue doing it again.

Eyman figured he wouldn’t be caught. But that’s what he thought before he was forced to confess about taking a salary in February of 2002.

Eyman can think it’s “borrowing”, but he’s run out of excuses. He told supporters all the way up to July 2nd that their money was being used to qualify Initiative 864 for the ballot. When apparently, a sizable chunk wasn’t, after all.

Eyman’s silence on the charges raises their credibility. The PDC must now act to ensure that the public disclosure law was not violated. And if it was, Eyman should be penalized for not following the rules like everyone else.

It’s only fair to the citizens of Washington State.

The complaint also accuses Eyman and his associates of a broad range of public disclosure violations- including delinquent reporting, as well as conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud.

Andrew Villeneuve, Chair of Permanent Defense, said “When it comes to the public disclosure law, Eyman acts as if the rules somehow don’t apply to him.”

“In his mind, it’s okay to file late, to use funds from one committee to apparently pay for another’s expenses, and to lie about taking a salary.”

“But when opponents do something that Eyman thinks is running afoul of the law, he puts up a big racket and acts like a victim. He clearly has a double standard.”

He said he expects the PDC to take action on the sixteen page complaint, saying “Last March, when Eyman filed his forms late, the PDC made clear that future infringements would not be tolerated. Unless Eyman is penalized, he will continue to ignore the law and get away with it.”

Previously, in March of 2004, Permanent Defense joined TaxSanity.org and Taxpayers For Washington’s Future in filing a complaint to the PDC that accused Eyman of not filing the names and addresses of his contributors on time.

The PDC condemned the delay and dismissed the complaint but warned Eyman that future violations could result in enforcement action.

Once again, Eyman has been caught in violation of the public disclosure law. Money is disappearing from the Initiative 864 campaign war chest, mailings for Eyman’s compensation PAC are suspiciously not costing anything, and donations Eyman has said he’s received aren’t being reported on time, and even when reported late, have discrepancies.

“This entire operation, including all three committees, needs an audit,” said Chair Andrew Villeneuve. “It’s all in shambles. He keeps making mistakes and filing late. Then he has to file amended returns with new versions of his records. And it appears that Eyman is using funds from one committee to pay for another’s mailings, even though he insists they’re separate.”

The complainants believe Eyman is clearly culpable of breaking the law, and has been allowed to get away with too many violations for too long.

It’s time for the Public Disclosure Commission to condemn these violations and penalize Eyman for not following the rules like everyone else.

A formal complaint filed today with the Public Disclosure Commission (PDC) alleges that during the final weeks of its failed signature drive, Tim Eyman fraudulently spent over $26,000 of I-864 campaign funds on a fundraising letter for his personal compensation PAC, “Help Us Help Taxpayers” .

The complaint — filed jointly by TaxSanity.org, Taxpayers for Washington’s Future (TWF), and Permanent Defense — accuses Tim Eyman, his associates, and his three PACs of a broad array of campaign finance and public disclosure violations, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud. The 16 page complaint includes supporting documentation.

“Once again, Tim Eyman has been caught lying to contributors,” said David Goldstein of TaxSanity.org. “He promised to keep campaign contributions separate from his compensation fund… a promise he never intended to keep.” The complaint suggests that since its inception in June of 2003, Help Us Help Taxpayers’ operations have been entirely subsidized by “Voters Want More Choices” (VWMC), including over $10,000 of reported in-kind contributions.

Steve Zemke of TWF called the misreported June 2004 expenditure “doubly deceptive” because it occurred at a time Mr. Eyman was aggressively soliciting funds for what he claimed to be a close I-864 signature drive. Mr. Zemke, a veteran of many successful initiative campaigns, said Mr. Eyman deliberately misled contributors about where their money was going: “I-864 was dead in the water, and Tim knew it. Yet he continued to solicit contributions, while diverting money to his compensation fund.”

Andrew Villeneuve of Permanent Defense emphasized that the complaint includes a number of charges that together establish a pattern of abuse and deception. “These violations aren’t just isolated incidents. They’re part of a long-running history of infractions. The PDC should demand full compliance with the law and take immediate action to ensure that Eyman is following the rules like everyone else.”

The answer is no. Information from the Department of Revenue does show an increase in the amount of revenue collected from property taxes each year. But you can’t look at the amount of money the state collects and use that as an appropriate figure.

Any accurate representation of the property tax burden should take into account the following factors:

• Inflation
• Population growth (and, since 1980, Washington’s population has increased 32.2%)
• Expansion of the tax base (i.e., more properties to tax)
• Loss or gain of federal funding
• Shifting of revenue from one tax source to another

Tim’s complaint that the property tax growth is “obscene” is unjustifiable. Revenue collection figures will always continue to grow because of inflation. And because the population continues to grow, and because more properties are developed, Washington will require more public services. More public services requires an increase in revenue.

There is no way to prevent this increase unless the level of public services currently provided by the state and local governments were to drastically regress. This would lead to a loss of jobs as firemen, librarians, police officers, and other government employees would be laid off in large numbers.

The following chart, furnished by the Department of Revenue, provides a better look at tax growth. Compare it side by side to the chart Tim Eyman uses in his argument that the property tax burden is “obscene”.
Several conclusions can be made from the chart to the left. The first is that the tax burden has dramatically decreased. Part of this is because government has had to make do with less, even as population has grown and demands on the state’s infrastructure have increased.

The second is that using 1980 as a starting date is misleading. If you start one year earlier, in 1979, it’s obvious that the tax burden has clearly and dramatically decreased. In fact, property taxes as a percentage of assessed value have clearly declined.

According to the Washington State Tax Structure Committee and every other accountable source, the economic figure that most closely tracks growth in demand for public services is growth in personal income. Personal income is also the only number which permits a true measure of tax burden.

This second chart, also provided by the Department of Revenue, shows that thirty one other states have higher tax burdens than Washington:

So Tim’s claim that tax growth is “obscene” is simply not true. And compared to other states, Washington’s tax burden is fairly low. Because Tim’s method of measurement doesn’t produce meaningful information, his results are completely misleading and out of context.

Those who take Tim’s statistics for granted don’t understand that he’s playing with the numbers and the figures, using irrelevant data and presenting misleading graphs to paint a distorted picture of Washington State’s tax burden. He’s proved one thing- even when it comes down to math, you can’t trust Tim Eyman.

Once again, Tim Eyman has sent out his pleas to his supporters to ask them to donate to his personal compensation fund.

He’s asking them to pay him for a year’s worth of work that ended in failure. A year’s effort that bore no fruition for Eyman’s supporters.

The “Help Me Help Myself” routine is getting pretty pathetic. It leaves you wondering what happened to Eyman’s fraternity watch business.

Is he still doing it? Hard to tell. The former Mukilteo “businessman” seems so caught up in his initiatives that he doesn’t have time to do anything else.

The last three of Eyman initiatives that didn’t have major-league backing from special interests have all failed to get onto the ballot.

Initiatives 267, 807, and 864 have gone down as flaming wrecks. Initiative 892- paid for by greedy gambling conglomerates from Canada and Nevada.

What’s this campaign that Eyman is running coming to?

Though it never was about “relief” from the start, it’s all too obvious now that Tim Eyman, once proud of his grassroots image, is a sham. He doesn’t stand for the common man. He stands for Boeing, Weyerhaeuser, and all the companies that will save millions from his tax-cutting initiatives.

Eyman stands for them while the majority of Washington’s population suffers and communities pay the price for voters’ seduction and subversion.

He just wasn’t able to keep the charade going long enough. In February of 2002, he finally had to admit that he had lied – about big time financial matters. If Tim felt comfortable lying about taking money, he obviously doesn’t feel bad about the lies he keeps spreading regarding his initiatives.

When it comes down to it, Tim Eyman has helped himself more than he’s helped anyone else, and he’s at it yet again. Doing what he does best. Begging for his supporters’ donations.

Eyman first began working on this measure over a year ago. More than 365 days later, Eyman has nothing to show for efforts. Our victory means that thousands of firemen, librarians, and other public services employees can rest comfortably tonight knowing their jobs will not be on the chopping block in November.

We’ve worked hard from the beginning to stop Initiative 864, and we’ve succeeded. It’s obvious that Washingtonians do not support or desire the radical, dangerous proposal that Tim forcefully advocated for over a year. The citizens of this state clearly do not support drastic rollbacks of public services.

Tim’s lack of support was evident in the fact that he couldn’t raise more than $260,000 for Initiative 864, and collected less than 160,000 signatures.

About 198,000 are required and it usually takes more than 230,000 signatures to ensure qualification for the ballot.

Not only is Tim’s support base eroding, but so is the electorate’s patience with Tim. Voters refused to be lured into signing their communities into oblivion. The qualify of life in our state’s communities is clearly more important to Washingtonians than a “slash and burn” approach to taxation.

Our efforts have significantly helped to broaden the public awareness of Initiative 864, and doubtless contributed to its defeat.

To everyone who participated in the effort, joined the complaint to the PDC, wrote letters to the editor or to legislators, to everyone who stood up in their community and called attention to this issue, to everyone who volunteered their time and energy to help get the message out – THANK YOU.

While we have a great victory in the death of Initiative 864, there is still Initiative 892. Tim’s other measure is the largest expansion of gambling in state history and will be on the November ballot. Thousands upon thousands of dollars were contributed by out of state, foreign gambling consortiums that went to hire paid signature gatherers to help the industry buy its way onto the ballot.

In response to the threat of I-892, opponents are forming a powerful coalition of diverse interests, from Native American tribes to the Christian Coalition, to stop this measure. And in a few days, we’re re-launching Permanent Defense to rededicate ourselves to the task of fighting Eyman and I-892.

No matter what lies ahead in the future weeks and months, Permanent Defense will be there, doing its part to oppose Eyman and promote real tax reform.

And we know you’ll be there with us as we move forward on this important mission: to bring fairness and sanity to the tax structure in the state of Washington. We cannot move forward without removing the obstacles in our path, and the biggest obstacle is Tim Eyman.

I-892 most likely will be on the ballot, but I-864 is dead. That’s worth a pause for celebration. And then the fight against expanded gambling in Washington will begin. We’ll be in the thick of it, and we hope you will be too.

Be sure to check back on July 6th for the Permanent Defense July Relaunch!

Have a great Fourth of July, and thank you

The test of all that hard work comes this week. The signature deadline for I-864 and I-892 is fast approaching. Tim Eyman needs more than 197,000 signatures- he needs 250,000 because of errors, duplicities, and other common problems with signatures.

Thus, paid signature gatherers will be out in full force- hoping to make a buck off of your name, and helping to qualify I-864 and I-892 for the ballot.

IT IS CRUCIAL that you be alert and focused when you are out and about over the next few days, especially the first couple days of this week. DO NOT allow yourself to be subverted or dragged into signing I-864 and I-892.

I-892 and I-864 would be DEVASTATING to Washington’s communities. There is simply no other way to put it- together, the two initiatives represent a cutback in needed public services like fire departments and libraries, and an expansion of gambling into neighborhood bars and bowling alleys.

For months, we’ve worked hard to fight this initiative. We must redouble, even retriple, our efforts, now, to ensure that I-864 and I-892 do not qualify for the November ballot. We do this by helping to inform voters. The more voters know about these initiatives, the less willing they are to sign them.

That’s because voters who are informed know of the consequences- the consequences of signing or voting for these initiatives.

So be especially alert this week, and help us out by spreading the word. Remember, the Voter Education Center includes a great deal of useful information, including flyers and an awareness handout that you can download.

The Release Center has been updated with a number of new links and downloads, as has the Action Center. These three centers will continue to serve as online hubs for, hopefully, the last week in our campaign against Initiative 864 and Initiative 892.

There are many ways for you to get involved. You can volunteer with us to help aid voters, report signature gathering activity when you see it by calling 1-800-856-2465, and spread the word in your community by downloading our flyers and distributing them among family, friends, and neighbors.

Even the smallest effort helps to make a difference. Working together, we can achieve victory this year and ensure that our communities will be safe from drastic cutbacks in public services and a huge expansion of gambling.

We’ll continue to keep you updated on our efforts throughout this week.

Many voters were dissuaded from signing the petitions after what they learned about the initiative’s devastating effects on Washington communities.

Tim Eyman is relying on out of state paid signature gatherers to collect names for his initiatives. Thanks to the volunteers at Folklife, many of these paid signature gatherers decided to stop deceiving voters. They gave up and left.

Our success at Folklife is noteworthy, but we’re not out of the woods yet. We still need your help to get voters informed about the dangers of Eyman’s initiatives and the problems with paid signature gathering.

The new Voter Education Center includes a great deal of useful information, including a couple new flyers and a voter awareness handout that you can download.

The Release Center has been updated with a number of new links and downloads, as has the Action Center. These three centers will serve as online hubs for the last great stage in our campaign against Initiative 864 and Initiatives 892.

There are many ways for you to get involved. You can volunteer with us to help aid voters, report signature gathering activity when you see it by calling 1-800-856-2465, and spread the word in your community by downloading our flyers and distributing them among family, friends, and neighbors.

Even the smallest effort helps to make a difference. Working together, we can achieve victory this year and ensure that our communities will be safe from drastic cutbacks in public services and a huge expansion of gambling.

We’ll continue to keep you updated on our efforts throughout the weeks ahead.