Newsroom Archives by Month: March 2004

Eyman helps himself early this year

Eye on Money: Developments

Initiative profiteer Tim Eyman has decided that this year, rather than tell his supporters he’s going to ask for donations if he’s successful, and then, despite failure, ask anyway, that he’ll start a little early.

Eyman is helping himself to a $3,100-a-week salary from campaign contributions to his new initiative, which would open up the state to gambling and pretend to cut state property taxes by $400 million.

For the next 15 weeks, until the July 2nd petition deadline, Eyman will collect about $46,500 total in funds. This new revelation is not shocking or monumental. Rather, it is just another confirmation that Eyman’s initiative factory has always been about business and not about policy.

It all started back when Eyman pocketed $200,000 of his supporters’ donations and lied about taking the money. He was forced to admit what he had been doing after persistent work by critic Christian Sinderman to alert the media.

Eyman then said he wanted to begin taking a salary for his work. So in December of 2002, touting his new “wildly popular” Initiative 807 (as Tim himself described it in an email to supporters) he promised to take a salary only if they were successful in getting I-807 on the ballot.

Initiative 807 didn’t get on the ballot, mainly because of a lack of contributions, lack of interest, and a number of mistakes committed by Eyman.

But that didn’t matter to Tim. Even though the watchmaker from Mukilteo had not registered as a paid lobbyist, he decided to collect money for his “effective work for taxpayers” and pocket it.

From July 2003 until December 2004, Eyman accepted donations for himself and the Fagans to pay “Voters Want More Choices” for NOT getting on the ballot.

Tim never did any effective lobbying. He took credit for the efforts of Senator Dino Rossi, Senator Pam Roach, and Governor Gary Locke, who each directly or indirectly worked towards the same thing Tim wanted: a no-new taxes budget.

Except Tim couldn’t prevent the nickel gas tax from being enacted, and so he promised “revenge”. Initiative 864 is supposedly his revenge, although that initiative effort looks extremely shaky… hence the conveniently timed gambling initiative.

And now, 2004. Tim is working together with the gambling industry and helping himself to their funding- with or without their blessing. Tim plans to collect almost half of $100,000 in just fifteen weeks- more than some people make in a year.

Clearly, Tim Eyman does not mind helping himself. And that’s what Tim’s initiative factory has always been about.

Eyman flouting public disclosure law… again

Eye on Money: Developments

Tim Eyman is once again disregarding public disclosure law.

For whatever reason – laziness, or reluctance to report according to the law, Eyman has withehld the names of contributors for the second month in a row from the public’s eye.

Eyman alleges his treasurer is sick, and so he wasn’t able to get the names in. That’s all well and good…except this is Tim Eyman, and Tim offered the exact same excuse in February! Eyman has plenty of money. The profligate initiative filer could find and hire another data-entry person. It’s not like Tim is short of money.

According to an article in the Seattle P-I by Neil Modie:

Voters Want More Choices had $27,967 in the bank as of Feb. 29. Help Us Help Taxpayers had $7,213 in the bank Feb. 28 after Eyman and the Fagans paid themselves a total of $100,635 between Dec. 29 and Jan. 2 from supporters’ non-campaign donations. Eyman pocketed about half that amount, $50,305, according to disclosure commission filings.

Eyman’s violations include:

  • Failure by Voters Want More Choices and Tim Eyman on Feb 10, 2004 to file names and addresses of contributors on C-3’s
  • Failure by Voters Want More Choices and Tim Eyman on March 10, 2004 to file names and addresses of contributors on C-3’s
  • Failure by Help Us Help Taxpayers and Tim Eyman on Feb 10, 2004 to file names and addresses of contributors on C-3’s
  • Failure by Help Us Help Taxpayers and Tim Eyman on March 10, 2004 to file names and addresses of contributors on C-3’s
  • Failure by Tim Eyman to file a campaign committee for I-885 14 days after he expected to receive or spend money on campaign. Tim Eyman filed I-885 with the Secretary of State on March 1, 2004 and a campaign committee had not been registered as of March 16, 2004.

Permanent Defense has joined with Taxpayers For Washington’s Future, TaxSanity.org, and the Washington State Council of Firefighters in filing a complaint to the Public Disclosure Commission.

Eyman’s arrogance towards the public disclosure law is unacceptable. Tim believes he is above the law and the rest of the state in that he can get away with whatever he wants.

Permanent Defense urges you to visit our Action Center and Take Action against Tim and his initiatives.

Firefighters speak out

Rethinking and ReframingThreat Analysis

A number of firefighters have contacted us, concerned about the effects of Initiative 864, and asked us to help them spread their message. Initiative 864 means REAL cuts for REAL firefighters, and that’s jobs lost in an already downbeat economy. Not to mention the drop in your level of protection, would could lead to higher insurance rates. So, here’s the firefighters in their own words:

From Brandon Knopp, a King County volunteer firefighter:

It would be great to cut taxes and all. But has anyone stopped and thought about what it will do to the Fire and Police departments?

I am a volunteer fire fighter out in a rural are in King County. My Chief met with the King County Police Chiefs and Fire Chiefs, and they are all concerned about this 25% cut.

A few examples of how it would back just some of the local fire and police departments:

  • Federal Way Fire Department would lose about 10 fire fighters.
  • Maple Valley would lose 3 or 4.
  • King County would not be able to fund King County Medic One and therefore we would not have ANY paramedics in the South King County area.

And one of bigger issues is that departments like mine would be shut down. Our district is adjacent to Maple Valley and Enumclaw.

If this 25% cut went through, Maple Valley and Enumclaw would not be able to cover our 26 square mile district. There would be no fire or aid protection in that area.

And if you look in Eastern Washington, it’s almost ALL volunteer departments So, say goodbye to our forests if they catch fire, because there won’t be anyone to put them out.

So…please, please, please take what I have said into consideration before supporting this 25% cut.

From Tim Kienitz, Clark County Fire District #6:

As a firefighter I am faced with the potential of losing my job. That in itself is a bad thing, as I have a family to support. The worst part of it is what it would do to the community that I serve.

The service of EMS and Fire protection we offer to the community would be crippled because of manpower cuts and service would suffer. I fear that because of the political climate in the country about taxes people will not understand that the money they pay goes to protect their very lives.

From Shawn, a suburban firefighter:

I am a member of a mid sized fire department with less than 50 paid employees, serving a mostly suburban community. Recently we met with our administration regarding a contingency plan in case I-864 passes. Losing revenue by cutting property taxes in our Fire District translates to laying off 15 firefighters and firefighter paramedics and closing one of our 3 fire stations.

In turn, our response times would increase and service levels would decrease to that of the early 90’s while our call volume will have doubled from the same time. I hope the voters in the state of Washington will come to realize that this initiative WILL gut our public services and our Fire Departments will lose their effectiveness in making a timely response to their emergency.

Protect your quality of life and your local community… decline to sign Initiative 864.

Eyman proposes gambling-for-tax cuts scheme

Threat Analysis

Tim Eyman’s new plan to add to the state’s list of woes involves a $400 million state property tax cut. Eyman says education would be shielded, but that claim is as phony as Eyman himself.

He’s proposing to pay off the $400 million cut, which would have been deflected onto criminal justice and other state programs, by opening up the rest of the state to gambling. It’s an idea so pitiful it goes below the legislature’s half-hearted plans to fix our state’s regressive tax system.

The latest plan, a complete disgrace, just serves to prove the profligate initiative filer is all about announcing and not about doing. For the past ten months, Eyman has done nothing but announce new plans and shake his electronic tin cup.

Last June he said his intention was go after state property taxes. In the meantime, he was busy collecting money for himself. In December, he announced a new version of his 25% property tax slashing plan: local property taxes, not state property taxes, would be targeted. Since then, he’s supposedly been working on Initiative 864. And now, he announces he plans to attack state and local property taxes – and use expanded gambling to cover the costs of cutting the former.

Eyman doesn’t produce results for his supporters. He has had no successful initiative since 2002. And his plans slash millions of dollars from parks, libraries, pools, police, & fire response.

Real savings from reduced taxes equal real cuts, and at the local level, the cuts are direct. What’s the great thing about saving a couple hundred dollars a year if your local fire station is forced to shut down?

Eyman never mentions that insurance rates could also rise if Initiative 864 is passed. He also never takes note that his initiative badly hurts the local governments that are already doing an efficient job. And he proposes to jack up gambling to pay for his latest idea.

The two-part tax-cut drive is not much of a new twist for Eyman. He’s changed his story so many times that it’s more like a ten part plan, with each part of the plan changing the part that came before. The new plan would only add to the woes now facing Washington State. Eyman would have us believe that we’d be better off laying off  local firefighters and policemen and saving money, but he’s wrong.

Eyman’s constant mantra about government waste, corruption, and inefficiency is tiring and old. Year after year, it’s the same laundry list of complaints: Sound Transit, vehicle tabs, property taxes, the state Legislature, and on and on.

The new initiative will not shield education. It’s a lie that is so pathetic, it’s hard to describe. Schools are hardly shielded when funding for libraries, pools, parks, and extra curricular programs is slashed.

Education is more than just school. Kids need support outside of school, especially kids in need of help. And the money that will “save” education will come from prisons and the criminal justice system.

Is Seattle destined to be the Las Vegas of the Northwest? If Eyman has his way, Washington will transform into a lawless society like Haiti where a powerless government can do nothing to serve or protect its citizens, or another Reno/Las Vegas, the “sin capital of the world.”

Initiative 864 and his new plan will not create new jobs. His plan will, in fact, cut jobs. Washington has a regressive tax system, but Tim’s initiatives just make an already broken system worse.

The reason that Kemper Freeman Jr. and the Lemattas of Vancouver give money to Eyman is because the initiatives give huge windfalls to wealthy property owners. Both the Lemattas and Freeman own a lot of property.

Don’t let Tim Eyman and Voters Want More Choices deceive you. There is no free lunch. A 25% property tax cut, and a state property tax cut to boot, is madness and insanity. It will break more than it will fix.

There is no benefit in having less firemen and policemen on patrol. There is no way to make up for library cutbacks, park closures, and mothballed pools. The cuts that would result from Initiative 864 would be so sweeping, so drastic, that there would be no way to plug them.

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