Category Archives: Threat Analysis

April 27th, 2006

Eyman reveals signature drive progress for R-65

Threat Analysis

We have no way of knowing whether Tim Eyman is telling the truth, but we do know that Tim Eyman sent an email today to supporters and the media. In it, he says that only 8,718 signatures have been collected for Referendum 65.
112,440 valid signatures are required for qualification on the ballot, but Eyman will need a cushion of thousands more signatures because a certain percentage are always duplicates or otherwise invalid.

When the AP asked Rep. Ed Murray for comment, he voiced skepticism:

“I’m very suspicious that it’s a political ploy,” said Rep. Ed Murray, D-Seattle, who sponsored the gay civil rights bill and is one of four openly gay lawmakers in the Legislature.

Eyman, for his part, gave a curious response:

“I think we’re going to be scraping by the skin of our teeth,” he said. “They assume we’re smarter than we are. That’s not the case.”

Actually, we don’t assume Eyman is smart. But we do assume, based on what’s happened in the past, that special interests and wealthy backers (especially those who can’t stand the idea of equality) will in fact be willing to put up money to fund a paid signature drive to get Referendum 65 on the ballot.

Of course, so far, Eyman’s fundraising for R-65 has been less than lackluster, and we couldn’t be more pleased about that.

Some of Eyman’s supporters told the AP they are hoping the state Supreme Court will overturn the state’s ban on gay marriage, thereby providing “a spark” to inspire right wing religious zealots to gather signatures. That indicates they’re having some trouble gathering signatures now.

And to that – we say, good.

April 2nd, 2006

Referendum 65 petitions filled with lies

Threat Analysis

Washington state voters should be aware that Tim Eyman and the religious right are once again attempting to deceive and mislead the public. Permanent Defense has obtained copies of Eyman’s R-65 petition, which, strangely enough, he has not been distributing to his email list of supporters.

(Eyman’s small band of supporters have been getting fundraising emails and petitions for Initiative 917).

On the front of the Referendum 65 petition are the words:

NO PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT, NO QUOTAS, NO SAME SEX MARRIAGE

The entire subheading is a lie.

ESHB 2661 (which is the law Eyman is trying to repeal with R-65) does not give not anyone preferential treatment. In fact, it does just the reverse – it explicitly outlaws preferential treatment by banning discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

ESHB 2661 also has nothing to do with quotas or same sex marriage. To imply that it does is an outright fabrication, crafted to scare the electorate.

Ironically, below this subheader, there is the Ballot Measure Summary, which reads:

ESHB 2661 amends the state’s law against discrimination to prohibit discrimination based on “sexual orientation” in employment, housing, credit, insurance, health maintenance contracts, public accommodations, and commercial boycotts or blacklists. “Sexual orientation” includes heterosexuality, homosexuality, bisexuality, and gender expression or identity.

State marriage laws are not modified, employment goals or quotas are not required, nor any specific belief, practice, behavior or orientation endorsed.

Religious organizations and owner-occupied dwelling units are exempt from this law.

That Eyman has the gall to make voters think ESHB 2661 is about preferential treatment, quotas, and same sex marriage is an outrage. But it’s not a surprise.

Permanent Defense strongly encourages voters not to sign Referendum 65, and to report signature gathering activity for this measure when they see it.

February 13th, 2006

Four Years: Statement from the Founder

AnnouncementsThreat Analysis

Today and throughout this month, Permanent Defense proudly celebrates four years of political activism in Washington State, fighting Tim Eyman’s senseless initiatives, working to reform the state’s tax structure, and promoting the value of public services.

The arrival of February 2006 marks the end of our fourth year of operation and the beginning of our fifth year.

Our fourth year was very eventful. We faced significant obstacles but we were successful in accomplishing many important goals. Here’s a review of what we achieved this past year:

  • In late February 2005, Permanent Defense’s founder, along with David Goldstein of TaxSanity and Steve Zemke of Taxpayers for Washington’s Future, testified before the House Finance Committee in favor of House Bill 1744 (the homestead exemption proposal) to create a fairer property tax structure.
  • Throughout the spring of 2005, Permanent Defense organized to fight Initiative 900, Tim Eyman’s overload of performance audits. Upon the filing of Initiative 912, the leadership of Permanent Defense decided to set up a sister organization, Washington Defense, to oppose the repeal of the 2005 Transportation Package while Permanent Defense fought I-900.
  • In the summer, following the end of the signature drives, Permanent Defense’s website was retooled through the annual July Relaunch and readied to oppose Initiative 900. Washington Defense’s website was readied to oppose Initiative 912.
  • Throughout the summer of 2005 Permanent Defense’s founder spoke before numerous organizations, including the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce and the Municipal League, to urge an endorsement against Initiative 900.
  • In August Washington Defense PAC was launched to raise money to fight a grassroots campaign against Initiative 912.
  • During the fall Permanent Defense supporters worked extremely hard to fight against Initiative 912, and, when time allowed, oppose Initiative 900 as well. A strong emphasis was placed on defeating I-912 due to the fact that it would have repealed some $5 billion in needed transportation funding, whereas I-900, though poorly drafted and unnecessary, would not have gutted state revenues.

Ultimately, Initiative 912 failed in a significant defeat for Tim Eyman and his fellow anti-tax zealots. Eyman had predicted its passage and even attempted to latch onto the effort to wipe out the gas tax increase. Though Initiative 900 passed, the real Eyman initiative was destroyed in a huge, landmark victory.

Despite the failure of I-912, Eyman has decided to press ahead with his plans to mount an assault on the other revenue sources for the 2005 Transportation Package. In 2006, Permanent Defense will work to protect over $2.6 billion in transportation funding from being wiped out by Eyman’s initiative.

Permanent Defense will also vigorously oppose Eyman’s outrageous attack on Washington State’s newly amended anti-discrimination law, which now prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

Not only will we fight these senseless onslaughts on our quality of life, but we’ll continue our work to map out a long term plan for fixing Washington’s tax structure, including alternatives to the state sales tax and the obnoxious “business & occupation tax”.

As in past years, we’ll be rolling out numerous improvements and additions to our website during the next twelve months.

Great challenges lie ahead, but we can overcome them and make Washington State a better place to live, work, and visit.

Thanks for your involvement during the past 365 days. Here’s to another successful year!

February 1st, 2006

Eyman attacks civil rights

Threat Analysis

On Monday, January 30th, Tim Eyman filed an initiative to overturn the recently passed HB 2661, which outlaws discrimination based on sexual orientation. Tim Eyman has truly established himself as an evil person:

He seeks to cripple the very institutions that form the foundation of our representative democracy.

He seeks to appeal to the people of the state under false pretenses, masquerading as a faux populist and distorting the truth, attempting to convince the electorate to stab itself in the back.

He seeks to destroy funding for our most precious and valued public services – services that make our communities livable, like police and fire protection, libraries and schools, parks and pools, and public works.

He seeks to make our society less safe and undermine our economy by wiping out government investments in transportation infrastructure.

And now he seeks to allow discrimination and inequality in Washington State.

Tim Eyman is a filthy, despicable creature. This organization, the Northwest Progressive Institute, and its Permanent Defense division, will not allow Tim Eyman to go unchallenged.

This organization will stand up not only to defend transportation funding, but it will also stand up to defend equality and civil rights.

Tim Eyman has been defeated before. He will be defeated again. Whether or not his measures get on the ballot this year, we will work to stop him. The fight against Eyman is a battle to save the future and the health of Washington State. We can and we will win it.

December 29th, 2005

Why does Tim Eyman keep getting special attention from the media?

Rethinking and ReframingStatements & AdvisoriesThreat Analysis

This organization – the membership and leadership of Permanent Defense – is getting pretty tired of the special treatment that Tim Eyman keeps getting from Washington State media outlets. Today, Tim has a column in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, entitled “2006 initiative: Save our $30 tabs.” Just yesterday, the Everett Herald ran the very same column for Tim, entitled: “Politicians should be held to their word on $30 tabs”. Why are media outlets going out of their way to give Eyman special treatment?

The staff of this organization would like to know why.

It’s been said that the media is not very good at telling people what to think, but is good at telling people what to think about. The power to set the agenda. To decide what is “buzz” and what is not. We are fairly confident that the media understands who Tim Eyman is and what he wants.

His goal is to destroy government. And his philosophy (if you can call it that) is well summarized in this quote from national right wing activist Grover Norquist, who famously stated: “My goal is to cut government in half in twenty-five years – to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub.”

Eyman’s initiatives are all attempts to reduce the size and scope of government in some way. Not just state government, but local government, too. Most of his initiatives have been proposals to drastically cut back taxes, which has an immediate and significant effect on the ability of government to deliver quality public services to its citizens.

Year after year, editorial boards and commentators across Washington have opined against nearly every one of these initiatives, concluding that they will not lead to a healthier Evergreen State.

Despite this, Eyman keeps getting the attention he wants and needs to remain influential.  In fact, Tim  has probably received more media exposure than any other politician in the state, save for the Governor.

Whenever Eyman wants to “announce” a new initiative effort, the Associated Press usually has an article about it. Whenever Eyman calls a press conference in Olympia, the major TV stations (KOMO, KING, KIRO, KCPQ) usually send their cameras over to the Capitol campus to cover it, and then those stations run the clips during their five o’clock broadcasts. When Eyman submits columns to newspapers, they usually get printed. We know because we keep seeing them.

Last May, our Chair wrote a post for the Northwest Progressive Institute Advocate (the blog of Permanent Defense’s parent organization) taking to the traditional media to task for fawning over Eyman. This post still rings true today.

It is time that regional media outlets stopped giving Tim Eyman so much special attention. There is no good reason why he should be awarded with column after column after column. There is no good reason why the press needs to feel obligated to cover him every single time he wants to announce a new initiative effort.

Why not instead put a greater emphasis on giving more people, especially those active within their neighborhood communities, a chance to express their views? The Evergreen State is home to about six million people.

There are surely many Washingtonians (and many issues) that are far more worthy of the attention than Tim Eyman. The media should be diversifying its political coverage instead of catering to him.

September 15th, 2005

OFM Fiscal Impact Statement for I-900

Threat Analysis

The Office of Fiscal Management has released their fiscal impact statement for Initiative 900. It is as follows:

Fiscal Impact Statement for Initiative 900
Initiative 900 would reduce state sales-and-use tax revenue flowing to the state fund that finances general government services. It directs that 0.16 percent of this revenue go to a new Performance Audits of Government Account to pay for performance audits of state and local governments. An estimated $17 million would be deposited in the account instead of the state General Fund in the 2005-07 Biennium, and an estimated $25 million would be deposited in the 2007-09 Biennium. Tax revenue in the General Fund pays for state services including education, social, health, and environmental services, and general government activities

Assumptions for Fiscal Analysis of Initiative 900
The estimates of the amount of sales-and-use tax revenue that would be deposited in the Performance Audits of Government Account is determined by applying the 0.16 percent diversion rate specified in the initiative to the sales-and-use tax collections projected in the June 2005 revenue forecast produced by the state Economic and Revenue Forecast Council.

The General Fund reduction of $17 million estimated for the 2005-07 Biennium assumes an effective date for the initiative of Dec. 8, 2005. The General Fund reduction of $25 million that is estimated for the 2007-09 Biennium reflects the fiscal impact of the initiative over a full, 24-month biennium.

Permanent Defense will be making the OFM’s fiscal impact statement available as a PDF from the Release Center.

July 23rd, 2005

Initiative 900 gives the auditor too much power

Threat Analysis

Close your eyes – and imagine for a moment that the state auditor isn’t Brian Sonntag. Imagine instead that the state auditor is Tim Eyman, with the power to harass agencies like Sound Transit and the Seattle Monorail Project (both of which Eyman hates). Do you like the idea of giving the state auditor the power to push around local governments? What if we got a “rogue auditor”? It’s a question we address in one of our new essays.

February 13th, 2005

Three Years: Statement from the Founder

AnnouncementsThreat Analysis

This week and this month, Permanent Defense is proud to celebrate three years of political activism in Washington State – opposing Tim Eyman, fighting for real tax reform, and promoting the value of public services.

February 2005 marks the end of our third year of operation and the beginning of our fourth.

The last year has been Permanent Defense’s most successful year to date. Working together with our friends and allies, we have accomplished much of what we set out to do a year ago.

Last year, in this statement, I wrote about how imperative it was that we stop Tim Eyman and his initiative factory from causing further devastating harm to Washington State. Thanks to your hard work, and our cooperation with other groups opposed to Eyman, we successfully defeated both I-864 and I-892.

I’d like to reflect on some of the things we’ve accomplished this past year- from February 2004 to February 2005. I’m proud of what this project has been able to accomplish, and I’m confident that we will continue to be successful in our efforts to change Washington State for the better.

  • We defeated Initiative 864 in July of 2004, destroying a threat that would have brought certain disaster to local governments and public services across the state. We fought this issue for a year (June 2003 to July 2004) and won, dispelling Eyman’s myths and rumors about the tax climate.
  • We defeated Initiative 892 in November of 2004, with voters rejecting Eyman’s attempt to proliferate our state with slot machines by a landslide. We mailed flyers, distributed yard signs, appeared in the media, and attended community events to voice our opposition to I-892.
  • We debuted a new e-newsletter for the press – Permanent Defense Focus!, which has helped to counter the lies that Tim Eyman continually feeds the media.
  • We retooled our site through January Launch, July Relaunch, and December Update, with lots of new sections and features, especially the Release Center and the Permanent Defense Forum.
  • We had three times the traffic to our website this year of what we had in 2002 and 2003 combined, with thousands of visits to our site.

In the years since Permanent Defense was founded, Tim Eyman has had one initiative which passed at the polls:  Initiative 776. All of the others have been failures. Eyman is currently is in an 0 for 4 slump and is trying to break out of it by qualifying an initiative to the people that would overload our state with audits.

Eyman’s proposal would have the state shelling out around $90 million every biennium so we can pay to audit every single state agency, program, and account and would require the auditor’s office to expand by four times its current size over the next decade.

Fortunately, the state House and the state Senate are considering much more practical legislation that has the state auditor’s support.

We will continue to vigorously oppose Eyman on all the issues. And we will step up our efforts to fight for real tax reform, including pushing for a state homestead exemption.

We’ll talk about a long term plan for fixing Washington’s tax structure, including alternatives to the state sales tax and the obnoxious “business & occupation tax”. We’ll also talk about tackling the state’s current funding problems.

We will continue to roll out improvements and additions to our website during the next year. So, I hope you’ll stand with us as we embark on the beginning of another year of political activism, and take a moment to pause and reflect on our achievements and accomplishments from the last one.

Thanks for your involvement. Here’s to another successful year!

January 3rd, 2005

Tim Eyman and Dino Rossi: Friends and Allies

Threat Analysis

Washington State GOP gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi likes to promote himself as a sunny independent thinker who will bring prosperity to Washington State.

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.
  • 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.

June 28th, 2004

Opponents confront Tim Eyman in Olympia during submission of signatures for I-892

Eye on Money: DevelopmentsFrom the Campaign TrailThreat Analysis

On Sunday, June 27th, 2004, Tim Eyman announced that he had 235,000 signatures on hand to turn in to the Secretary of State’s office this morning for Initiative 892, his scheme to expand gambling in every corner of the state. The minimum requirement for the 2004 ballot is about 198,000 signatures.

To counter Tim’s lies and deceitful statistics, Permanent Defense’s Andrew Villeneuve journeyed to Olympia with fellow activists David Goldstein and Steve Zemke to talk to reporters and confront Eyman at his press conference for I-892 at the Secretary of State’s Elections Annex.

We were were successful in throwing Eyman off script as he attempted to go through his rehearsed sales pitch. Although Eyman refused, and still refuses to admit it, the initiative is primarily about an expansion of gambling. It places 19,000 slot machines into neighborhood bars, bowling alleys, and restaurants.

Eyman ignored questions about I-864, the other initiative he claims to be attempting to be qualifying for the ballot. He completely disregarded questions from reporters, brushing them off and attempting to shut them down. The press refused to be daunted, however, and continued to ask questions.

Eyman was interrupted during his press conference by Zemke, who heads Taxpayers For Washington’s Future, an ally of Permanent Defense. Eyman had propped up a graph showing a general rise in property taxes since 1980 and was complaining about the increase in taxes to the press.

But Tim’s graph didn’t take into account inflation, or population growth, or new development (which causes an increase the number of properties assessed by the state). Steve correctly pointed out that Eyman’s graph was worthless because it did not make apples-to-apples comparisons.

More people means more public services, which requires money. More properties means more revenue for the state. And any economist knows that inflation is a continual increase in the cost of products and services, which is a factor that influences the entire economy- including property values.

Tim’s claim that his initiative has wide popular support is also a myth. Tim hasn’t run a campaign powered by volunteer supporters in years. All of his initiatives since 1999 have relied on paid signature gatherers to get on the ballot. I-892 is no exception.

There is no broad-based movement in the state of Washington agitating for these anti-tax initiatives. But there is an alliance between Tim Eyman and the gambling industry, with the goal of swindling voters into believing that I-892 is a good initiative because they’ll save a few bucks on their property taxes. I-892 is the most massive expansion of gambling in state history.

Alone on Monday with no sidekicks in tow, Tim Eyman himself reminded us all he’s just become a mouthpiece for the gambling industry. For the past fifteen weeks, Eyman has paid himself to the tune of $3,100 a week. That’s more than many Wal-Mart employees make in a month.

The backers of I-892 are giant gaming and gambling conglomerates, like Great Canadian Gaming of British Columbia, which is accused of allowing loan sharking in its Canadian casinos and not keeping true to an investment made jointly with Allegiance Capital of Texas. The investment was a floating casino, a “cruise ship” of sorts, which now sits off of Taiwan and is a den of prostitutes.

Other backers include Michaels Associates of Nevada, which was recently fined $50,000 by the WSGC for lax oversight that resulted in a $250,000 embezzlement, and Washington Gaming, the third largest donor, which is currently more than $900,000 delinquent in state taxes.

Washington Gaming co-owner Tim Iszley is a leading member of the Entertainment Industry Coalition, which spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on paid signature gatherers to get 892 on the ballot.

The initiative was financed by out of state, foreign gambling interests, and its signatures were collected by out of state workers from California and other areas.

I-892 was sold to Washingtonians by petitioners as an initiative to cut their property taxes. Petitioners conveniently failed to mention that the initiative would bring about the biggest expansion of gambling in state history.

Washington voters will vote no on I-892 in November because they will know the initiative is bad for their communities. Permanent Defense remains dedicated to its mission of opposing Eyman and will continue to fight against I-892 until its defeat in November.

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Mobilizing for 2024 to counter new threats

Stop Greed: Vote no in 2024
Visit StopGreed.org to learn about three harmful right wing initiatives we're opposing that are headed for the November general election ballot

What we do

Permanent Defense works to protect Washington by building a first line of defense against threats to the common wealth and Constitution of the Evergreen State — like Tim Eyman's initiative factory. Learn more.

Protecting Washington Since 2002

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