Tag Archives: initiative 1033

Tim Eyman Thinks Voters Are Dumb

Posted on September 24th, 2009 | Comments Off on Tim Eyman Thinks Voters Are Dumb

Think about it. Tim Eyman thinks voters are dumb. His current proposal, Initiative 1033 on this November’s ballot, wants to abolish local control of the budget process for not just the state but all 39 counties and all 281 cities. It’s because he doesn’t think you’re smart enough to elect local politicians to represent your interests and the public interest.

Voters will vote for what seems credible and unfortunately for Eyman, Initiative 1033is an absurd dream scheme to freeze public spending so that sales tax dollars everyone pays can help property owners pay their property taxes. Its a wealth transfer system designed to mostly help the wealthy.

Eyman does not propose to rebate any taxes back to people in proportion to what they paid but in proportion to what they own as property. Renters will still pay the same taxes but will see no rebate of taxes back under I-1033. They will also see no new services their sales tax dollars might have paid for if I-1033 wasn’t there.

Tim won’t tell you that some 40% of his rebates will go to pay commercial property taxes even though businesses have a sales tax exemption and don’t pay sales taxes on goods they resell. The consumer pays them.

Last year some 57% of state revenue came from sales taxes. Senior citizens and working families that don’t own property will still pay the same amount of taxes under I-1033. In a reverse Robin Hood wealth transfer scheme these taxes will help wealthy individuals and businesses pay their property taxes.

Eyman says this is more important than restoring any services lost during the recession and more important than more funding for education or home health care for seniors or more police or fire protection or more road or bridge repair or new schools or anything else.

Yes Tim knows what’s best for all of us, so much so that he wants to abolish local control of not just state spending but also for all 39 counties and 281 cities so he can implement his dream wealth transfer scheme.

He doesn’t think we’re smart enough to elect people to represent us to make decisions for the public good. When he puts down, as he repeatedly does, “greedy politicians” as he calls them, he is saying the public isn’t smart enough to elect its own leaders. That’s pretty cynical.

Initiative 1033 isn’t needed. We have state and local government that works and we don’t need to abolish local control of our county and city budgets, freeze public spending, and implement a wealth transfer scheme that mostly benefits wealthy property owners at the expense of the public good.

Just vote NO on I-1033 and let’s get back to focusing on ways to move forward and recover from this recession. Initiative 1033 would only keep us locked in a recession economy.

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What’s Wrong With Eyman’s Initiative 1033?

Posted on September 11th, 2009 | 2 comments

What’s wrong with Tim Eyman’s Initiative 1033 which is on this November’s Washington State ballot? Plenty. It a complex measure that proposes radical changes in our form of representative government and in our state’s tax policies.

We are in a recession and Tim Eyman is proposing that state and local government should permanently freeze state and local spending at this year’s level. Eyman is in some imaginary world where all that seems to matter is keeping his initiative business going.

Times are tough for many people and businesses and we don’t need to make things worse. Thousands of jobs have been lost in our state and we have cut billions is spending for local services and statewide for things like health care and education.

As the economy starts to improve Eyman says we should not reinvest in public services and restore those we have lost but instead should help property owners pay their property taxes. This is a radical restructuring of priorities for state and local government. Eyman says this is more important than educating our children, providing help for seniors to stay in their homes, repairing roads, keeping parks and libraries open, having adequate police and fire protection, cleaning up Puget Sound and all the rest of the things government has worked on.

You see this is where Tim and I differ. It seems he has never met a government he liked and loathes taxes. I don’t like to pay taxes any more than anyone else but I realize there is no free lunch. I view taxes as a necessity to maintain the livability of our communities and keep our economy going.

The national conservative Tax Foundation says that Washington State ranks 35th (with 1 being the highest) in terms of state and local tax burden. They rank us 25th in terms of property tax burden per capita. We rank 8th in terms of income per capita. We are one of only 7 states without a state income tax. We rank number1 in terms of sales taxes but Eyman I-1033 doesn’t reduce sales taxes. You can check out these figures yourself at http://www.taxfoundation.org/files/sr163.pdf.

I-1033 proposes to end the form of representative government we have and replace it with “budgeting by referendum.” Eyman asks what’s wrong with that. It’s been answered before but he isn’t listening. Budgeting by referendum is what California has been doing for years. It’s why they are in a much worse mess than Washington State.

Budgeting by referendum means holding numerous elections. Elections cost money and impose significant time delays in planning. Based on the low turnout in our recent primary, voters already seem to be fatigued just trying to figure out candidate’s positions, let alone many possible budget issues that I-1033 could add.

As as example, how many people have read the text of I-1033? That’s just one issue with huge budget implications, yet most people will vote for or against it without reading it. I suggest you try reading it and explaining to someone else what it does. Here is a link to the initiative http://www.secstate.wa.gov/elections/initiatives/text/i1033.pdf

How many other issues do you think the average voter has time to read and understand? That’s why we have representative government, so we can elect people to devote the necessary time to understand the issues and budget needs and make decisions to benefit the community.

But the other radical change I-1033 impose is a reverse Robin Hood scheme of transferring tax dollars from those less well off to the wealthy. Everyone pays sales taxes yet not everyone benefits from I-1033. You get nothing if you are a renter or a senior citizen or working family if you don’t own property. You will still pay the same sales taxes under I-1033 but you will not see any tax rebate or increased public services under I-1033

Commercial real estate gets 40% of the property tax benefit under I-1033. Large corporate property owners, shopping malls and real estate developers will see the greatest benefit. Large homes and owners of vacations home and second homes get more of a break because the more property you own the more benefit you get under I-1033.

So I-1033 is really a scheme to tax the poor and less well off to help pay property taxes for wealthy land owners. Sales taxes last year represented some 57% of state revenue. But I-1033 does nothing to reduce these taxes and others renters pay.

Colorado tried a similar budget freeze scheme and found it was a loser for the public as public services declined each year. They recently voted to suspend the measure. We don’t need to repeat Colorado’s failed experiment here to know it will be bad for our state. Vote No on I-1033 this November 3, 2009!

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A Better Alternative to Help Struggling Property Owners than Initiative 1033

Posted on September 9th, 2009 | Comments Off on A Better Alternative to Help Struggling Property Owners than Initiative 1033

Tim Eyman’s I-1033 purports to help property owners pay property taxes. A big question of course is who should we help. Should we help everyone pay their property taxes – like people who own a second home and/or corporations like Boeing that owns property?

Or should we help those that need help most – like senior citizens on fixed incomes or struggling working families trying to make end meet that have a principal residence they live in.

Eyman’s I-1033 says we should help everyone including businesses and corporate property owners and shopping malls like Kemper Freeman’s Bellevue Square and real estate developer’s and homeowners with second homes and vacation homes. I-1033 says that should be the top priority of any tax dollars that come into the state and city and county as new revenue above this year’s recession baseline set by Eyman becomes available as the recession ends.

This one and only use of these tax dollars now becomes a function of government – to support a transfer of tax dollars collected from everyone and used to then benefit property owners only.

Renters and senior citizens and working families that own no property will continue to pay taxes under Initiative 1033 and will get no property tax rebate or see any new services. This will further increase unfairness in our tax code and institute a reverse Robin Hood program of taxing lower income people and giving it to higher income people in the form of reduced property taxes.

Eyman is trying to institute a scare campaign for property owners about how their taxes are out of control.

Yet this isn’t the case. The Tax Foundation says that in terms of property taxes paid per capita in this state we rank 25th (with one being the highest)out of the 50 states. We also rank 8th in terms of income per capita. Overall our total state and local tax burden ranks us 35th (with 1 being the highest) out of 50 states.

If it’s seniors we want to help, the best solution is to raise the senior property tax exemption and help those most in need. You can click here to read more about the Senior Property Tax Exemption which also covers disabled people.

Or if you’re concerned about people being taxed out of their homes then you should be supporting a Homestead Exemption like some 38 other states have.

Eyman says this can’t be done because you have to tax commercial and residential property equally. This isn’t strictly true because the senior exception is a form of a Homestead Exemption that legal and exists because the Legislative can make exemptions to the uniformity issue.

But even considering the uniformity issue it’s easy to treat both commercial and residential real estate the same by just providing the same exemption for business and homeowners. HB 3162 did just that in the 2007-2008 Legislative session. It had 24 sponsors. HB 3162 was labeled “Providing a property tax exemption for the first $50,000 of assessed value of commercial and residential real property.”

Such a simple answer, helping both home owner’s not being taxed out of their principal residence and also helping small businesses with their principal business location. Equal and fair. Reasonable.

I-1033 IS INSTEAD A WEALTH TRANSFER SCHEME TRANSFERRING SALES TAXES AND OTHER REVENUE TO HELP LARGE PROPERTY OWNERS PAY LESS TAXES. The state says it will total almost $9 billion over 5 years.

Strange how helping large corporations pay their property taxes is more important than helping kids go to college or paying teachers a decent wage or keeping our libraries and parks open for the public or hiring more police or helping seniors stay in their homes because this is the choice in a nutshell.

I-1033 rather than just trying to reduce property taxes directly for those that need help, instead provides a special tax break that mainly benefits large property owners. It would transfer huge amounts of tax dollars that would have been collected from everyone to support public services like health care and Medicaid and parks and transit and sidewalks to do this. It’s a crazy scheme that is ridiculous in it’s implementation and absurdly complex.

I-1033 is a complex measure and will result in a huge change in our present tax structure. It will further erode fairness and deprive our state of needed investments in our community. It provides a special property tax exemption that benefits the wealthy at the expense of those less fortunate.

Vote No on Initiative 1033. Keep Tim’s selfish and greedy hands out of our pockets. Tell Tim NO DEAL. JUST VOTE NO ON INITIATIVE 1033 THIS NOVEMBER 3, 2009!

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Kemper Freeman’s Shortsighted $25,000 Contribution to Eyman’s Initiative 1033

Posted on September 9th, 2009 | Comments Off on Kemper Freeman’s Shortsighted $25,000 Contribution to Eyman’s Initiative 1033

The Seattle Times today gives prominent front page coverage to Kemper Freeman’s long range plans at Bellevue Square. The article is in response to the opening of the upscale “The Shops at the Braven” only a few blocks away from Bellevue Square. A Neiman Marcus store is one of the new shops opening in the new retail shopping area.

Freeman is reported spending $40 million in a recent remodel of Bellevue Square. He has lots of money tied up in his real estate and that has to mean high property taxes. Was that his motivation behind his contribution of $25,000 on June 4, 2009 to help Tim Eyman get his signatures to get Initiative 1033 on this November’s ballot? After Michael Dunmire’s $300,000 contribution, Kemper Freeman’s is the second largest cash contribution to Initiative 1033. Michael Dunmire is a retired investment banker that lives in Woodinville.

Kemper Freeman’s contribution was given through his real estate development company – Kemper Holdings LLC based in Bellevue Washington.

From a civic betterment and community economic sense Freeman’s contribution makes no sense. I-1033 is will freeze all revenue spending by Bellevue, King County and the state of Washington at it’s current recession level. As the economy improves Bellevue will not be able to invest new tax dollars like from increased sales taxes in making improvements in the Bellevue community – no additional money for street repairs or sidewalks or parks or additional police or fire protection. Any expenditures above the baseline would require a public referendum.

But maybe Kemper Freeman is a cynic and sees I-1033 for what it is – a wealth transfer scheme from renters and low income working families and seniors that don’t have property but who will still pay sales taxes, to property owners to help them pay less property taxes.

Initiative 1033 disperses its property tax reductions from the fund Eyman sets up called lower property taxes fund into which any revenue above this year’s spending level goes. As the economy improves the property tax reductions increase.

State law requires all property to be treated the same. Some 40% of property taxes are for commercial property. The State Office of Financial Management has estimated that I-1033 will reduce state revenue by some $8.7 billion over the next 5 years.

Of course the more property one owns the more of a reduction in total dollars property owners will see. So Kemper Freeman will get a great return on his $25,000 investment if voters make the mistake of approving I-1033.

Maybe Kemper Freeman is not really concerned about renters and senior citizens and working families that own no property who will see no property tax rebate or new public services. After all how many go to Bellevue Square now to shop. The bulk of shoppers at Bellevue Square are higher income and property owners. If they see reduced property taxes Kemper Freeman will be providing them an upscale mall to spend their dollars at.

Call me a cynic but Kemper Freeman has no heart. It’s all about the money – his money.

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A warning on Initiative 1033 from California

Posted on September 8th, 2009 | Comments Off on A warning on Initiative 1033 from California

In an article by Peter Schrag about California in 1996 we get this following warning on approving Eyman style measures that put unnecessary restrictions on representative government:

“…ever since the passage of Proposition 13, the mother of all latter-day tax revolts, in June 1978, the state has been locked into a vicious cycle in which each plebiscitary reform, by either mandating or prohibiting certain policies, has sharply reduced the discretion of elected officials. This, in turn, has made it still harder for local and state government to respond to new problems, thus bringing still more pressure for extraordinary ballot measures.”

This process continued and we see the mess it put California in.

You can read the full article here:
http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=take_the_initiative_please

Tim Eyman’s Initiative 1033 on the November ballot is proposing a radical restructuring of how Washington State’s 39 counties and 381 cities and the State Government should operate. Eyman is proposing abolishing having state legislators and city councils and county councils make budget decisions above an arbitrary spending level based on this year’s recession budget. He would turn over decision making above the current level to a referendum process where voters would be the only ones to make decisions.

Budget making by referendum costs money because elections cost money. And elections are influenced by campaigning and sound bites and slogans and money. Just how much more complicated do we want to make the process of deciding local budgets and spending?

I -1033 is not a simple measure. This aspect of abolishing local control by cities and counties and deciding where tax revenue should go repeated referendums is a strong reason to vote against Tim Eyman’s I-1033.

Voters need to understand I-1033 proposes radical change in the way cities and counties would function. I-1033 says reducing property taxes for property owners is more important than anything else, than police and fire protection, schools, parks, libraries, health care, our courts, clean drinking water, garbage control, gangs, community centers and on and on.

The only thing any tax dollars raised over this year’s recession spending limit can be spent for is for helping property owners. Forget that renters and seniors and working families that don’t own property will still pay the same amount of taxes under I-1033 as they do today; however they will get no property tax rebate and no new services either. They lose twice.

Welcome to anti-tax and anti-government Tim Eyman’s world. Press escape (vote No) to get back to the real world.

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Initiative 1033 Cuts $8.7 Billion From Public Services by 2015

Posted on September 7th, 2009 | Comments Off on Initiative 1033 Cuts $8.7 Billion From Public Services by 2015

Tim Eyman’s 1033 would cut public services by Washington State and its counties and cities by some $8.7 billion over the first 5 years it is in effect. This is on top of current cuts due to the recession we are in.

Because I-1033 would freeze public services at this year’s level next year plus a small adjustment for inflation and population it functions to continue our recession level spending and doesn’t allow for services cut to balance the budget this year to be restored even if the economy improves.. Such actions would surely contribute to continuing Washington State in a recession mode economy and we would lag behind others states in our economic recovery.

The fiscal impact of I-1033 has been determined by the Office of Financial Management to be almost $9 billion over the next 5 years. Specifically they said:

“The initiative reduces state general fund revenues that support education; social, health and environmental services; and general government activities by an estimated $5.9 billion by 2015. The initiative also reduces general fund revenues that support public safety, infrastructure and general government activities by an estimated $694 million for counties and $2.1 billion for cities by 2015.”

Here’s the link to the original document -“Fiscal Impact Statement by the Office of Financial Management” so you can read it yourself.

http://www.ofm.wa.gov/initiatives/i-1033_fiscal_impact.pdf

I-1033 would use these funds to offset property taxes. Our current state and local tax burden per capita according to the conservative Tax Foundation ranks us as 35th (with being the highest). Our property taxes rank 25th. Our per capita income ranks 8th.

Using future tax revenue over the baseline to offset property taxes is an income distribution scheme that benefits those that own property but hurts renters and low income families and seniors and working families that do not own property. They will still pay the same taxes but they will see no rebate on their taxes or services that might have been funded with this money.

The big winners under Eyman’s I-1033 are big property owners, corporations, businesses, shopping mall owners, and real estate developers. I-1033 is a reverse Robin Hood scheme taking taxes paid by the poor and using them to pay property taxes for wealthy property owners.

Some 40% of this special interest tax break will go to pay commercial real estate property taxes. Only 65% of households in our state are owner occupied. So 35% of households will see no property tax rebate.

I-1033 is a poorly worded and complex measure that deserves to be rejected by voters. Vote NO on I-1033 this November 3rd, 2009.

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Initiative 1033 – Abolishing Local Control of Ciies and Counties

Posted on September 7th, 2009 | Comments Off on Initiative 1033 – Abolishing Local Control of Ciies and Counties

Tim Eyman’s Initiative 1033 would wreck havoc on the idea of local control of cities and counties. Tim Eyman’s one size fits all measure would remove the authority of Washington State cities and towns to control their budgets and spending.

It would impose Tim Eyman’s legislative priority that the most important thing local governments can do, when the economy improves from this recession and more revenue comes in, is help large property owners, real estate developers, mall owners and other businesses and corporations pay their property taxes.

Initiative 1033 would not just deal with the Washington State budget and spending but also puts the same rigid freeze mechanism on spending in place for all 39 Washington counties and 281 cities. Any money above the current year’s spending level must be put in a “Lower Property Tax Account” for each city and county.

Gone would be the ability of elected city council members and the Mayor and county council members to decide how to spend any revenue that comes in above this year’s spending level. It would all go to pay property taxes for property owners in cities and counties.

Eyman says paying property taxes for property owners is a higher priority than restoring any services lost during the current recession due to decreased revenue. He says it’s a higher priority than making sure parks and libraries can stay open, than paying for police and fire protection, than fixing roads or providing public transit or providing health care or help for seniors and the disabled.

If you want to fund any of these programs beyond the current budget level you will have to go to a vote of the people to get approval. This will be the new way all cities ant counties (and the state) will have to operate. It will be budget approval by referendum.

Of course this won’t be free as elections cost money. And then there will be campaign spending for and against any increased spending. And sound bites and campaigning. It’s how California got into their budget quagmire, having campaigns waged for and against spending this or that.

Gone will be legislative deliberations and public meetings and input on budgets and spending. It’ll now be based on polling and politics.

This whole process of reorganizing how local governments makes decisions is the opposite of local control by local taxpayers. Rather than local voters deciding how they want to run their city and county, Eyman proposes that state voters should make this decision for all 39 counties and 281 cities.

This sounds like the worst of ideas, and if Eyman hadn’t stolen this idea from national supporters of TABOR type legislation and Colorado you would think he would be on the other side railing against big government running roughshod over local governments.

If cities and counties want to put this “budgets by referendum” scheme in place they should be able to decide for themselves, not have it decided by state voters. This is overkill and abusive having a statewide vote dictate how local public entities like Spokane or Yakima or Vancouver or Whatcom County or Clark County or Pierce County have to run their governments.

Voters should keep local control of their cities and counties and vote against I-1033 this November 3, 2009 . Keep Eyman from meddling in your local government’s business and vote no on I-1033.

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Initiative 1033 -Eyman’s Sugar Coated Poison Pill

Posted on September 3rd, 2009 | Comments Off on Initiative 1033 -Eyman’s Sugar Coated Poison Pill

I-1033’s goal is to freeze government spending, that’s the poison pill Eyman’s hiding. Giving voters the illusion that they’re going to see some reduction in property taxes is the sugar coating covering this goal that he hopes will induce voter’s to unknowingly swallow the poison pill.

Eyman’s fear mongering of out of control government spending and runaway taxes is over hyped. Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society. He supports a limited role of government in society and a free market economy where it’s everyone for themselves.

I support a role for government that helps and assists. I much prefer our representative style of government that deliberates and involves public input into writing our laws and budgets and sets priorities.

I-1033 is a bad idea. It is a radical approach that is complex. It imposes a permanent freeze on public spending for services that everyone uses. The freeze does not take into account any public needs. It imposes a cumbersome costly process of voter referendums to raise revenue for any reason at the city, county and state level.

It is a reverse Robin Hood wealth transfer scheme that takes tax dollars from the poor and gives them to the wealthy to reduce their property taxes. Renters, senior citizens and working families will still pay sales taxes and other taxes but if they own no property they will see no benefit from I-1033.

Large property owners, like shopping malls, real estate developers and corporate property owners, will see the most benefit from the special tax break Eyman is giving them at the expense of providing public services.

It is an unnecessary and costly shell game transferring money from the less fortunate to wealthy property owners, businesses and corporations to pay their property taxes.

I am not crying wolf as to its impacts. We already have seen the results and impacts of this approach in Colorado. Go to http://www.teachersalaryinfo.org/ and see how this approach of freezing public spending and services has decimated Colorado’s educational system.

The average teacher salary in Colorado is the lowest in the country. The average teacher salary in Colorado compared to the median household income is 49th lowest out of 50 states. Do we want to compete with Colorado to see who can have the lowest teacher salaries?

I-1033 is a radical experiment we don’t need to try in Washington State to know what will happen. It was tried in Colorado and failed. Public services have plummeted there.

I-1033 will lock us into a permanent recession, prohibiting state and local governments from restoring services lost as a result of the recession. Things are already bad enough without making them worse.

I-1033 also prohibits any new investments in public infrastructure and services and ignores changing demographics like more seniors needing help as the population ages.

Just Vote No on Initiative 1033 and keep Eyman out of our pockets. Dealing with budgets by referendum has failed in California and isn’t needed here.

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Eyman’s I-1033 Says Paying Corporate Property Taxes More Important than Educating State’s Children

Posted on September 2nd, 2009 | Comments Off on Eyman’s I-1033 Says Paying Corporate Property Taxes More Important than Educating State’s Children

Initiative 1033 on this November’s ballot is Tim Eyman’s clone of a failed Colorado measure. It proposes to freeze state and local government programs permanently by limiting the growth of tax revenue to the current year’s spending plus a slight adjustment for inflation.

Any money over this year’s spending as adjusted will go into a special account to reduce property taxes. What Eyman hasn’t told anyone is that 40% of this special tax break will go to Washington businesses and corporations. That’s because the fund must reduce all property taxes equally. And currently 40% of property taxes are paid by businesses.

And of the remaining 60% in the fund only 65% of that will go to help homeowners who own their home. The other 35% of households in the state will not see any tax break or return on their taxes they paid. They lose twice because they also will not see any increase in public services as a result of their paying taxes over the baseline.

Initiative I-1033 is a complex measure that actually turns out to provide a special tax break to property owners at the expense of not providing public services.

If you collect tax dollars like sales taxes everyone pays does it make sense to use them to give a special tax break that benefits wealthy property owners at the expense of not providing public services like educating our kids or paying for public safety or having libraries open and parks open?

Colorado has tried Eyman’s proposed freeze on public services since 1992. Looking at how they now fund education will gives us a frightening glimpse of Washington State’s future if voters pass I-1033.

I came across the following website, www/teachersalaryinfo.com which graphically compares 5 different factors on teacher salaries across the country. The information below is taken from this website.

The average teacher’s salary in Colorado compared to median household income showed Colorado ranking 49th (with 1 being the highest) among the 50 states. An estimate showed that teachers in Colorado made about $32,000 below the median income.

Another graph showed Colorado teachers ranking 50th lowest in salary compared to other states. Washington State by comparison ranked 24th lowest – and we know the lack of funding currently in this state to raise teacher’s salaries.

Another graph shows Colorado’s average teacher salary compared to the median home price in Colorado as 44th lowest out of 50 states.

Is this the future for Washington State if voters approve I-1033? You can’t freeze education spending under I-1033 and expect that there will be any spare change to raise teacher’s salaries in the future. In fact because many public services like Medicaid and education increase in cost faster than the consumer price index adjustment in I-1033, cuts will have to be made to existing services as their costs rise faster than the consumer inflation index.

Colorado once ranked 35th in education spending. It’s now 49th because of this problem.

So you decide – is it more important to give wealthy property owners and corporations a special property tax break or help our children get a quality education by investing our tax dollars in them?

I think we’ll all lose if we don’t fund our educational system and have good teachers. How many teachers are going to stay in Washington State if we are competing with Colorado to see who can pay the educators of our children the least amount of money? Is this another Eyman brilliant idea or not?

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Initiative 1033 Offers Taxpayers Free Lunch

Posted on August 21st, 2009 | Comments Off on Initiative 1033 Offers Taxpayers Free Lunch

No one likes to pay taxes but it is how we fund public services. And who wouldn’t like to get a break on your property taxes as I-1033 proposes. Yet beware, there is no free lunch.

I-1033 basically proposes to freeze government services. Government will not grow under I-1033 and it is false and misleading for Eyman to suggest it will.

Local and state government spending is frozen next year at this year level and will only increase to adjust for inflation and population. And so on for every year thereafter.

If government spending to pay for services increased exactly as Eyman’s consumer price index adjustment allows, all that you’re doing is paying for the same services at their increased cost due to inflation. The problem is that many services government provides like Medicaid for seniors has historically grown faster than the consumer price index.

And any population adjustment just means you can pay for providing services for new members of your community. Individual taxpayers will not see any increase in services provided to them.

So if the economy improves and more sales tax revenue comes in next year compared to this year, any revenue above the I-1033 limit will have to go to pay property taxes. But this is a reverse Robin Hood scheme of transferring wealth to just property owners despite everyone paying sales tax.

There are two problems with this. First not everyone owns property. The US Census Bureau says that only 65% of the households in Washington State are owner occupied. So 35% of households will not see any benefit from I-1033 despite paying sales taxes.

And second the real estate tax reduction covers all property. Some 40% of real estate taxes are commercial. So large corporations like Boeing or Weyerhaeuser and shopping malls like Bellevue Square will also get the same tax break. That’s probably why Kemper Freeman gave Eyman $25,000 to help get I-1033 on the ballot. The more property anyone owns the more of a tax break they will get. Of course Eyman didn’t tell you that you will be helping to pay Kemper Freeman’s real estate taxes.

So besides freezing government services, I-1033 is also a complex wealth redistribution scheme that benefits wealthy property owners. The average homeowner will not see much benefit and will lose much more in terms of public services that we take for granted but which are not free. These include police and fire protection, public libraries, public health, K-12 schools and college and universities, parks and open space, road repair and public transit, services for seniors and disabled people, environmental protection, clean drinking water and clean air, our judicial system and much more.

Read the initiative and understand its impacts before you vote. If you want to keep local control over the quality of life in your community, vote No on Initiative 1033 this November 3rd, 2009. If something sounds too good to be true, it probably isn’t.

for more information on I-1033 go to www.no1033.com .

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