Tim Eyman
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Tim Eyman is a political activist in Washington State who uses direct democracy (initiatives and referenda) to accomplish his goal of cutting taxes (known as tax revolt).
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Initiatives
Eyman launched his first initiative, Initiative 200, in 1998, which attempted to prohibit affirmative action in state higher education and government hiring and contracting. At first, Eyman had difficulty collecting enough signatures to place the initiative on the ballot (8% of the votes cast in the last gubernatorial election), so he handed the campaign over to local talk show host John Carlson. After Carlson took over, the initiative received enough signatures to earn placement on the ballot. In November of 1998, voters approved the initiative.
Also in 1998, Eyman tried to collect signatures for an initiative which would have eliminated Washington's motor vehicle excise tax, or MVET. Washington, which unlike most states lacks an income tax, had a rather high (though steeply progressive) MVET. Again, Eyman failed to gather enough signatures.
In 1999 Eyman tried again, with Initiative 695, which proposed replacing the old MVET with a flat $30 fee for yearly car registration fees, called "car tabs", while simultaneously requiring voter approval for any increases in any tax or fee increases at the state or local level.
Enlisting a number of volunteers from different regions of the state, and working with fellow activists Monte Benham and Jack Fagan, Eyman succeeded in getting I-695 on the ballot, and it passed, despite opposition from a broad coalition -- including business, labor, environmentalists, civic groups, and other organizations -- who predicted that the loss of revenue would wreck havoc on state government. Major newspapers in Washington called for its rejection, and some cities, including Seattle, passed resolutions opposing the initiative.
After I-695 was passed, opponents contested the initiative in court. The initiative was declared unconstitutional by the Washington State Supreme Court because it had two subjects. Fearing voter backlash, the Legislature, with the cooperation of Governor Gary Locke, quickly acted to maintain the lower car tabs.
After I-695, Eyman formed a political committee known as Permanent Offense. He began working on Initiative 722, which was designed to cap property taxes at 2%. With the support of groups such as the state asphalt pavers' union, he also sponsored Initiative 745, which would have mandated that 90% of all transportation funding go to roads (interpreted by some as an attack on mass transit spending).
Unlike I-695, I-722 and I-745 got on the ballot largely through the use of paid signature gatherers. The practice is controversial for a variety of reasons, but courts have ruled that it is protected by the First Amendment.
In Washington, most signature gatherers are paid by signature, not by hour, creating an incentive for fraud and bias towards the initiative sponsor in talking to voters about the initiative.
I-722 and I-745 both appeared on the November 2000 ballot. I-722 passed, but I-745 was soundly rejected by voters. Opponents contested I-722 in court, and it was overturned on the same grounds as I-695: that it was unconstitutional because it contained two subjects. The initiative had tried to reduce existing property taxes and enact a 2% cap on future property tax growth.
Eyman came back in 2001 with Initiative 747, which imposed a 1% cap on property tax growth in Washington. Like earlier initiatives, I-747 got on the ballot thanks to the use of paid signature gatherers.
I-747 passed despite well-funded and visible opposition from many of the same interests which had opposed Eyman's previous initiatives. Opponents said it passed because voters didn't realize or comprehend that public services would actually be cut.
Opponents, who were convinced Eyman had received help from the Code Revisor's Office in drafting the initiative, sued to force disclosure of the work the code revisor did. They won that battle in May 2002. The initiative itself was never challenged on its constitutionality, and went into effect shortly after passing.
After the November 2001 election, Eyman began work on his next initiative, Initiative 776, which he called the "son of 695". Its aim was to cut local car tabs fees which I-695 and the Legislature had failed to remove earlier. The local car tab fees funded regional transportation in four Washington counties, including Sound Transit, a multi-county transportation agency in the Puget Sound area.
Opponents complained that the initiative asked voters statewide to vote on an issue which only affected four counties. Opponents questioned the constitutionality of allowing voters across Washington state to vote on fees they were not paying nor seeing the benefit of.
Eyman's salary
In February 2002, as Eyman was about to mail out the petitions for I-776, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported that Eyman took money to pay himself during the months he was working on I-745, while he was claiming to be working for free.
Opponents' suspicions were heightened when Eyman set up Permanent Offense Inc. -- a corporation which did not have to report its finances to the Public Disclosure Commission (Washington State's equivalent of the Federal Elections Commission) -- and began transferring funds from his political action committee of the same name.
After initially denying news reports, Eyman made front page headlines on February 5th, 2002, when he admitted that he had lied about taking about $50,000 in funds for himself, and planning to take an additional $157,000 as well.
Eyman's co-sponsors and chairmen in the Permanent Offense political committee quickly took over the reins, and Monte Benham of Kennewick took over as the new leader, declaring that Eyman had been "benched as quarterback".
It was shortly after this time that the first anti-Eyman websites appeared on the Internet. Permanent Defense, the most venerable of the lot, is still in existence today.
Return to politics
After a slow start, partially thanks to the negative publicity Eyman received after he lied, a last ditch plea for funds from direct-mail donors ensured that enough paid signature gatherers could be hired to get I-776 onto the ballot.
Eyman, who had been in seclusion from the media since his February confession, reappeared in July 2002 as the chief spokesman for I-776.
In November 2002, the initiative passed by a razor thin margin. Sound Transit had by then declared its local motor vehicle excise tax would not be affected because the tax was pledged to repay bonds.
Opponents challenged the initiative, and had it declared unconstitutional in February 2003, using the same "two-subject rule" argument. The ruling was reversed by the Washington State Supreme Court in October 2003, putting I-776 into effect. Eyman's stated goal in passing I-776 of killing Sound Transit's light rail project never materialized as the project received federal funding in the same month as the ruling and began construction in November 2003.
Immediately following the 2002 election, Eyman announced his next initiative, calling it "I-800" even though he did not actually have the initiative number yet. Opponent Steve Zemke got to the Secretary of State's office before Eyman and took the number that Eyman had been using for the initiative's promotion. Eyman's initiative received the number 807.
Initiatve 807 would have required a supermajority for new taxes to be passed in the state Legislature. A lack of funding and support, as well as mistakes made by Eyman in printing the petitions, cost the initiative its place on the ballot. Eyman still claimed the year was a success, saying he had worked hard to ensure a "no new taxes budget."
Opponents claimed that Eyman was taking credit for the efforts of Governor Gary Locke and Senator Dino Rossi, who had worked together for the goal of a no-new-taxes budget. The Legislature did, however, raise the gas tax by five cents during the session.
Eyman quickly promised "revenge" for the raising of the gas tax, and soon announced his 2004 initiative, which would have slashed state property taxes (which exclusively funds education) by the same amount that the gas tax had been raised.
After I-807's failure, Eyman asked supporters to donate money to a personal compensation fund, which he called "Help Us Help Taxpayers" despite his claim that he would not take a salary unless his "wildly popular" Initiative 807 made the ballot.
Initiative 831
During the campaign to collect signatures for I-807, a Seattle computer programmer named David Goldstein launched an initiative to have Tim Eyman declared a "horse's ass". Mr. Goldstein declared that he was attempting to parody the initiative process to highlight its shortcomings and problems. After a brief explosion of support and funding, the initiative died in court after a challenge by the state Attorney General.
2004 Projects
Property tax cut
In 2004, Eyman announced Initiative 864, his refined initiative which now targeted local property taxes with a 25% cut. Opponents called the proposal outrageous and said it would gut public services such as libraries, pools, parks, fire districts, and police departments. The idea for I-864 was originally announced in June 2003, but from July 2003 to January 2004, Eyman collected money from his supporters for his own personal use. From January 2004 to July 2004, Eyman collected money for Initiative 864.
Despite Eyman and his group's best efforts, the initiative died on July 2, 2004. The group gathered about 155,000 signatures. 198,000 valid signatures were required for the Washington ballot in 2004, requiring Eyman to secure nearly 230,000 to account for various anomalies.
Critics, such as Andrew Villeneuve of Permanent Defense, Steve Zemke of Taxpayers For Washington's Future, David Goldstein of TaxSanity.org, and Christian Sinderman, a Democratic campaign consultant, attributed Eyman's defeat to the fact that his base of supporters had shrunk and his initiatives were not as popular as he claimed they were.
Slot machines
In March 2004, Eyman unveiled Initiative 892, a proposal to allow "electronic scratch ticket machines", otherwise known as slot machines, beyond just Washington's tribal casinos. Unlike prior initiatives, the financial and political backing for I-892 was given by potential benefactors of the initiative rather than at a grassroots level.
I-892 was quickly embraced by the entertainment and gambling industry, which provided all of its funding, and it subsequently earned a place on the ballot in July 2004.
Critics again organized a campaign against I-892 to fight the measure on the ballot. The campaign included groups such as Permanent Defense, TaxSanity.org, Taxpayers For Washington's Future, the Christian Coalition, Association of Washington Churches, 1000 Friends of Washington, and was endorsed by important individuals such as Governor Gary Locke and King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng.
Voters defeated I-892 in a landslide, with over 60% voting no on the initiative. The defeat stunned Eyman, who had predicted a victory, and was considered by Eyman's critics to be a victory for communities and neighborhoods.
Eyman claimed that he won a minor victory with the passage of a county charter amendment reducing the size of the King County Council, but this initiative was actually sponsored by the county jail guards' union, not Eyman (who does not live in King County). Critics accused Eyman of using I-18 to promote himself, even though Eyman was only a consultant to the sponsors of the measure.
2005 projects
Eyman has announced he will be promoting an initiative requiring performance audits for all government agencies and programs. Also, it's rumored Eyman, along with I-200 sponsor John Carlson, will promote an initiative to rollback the 9.5-cent-a-gallon gas tax passed by the legislature in 2005.
External links
- Voters Want More Choices (http://www.voterswantmorechoices.com/) - Eyman's tax-revolt group, formerly known as Permanent Offense
- Permanent Defense (http://www.permanentdefense.org/) an opposition group working to defeat Eyman, promote the value of public services, and work for tax reform
- TaxSanity.org (http://www.taxsanity.org/)
- horsesass.org (http://www.horsesass.org)
- MajorityRules.org (http://www.majorityrules.org/) sponsored by Taxpayers for Washington's Future