Tim Eyman's Initiative 1033 Grassroots Joke
We all love a good joke. Tim Eyman told one the other day on KING 5 News Up Front Blog. He was bragging about how much grasssroots fundraising support Initiative 1033 had gotten.
Initiative 1033 is Eyman's latest wealth transfer scheme. This one is to transfer state tax revenue, of which 57% comes from the state sales tax, to commercial and residential property owners in the form of reduced property taxes. The more property you own, the larger your tax break or loophole.
Anyway, twice on the Up Front blog comment thread Eyman couldn't resist claiming I-1033 has "a very broad base of grassroots support." He claims that he has "received 2063 individual donations totaling $664,769 so far. 2063 - that's really extraordinary..."
What's extraordinary is that how big a misrepresentation of the facts this is. The fact is that only 3 donors contributed some 86.5% of the money raised for I-1033.
Michael Dunmire of Woodinville gave $300,000. Tim Eyman borrowed $250,000 and loaned it to the campaign. And Kemper Holdings LLC of Bellevue owned by Kemper Freeman who owns Bellevue Square Mall gave $25,000.
These top 3 donors in the campaign contributed 86.5% of the total cash raised. This hardly sounds like a grassroots campaign to me. Especially since they spent $598,081 to get the signatures. That's an average of $1.89/signature.
I was also curious how Eyman's number of individual donations doesn't match up with what the Public Disclosure Commission has.
The PDC reports Eyman raised $664,769 through June. This is the figure he used in his comment. Yet the PDC website lists only some 897 contributions. A closer look revealed that sSome contributors gave 2 or 3 or 4 times, so the numbers of contributions is actually more than the number of contributors.
The PDC in addition lists without names or amounts some $20,345.56 Eyman reported as small contributions so I'm sure that this is where his 2063 "contributions" come from.
The funny part is that under named contributors he lists one person as giving 5 cents four different times. (That's 4 contributions!) Another gave 7 cents 2 different times (That's 2 more contributions!) and a third contributor gave 2 cents.
Manipulating numbers is so much fun. The number of contributions is obviously not the same as contributors and can easily be manipulated. And recording someone giving a nickel to I-1033 four times makes it easy to inflate the number of contributions made.
Have one person give me $25.00 in pennies one at a time and I'll have more grassroots support than Eyman. What a joke!
Initiative 1033 is Eyman's latest wealth transfer scheme. This one is to transfer state tax revenue, of which 57% comes from the state sales tax, to commercial and residential property owners in the form of reduced property taxes. The more property you own, the larger your tax break or loophole.
Anyway, twice on the Up Front blog comment thread Eyman couldn't resist claiming I-1033 has "a very broad base of grassroots support." He claims that he has "received 2063 individual donations totaling $664,769 so far. 2063 - that's really extraordinary..."
What's extraordinary is that how big a misrepresentation of the facts this is. The fact is that only 3 donors contributed some 86.5% of the money raised for I-1033.
Michael Dunmire of Woodinville gave $300,000. Tim Eyman borrowed $250,000 and loaned it to the campaign. And Kemper Holdings LLC of Bellevue owned by Kemper Freeman who owns Bellevue Square Mall gave $25,000.
These top 3 donors in the campaign contributed 86.5% of the total cash raised. This hardly sounds like a grassroots campaign to me. Especially since they spent $598,081 to get the signatures. That's an average of $1.89/signature.
I was also curious how Eyman's number of individual donations doesn't match up with what the Public Disclosure Commission has.
The PDC reports Eyman raised $664,769 through June. This is the figure he used in his comment. Yet the PDC website lists only some 897 contributions. A closer look revealed that sSome contributors gave 2 or 3 or 4 times, so the numbers of contributions is actually more than the number of contributors.
The PDC in addition lists without names or amounts some $20,345.56 Eyman reported as small contributions so I'm sure that this is where his 2063 "contributions" come from.
The funny part is that under named contributors he lists one person as giving 5 cents four different times. (That's 4 contributions!) Another gave 7 cents 2 different times (That's 2 more contributions!) and a third contributor gave 2 cents.
Manipulating numbers is so much fun. The number of contributions is obviously not the same as contributors and can easily be manipulated. And recording someone giving a nickel to I-1033 four times makes it easy to inflate the number of contributions made.
Have one person give me $25.00 in pennies one at a time and I'll have more grassroots support than Eyman. What a joke!
Labels: I-1033, initiative 1033, property tax, Tim Eyman, Wealth Transfer
Posted by Steve Zemke at 3:57 PM | Permanent Link
4 Comments:
Opponents have raised $52,500 so far ($25,000 from the Washington Education Association, $25,000 from the WA State Service Employees Int'l Union, $2500 from the WA Council of County & City Employees).
3 groups, no individuals, that's it.
It was these same groups (and the groups that will join them) that pushed very hard for big tax hikes and a state income tax during the last legislative session AND EVEN GREGOIRE AND THE DEMOCRATS rejected doing that. In other words, these groups are on the absolute extreme fringe when it comes to tax policy. Opponents are against ANY limit on government's ability to unilaterally take as much as they want from the taxpayers.
Here's my original post:
As far as fundraising for I-1033 is concerned, we've received 2063 individual donations totalling $664,769 so far. 2063 -- that's really extraordinary -- it's clear that I-1033 has a very broad base of grassroots support. Supporter Mike Dunmire is a real rock star among our supporters -- he's inspired many to contribute because of his leadership and support. His $300,000 contribution, along with my $250,000 loan from a 2nd mortgage on my house, certainly helped a lot, but we value everyone who contributes to our efforts, especially during these tough economic times.
out of the 48,148 supporters who were mailed a I-1033 petition in February, an extraordinary 34,588 sent back a partially filled or fully filled petition, and 315,444 citizens signed a petition.
Thanks to all those people who worked so hard, the voters will have the opportunity to vote in November for lower property taxes by controlling the growth of government.
http://www.VotersWantMoreChoices.com
This comment has been removed by the author.
Limits are already in place on government. The Legislature couldn't raise taxes this year without a 2/3 vote or a vote of the people. Property taxes are limited to a 1% overall increase per year. These are because of initiatives passed by the people because of initiatves Eyman sponsored.
His efforts are pushing us the direction of California and Colorado. The conservative Tax Foundation already says Washington State rates 35th in state and local taxes as of last year. So when we close state parks, cut college education, increase classroom size, don't pay teachers fairly, cut kids health care - the list goes on, we all suffer. It costs money to run a state.
No one likes taxes but it's like paying to keep your house fixed up. Eventually the roof leaks if you don't pay to keep it up.
I-1033 doesn't really address the issue of helping low and middle income homeowners pay their property tax - it most benefits the wealthy. As such it creates a new problem. That is increased transfer of money to those who can afford property. It's a reverse Robin Hood mentality. And voters should oppose it in November as a bad proposal.
Post a Comment
<< Home