Initiative 1033's Fatal Flaw

Tim Eyman's Initiative 1033 does not give "refunds to taxpayers". It is much more complicated than that. It is a wealth redistribution scheme that shifts tax burden onto lower income folks to benefit just those that own property.

Under I-1033, sales taxes and other fees will still be the same as before. Last year sales taxes accounted for 57% of state revenue. Everyone pays sales taxes but not everyone has property.

The conservative Tax Foundation notes that Washington State ranks 25th in terms of property taxes per capita but number 1 in terms of sales taxes. We have no state income tax yet rank 8th highest in income per capita. Overall the Tax Foundation says that we are in the bottom third of states in terms of state and local tax burden, coming in at 35th (with 1 being the highest)

Those who lose under I-1033 are renters; those who gain are wealthy property owners. You see the rebate Eyman proposes is not based on what you pay in sales taxes and fees but on what you own in property. The more property you own, the more you benefit. But not everyone owns property.

Senior citizens on fixed income and working families who don't own homes lose twice; they pay the same taxes but get no rebate or see new or restored public services.

The US Census Bureau says last year that some 35% of households in Washington State are not owner occupied but rented or leased. If you want to reduce taxes do it fairly; like just cut sales taxes or property taxes.

But to shift the burden of paying property taxes onto people who don't own property is ridiculous and unfair.

In addition some 40% of the property tax rebate goes to pay commercial property taxes. Yet businesses already have a sales tax exemption for goods they purchase for resale. Consumers pay the sales tax on the end product.

Property taxes already are limited to a 1% aggregate increase a year which in most years does not even keep up with inflation.

All in all, Initiative 1033 is a poorly thought out proposal. Read the initiative yourself before voting. It's not as simple or straight forward as Eyman wants you to believe.

http://www.secstate.wa.gov/elections/initiatives/text/i1033.pdf

No on I-1033 Officially Kicks off Campaign

Last Thursday the No on I-1033 officially kicked off its campaign. Over 160 organizations have now come out against Eyman's latest anti-tax, anti government measure that proposes to freeze state and local spending at this year's level. It is copied from a similar measure that Colorado voters recently suspended as unworkable.

The campaign needs to hustle to get its message out because we are only several weeks away from ballots being mailed out. The campaign is waging an aggressive fundraising effort and has seen major business groups come out against the initiative, including the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce, The Washington State Realtors Association and Microsoft.

Businesses understand that Eyman's radical proposal to freeze public spending hurts the economy and businesses as they depend on public money being spent for roads and transit and an educated base of workers in the state. They know there is no free lunch and that public money must be spent and invested to continue to provide a healthy business climate.

Here is a copy of their press release:

No on 1033 campaign kickoff highlights initiative’s impacts on business climate, economy

(Seattle, WA) – Today’s kickoff for the No on 1033 campaign highlighted the impact Eyman’s initiative would have on the state’s business climate and economy.

“Creating a job-growing economy requires investment in essential infrastructure, such as higher education and a safe and efficient transportation system,” said George Allen, senior vice president for government relations at the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce.

Education is vital to a competitive business climate and would suffer heavily under Initiative 1033. “Initiative 1033’s cuts would extend deeply into our classrooms,” said Mike Ragan, vice president at the Washington Education Association. “This would harm our students and the strength and expertise of our future workforce.”

Beyond impacting the overall business climate, I-1033 would mean lost jobs in critical industries, like health care.

“I-1033 would devastate hospitals and health care and result in the loss of thousands of jobs in the state,” said Chelene Whiteaker, policy analyst at the Washington State Hospital Association. “Hospitals and the patients they serve cannot afford Tim Eyman’s initiative.”

I-1033 would lock in state, county and city expenditures at today’s recession-era levels and limit annual increases to a rigid formula based on population growth and inflation. The nonpartisan OFM estimates that this would reduce state revenue $5.9 billion and city and county revenues by $2.8 billion by 2015. Cuts of this magnitude would cripple the state’s ability to support education and transportation infrastructure – critical building blocks of a strong business climate.

This incredibly devastating impact on Washington State’s business climate is one of the reasons behind the size and diversity of the coalition behind the No on 1033 campaign, which includes some of the state’s largest business organizations and labor groups.

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No on Initiative 1033 Campaign Releases Video on Colorado's Experience

Tim Euyman's Budget Freeze Initiative 1033 is a clone of a Colorado measure. It was a mistake and is not an experiment we need to repeat here. Watch the new campaign video below from the No on 1033 campaign to see how Colorado voters feel about their mistake now.

The Hidden Agenda to Radically Change Representative Government and Our Tax System in Eyman's Initiative 1033

Voters beware. You're advised to read Initiative 1033 before you vote. It is not as simple a measure as Tim Eyman wants you to believe it is.

Initiative 1033 proposes to radically alter our system of local control of government for our 39 counties and 281 cities in Washington State as well as our state government.

Initiative 1033 would impose a virtual freeze on all spending above this year's recession level. It would require that all future spending of tax revenue above this year's level would require budgeting by repeated referendum.

Initiative 1033 radically changes Washington's current tax policies by putting more of the tax load on lower income taxpayers.

You see Tim doesn't trust us to elect our own representatives to run our cities and our counties. He obviously doesn't think voters like you have made the right choices in electing our current public officials. And he doesn't trust you to vote "right" in the future.

So he proposes to change the rules for everyone. His cynicism of the way we currently do things is because he thinks everyone should believe as he does that our locally elected officials are not capable of making the right decisions. The right decision of course is that the best government is the smallest one and the one that taxes the least. One size fits all he says. It says nothing about local needs and priorities. And the only state which has adopted a measure like I-1033, Colorado, recently suspended it because it drastically reduced public services and cost taxpayers a lot more money out of their pockets.

Tim wants to take away all powers of our local elected officials to make any more budget decisions above the current level of spending. He says that budgeting by referendum is the answer for every city and county in the state.

Elections cost money and are not a quick way or efficient way to approve budgets. Budgeting by referendum opens us up to more campaigning and decisions made by slogans and sound bites and campaign money.

Are you and your neighbors ready to take on this new civic responsibility? Our lives are already pretty busy just working and taking care of our families. We’ve had representative democracy since our country was founded; electing people to make the business decisions every day that are needed to keep our communities livable and financially sound. I do not see any crisis that demands such a radical change as Eyman proposes.

Under I-1033 any tax dollars above the baseline will be rebated to property owners if the public does not vote. One immediate problem is that not everyone owns property but we all pay sales taxes which last year made up 57% of our state revenue.

So if you are a senior citizen or a working family and you don't own property, under Initiative 1033 you'll still pay the same taxes as before but you'll see no tax rebate or increased public services. Some 35% of Washington households are occupied by renters according to the US Census Bureau.

There are additional problems with this wealth distribution scheme that Eyman proposes. The amount of rebate that you get is not proportional to the sales taxes or other fees you pay but to the amount of property you own. So the more property you own the larger your rebate.

But wait, did Tim also tell you that first some 40% of the rebate must go to pay commercial property taxes. Businesses already have a tax exemption on paying sales taxes on things they buy for resale. But they'll still benefit under I-1033.

That's because Tim says that when more revenue comes in as the economy improves the one and only thing it should be used for is to pay property taxes unless voters vote for something else. The voting process is intended to a another hurdle to make it more difficult for communities to provide public services.

Eyman says that that helping businesses and wealthy property owners pay their property taxes is more important than restoring any public services and jobs cut as a result of the current recession, or providing more money for schools or repairing roads or keeping parks and libraries open or hiring new police or fireman or investing in new infrastructure or helping seniors stay in their homes or paying for health care for seniors or children.

Also keep in mind when you consider Initiative 1033 that Tim is misrepresenting our state and local tax burden to to make you think we are severely overtaxed. He says in the voters pamphlet that we are the 8th highest taxed state in the country. What he doesn't tell you is that this number includes your Federal taxes which I-1033 doesn't change. Being 8th including Federal taxes is not surprising in that we are the eighth highest state in terms of income per capita.

The real tax ranking to consider is that done by the conservative Tax Foundation that actually says we rank 35th lowest (with 1 being the highest) in terms of state and local tax burden. They rank our property taxes as 25th lowest. We rank number 1 in sales taxes which I-1033 does not change.

You can read their analysis here. Tax Foundation Study

The final decision on I-1033 ironically is that of the same voters that Eyman doesn't trust to elect the "right" public officials. Do not take your vote lightly because Initiative 1033 would impose significant long term drastic changes in Washington State for years to come. Here are a few questions you should answer before you vote on Initiative 1033:

1. Do you agree with Tim that your property taxes are so “obscene and unsustainable” that you’re ready to jettison our current system of local and state representative democracy and institute budgeting by repeated referendums?

2. Do you think it’s necessary to permanently freeze public spending of not just the state but all 39 counties and 281 cities in our state at our current recession level?

3. Do you think that paying the property taxes of corporations and businesses and shopping malls and real estate developers and owners of large homes and vacation homes is more important than using sales taxes and other revenue for educating our children, providing health care for seniors and children, providing more police and fire protection, keeping libraries and parks open and fixing our roads and bridges?

4. Do you support changing our state and local tax policy to prioritize transferring tax dollars collected from those without property, like renters and senior citizens and working families, to help pay the taxes of those with property?

As I said I-1033 is not a simple measure. These are just a few of the questions this measure raises. Reading and understanding what Initiative 1033 does is important to do before you vote. Best wishes in your deliberations.

You can read a copy of the initiative here. Text Initiative 1033

Realtors Vote to Oppose Eyman's Budget Freeze Initiative 1033

As reported by the Kitsap Sun today, The Washington Association of Realtors came out today in opposition to Tim Eyman's Budget Freeze Initiative 1033. The Realtors noted in their press release that:

"Initiative 1033 poses a threat to the quality of Washington schools, roads and other infrastructure, and basic services, according to the Washington Association of REALTORS®, who today announced the large organization will not support the measure. Initiative 1033 would cap revenue collections by the state, cities, and counties based on inflation and population growth. ...

The economy is looking up, but we’re a long way from full recovery—and tax increases will simply delay the economic come-back that Washington families so desperately need,” said Wright, a Chelan Realtor. “We all should be focusing on how to improve the quality of life in Washington communities. That means good jobs, safe and beautiful communities, and strong schools.”

In August, the Washington Realtors’s Tax and Fiscal Policy Committee reviewed the provisions of I-1033 and delivered a “do-not-support” recommendation to the organization’s Legislative Steering Committee. Today the committee adopted the recommendation, voting on behalf of its more than 19,000 members. "

The Washington Association of Realtors join a number of other businesses groups opposing Initiative 1033, including the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce, the Greater Seattle Business Association and Microsoft. The Association of Washington Business voted to stay neutral.

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.

Ingraham High School Remand to DPD Victory for Public Process

Save the Trees-Seattle scored another victory in their battle to stop the Seattle School District from needlesssly destroying part of an uncommon plant habitat at Ingraham High. In their second appeal hearing before the Seattle Hearing Examiner, they again got a remand of the project proposal back to the Seattle Department of Planning and Development.

Earlier this year, Save the Trees-Seattle forced a remand of the Ingraham High School Addition back to the city because they had not looked at the impact of building the addition in an uncommon plant habitat, a conifer madrone forest habitat that the city law says should be protected. Specifically SMC 25.05.675 directs that "It is the city's policy to minimize or prevent the loss of wildlife habitat or other vegetation which have substantial aesthetic, educational, ecological,and or economic value".

The Seattle School District, rather than moving the project out of the conifer madrone rare plant association, instead slightly reduced the size of the project by removing an open courtyard and resubmitted the project to the city. DPD again approved the Project despite lacking any printed rules or guidelines as to evaluating its impact on the uncommon conifer madrone forest habitat.

Save the Trees-Seattle appealed the decision to the Seattle Hearing Examiner.

Save the Trees-Seattle in prehearing motions before Seattle Hearing Examiner Anne Watanabe argued that "DPD erred because it did not issue public notice of the revised School District application or provide a public comment period on the application, as required by SMC 23.76.012."

In a quick ruling yesterday Watanabe noted that "It is undisputed that DPD did not provide notice or a public comment period on the revised application."

Anne Watanabe's ruling also noted that "The Code provides no exemption from the notice and public comment period requirements, even if the new application and resulting decision are in response to a Hearing Examiner decision."

In conclusion Watanabe stated, "While it is regrettable to postpone resolution of issues raised in these appeals, the matter must be remanded to DPD to provide the required notice and comment period. "


Below is the relevant part of Keith Scully's brief. Scully is a member of the Gendler Mann law firm and represented Save the Trees-Seattle.

"While SMC 23.76 does not spell out the requirements for public notice upon a remand and then redesign, SMC 23.76's mandate to provide "notice of application and an opportunity for public comment" to the public with the intent to "promote informed public participation in discretionary land use decisions " mandates a new public comment period on the District's new design. Were the Examiner to hold otherwise, a project proponent could submit some outlandish proposal (a heliport in a residential zone, for instance), have it remanded, and then come up with a radically different design without any public comment on the new proposal. The new design and new decision in this case mandated a new notice of appeal and filing fee: it also mandates a new public comment period so other members of the public besides the appellants can have "informed public participation" in the discretionary review of the District's new proposal"

Initiative 1033 Will Dig Us Deeper Into Recession Economics

Eyman's Initiative 1033 will dig us deeper into recession economics over the coming years. In a newly released policy brief by the Washington Research Council on Initiative 1033, details are provided on the serious negative impacts of I-1033 over the next several budget cycles.

Eyman likes to talk about how I-1033 limits growth and points to a graph showing how state revenue will continue to increase. What this graph does not show is how this revenue projection is below the money needed to sustain the state budget in a maintenance mode. I-1033 is not just a freeze on public services; it will contribute to a deepening recession and loss of more services and jobs for our state.

As the Washington Research Council notes, current projections show the state budget for 2009-2011 having a negative balance of $195 million. I-1033 would increase the budget shortfall to $871 million. This is for a maintenance budget- no new programs.

The impact on the 2011-2013 state budget is even worse. Here's what the Washington Research Council says the Impact on the 2011 -2013 State Budget would be:

Even without passage of I-1033, the budget outlook for 2011–13 is grim. While the 2009 legislature did make substantial real cuts in spending, it also relied heavily on onetime money to balance the 2009–11 budget. Incorporating the June forecast, general fund spending for the biennium exceeds revenues by $1.4 billion. In addition, $2.5 billion in federal stimulus funds are being used to sustain programs that would normally be funded through the general fund. For 2011–13 these programs will shift back to the general fund.
Using OFM’s revenue growth assumptions, general fund revenues are expected to grow by $3.5 billion from 2009–11 to 2011–13.
We have yet to see projections of “maintenance-level” cost increases for 2011–13. Looking backwards, the maintenance level increase for the 2007-09 biennium was $1.4 billion, while the maintenance level increase for 2009-11 was $2.1 billion.
With a $1.4 billion maintenance level increase, the budget gap for 2011–13 would be $1.8 billion; with a $2.1 billion maintenance level increase the gap would be $2.5 billion. I-1033 would expand these gaps to $3.8 billion and $4.5 billion, respectively.

The word grim is bad enough. I-1033 will make our future even more grim. I-1033 results in increased negative growth in the state budget as well as for the budgets of all 281 cities and 39 counties.

Things are bad enough as they are. Why would we want to make them worse? Vote NO on I-1033! Eyman's anti-government, anti-tax initiatives are like a car with a broken transmission that only works in reverse. I-1033 is a bad idea. Just say No!

What's Wrong With Eyman's Initiative 1033?

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 liveableness 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!

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 byrden 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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Renters Beware! Eyman's Initiative 1033 Will Rip You Off.

A little known fact about Eyman's Initiative 1033 is that renters are the big losers under the initiative. The big winner's will be large property owners and corporations and businesses that own property.

Why renters lose is that they will not see a reduction in sales taxes or other taxes they pay. Last year sales taxes accounted for 57% of state revenue collected. But because renters are not property owners they will not share in the special tax break Eyman is proposing under I-1033.

With Initiative 1033 Eyman is proposing a radical restructuring of Washington State's tax structure and governance. Initiative 1033 freezes public services by only allowing spending each year to increase above this year's baseline by a slight adjustment for inflation and population.

Adjusting for inflation only allows you to purchase this year's services next year at next year's inflated prices. If a gallon of gasoline for a fire truck or police cruiser costs $2.60 this year and next year costs $3.00 and you adjust spending to pay $3.00, has government grown? No, you're not providing more services, only keeping up with inflation.

But if the economy grows next year, all tax revenue like from increased sales taxes will go into a special fund Eyman calls the "Lower Property Taxes Account". There is one set up for the State and each city and county under the initiative. New revenue will not be spent for restoring lost public services as a result of cuts this year or investing in new public infrastructure.

Now everyone pays sales taxes and you'll still pay the same sales taxes under I-1033. We currently have the highest sales taxes in the country. But rather than any excess money going to fund services cut this year or investing in public infrastructure or jobs or education Eyman says the only priority for using this tax revenue next year that is over this year's spending level is to provide a special tax break for property owners.

It is not a tax break to specifically help seniors or struggling working families who may rent but not own homes. It is only to benefit property owners. The more property you own the more of a tax break you will get.

Because property taxes must be uniform, the special tax break must dedicate 40% of its money to lowering commercial real estate taxes. That's right, 40% of any excess tax dollars next year and every year thereafter as defined by Eyman must assist corporations and shopping malls and real estate developers pay their taxes. Eyman says this is more important than funding education, or repairing our roads, or keeping parks and libraries open, or increasing teachers pay, or hiring new police or firemen, or cleaning up Puget Sound, or any of the other public services our state, counties and counties provide.

The US Census Bureau says that only 65% of households in Washington State are owner occupied. That means some 35% of households are renters. They will still pay sales taxes and other taxes but because they don't own property they will see no refund of their taxes dollars.

Thus renters are double losers. They lose twice because they don't get any refund of tax dollars since they own no property and they see no use of their tax dollars to provide increased public services they can use.

I-1033 is another poorly thought out and written Eyman initiative. Voters would be wise to vote no and protect their pocketbooks and themselves from this ill advised and unfair special tax break. Initiative 1033 robs taxpayers by diverting tax dollars raised for the public good to provide a tax break that benefits wealthy property owners the most.

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 counrty. 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?