Angelo Carosio’s Portfolio

At first glance, it may seem that Tim Eyman’s latest referendum, 1033, is fairly straightforward. “This measure would limit growth of certain state, county and city revenue to annual inflation and population growth, not including voter-approved revenue increases. Revenue collected above the limit would reduce property tax levies.” Sounds pretty good, right?

Wrong.
Lurking behind this simple explanation is a bill that would contribute deeply to the current budget crisis in Washington state. If I-1033 were to pass, the state would be essentially locked in to our current budget. The problem is that Washington’s budget right now is the worst we’ve had in years because of the recession, and being locked into that budget would mean that even after the recession is over, state lawmakers would be unable to make necessary adjustments. The thousands of teaching positions lost due to the recession wouldn’t come back, even if the state starts making the money to support them.

Passing 1033 would mean that after inflation and population growth adjustment, any extra money the state government makes would go to reducing people’s property taxes. The kinds of people who benefit most from state-funded programs are precisely the people who aren’t going to be paying property taxes: children and lower-income adults. 1033 is taking money away from worthwhile public programs and giving it back as a tax break to wealthier people. It’s simply not fair.

Eyeman’s initiative uses the same proven-to-fail formula that was used in Colorado’s “TABOR” law, which resulted in huge cuts to public schools, roads and even vaccines for children. Colorado voters repealed the law in 2005, proof that the general idea behind this initiative won’t work. It will make it significantly harder for Washington to dig itself out of the recession, and in the meantime force us to cut essential state services.

Tim Eyman has made a career out of getting extremely controversial initiatives on the ballot. His initiatives have prohibited affirmative action in state colleges, tried to drastically cut social programs, tried to repeal a measure that prevented housing and job discrimination based on sexual orientation and just last year tried to open carpool lanes to all vehicles. Most of his initiatives have failed, and the vast majority are way too conservative for our state.

I-1033 is the same. There is absolutely no reason for our state to essentially lock itself in a recession and be forced to make cuts in social programs only to benefit the rich disproportionately. Vote no on I-1033.