Eyman wants more gambling to pay for tax cut

By The Associated Press

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OLYMPIA — Tim Eyman plans to offset his new proposal to slash state property taxes with $400 million from expanding nontribal gambling to include electronic slot machines.

The proposal marks the second initiative idea Eyman has floated in the past two days.

"The state wouldn't lose a penny, and the taxpayers would be rewarded," Eyman told The Associated Press yesterday.

His plan would allow state-licensed facilities, such as mini-casinos, charity groups, bowling alleys, restaurants and taverns to allow electronic slot machines.

The tax would be set to generate an estimated $400 million a year, the amount of property-tax relief he proposed Sunday.

Eyman plans to file paperwork with the Secretary of State's Office today.

His plan would likely require two separate initiatives because the state Constitution bans initiatives that deal with more than one subject, a restriction that he's run afoul of before.

Under current law, only Indian tribes are allowed to operate slot-machine-like gambling machines.

Eyman's initiative — dubbed "Just Treat Us the Same" — would direct the state Gambling Commission to authorize the same type and number of machines as tribal casinos operate each year.
 
Eyman's critics were aghast.

"He wants to offset $400 million in cuts for K-12 education by putting slot machines in your local bar? Is he nuts?" said David Goldstein, a Seattle software designer who once filed an initiative to have Eyman officially declared a horse's ass. The initiative never got on the ballot.

Washington's 27 tribes, operating under compacts with the state, run more than 13,000 of the faux slots as a big feature of their casinos and are sure to fight Eyman, as they have previously whenever expansion of off-reservation gambling has been proposed.

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