OLYMPIA — Tax rebel Tim Eyman is again urging backers to contribute to a salary fund, telling supporters yesterday that it is "absolutely crucial" to keeping the movement alive.

Eyman's salary fund, called Help Us Help Taxpayers, is to be shared with his two co-chairmen, Jack and Mike Fagan of Spokane.

Eyman, best known for the $30 car-tab initiative and ballot measures dealing with property-tax limits and affirmative action, recently qualified Initiative 900 for the November ballot. The measure would authorize performance audits of state- and local-government agencies and programs by the state auditor.

"The good news is we don't need you to donate to the I-900 campaign because the initiative is going to pass overwhelmingly — there's no organized opposition and the polling shows we have huge support that's only increasing as election day approaches," he told backers in an e-mail.

The initiative committee, called Voters Want More Choices, raised nearly $618,000, including nearly $490,000 from a single donor. The committee spent $569,000 qualifying for the ballot.

Eyman said organizers were unsalaried while the signature-gathering was under way.