Eyman critics want courts to block vote on tax initiative

OLYMPIA, Wash. — Critics of initiative activist Tim Eyman are asking the courts to block a vote on his anti-tax ballot measure.

Futurewise, an environmental group, and the politically active Service Employees International Union Local 775 announced Thursday that they've asked the King County Superior Court to block the state elections office from handling Eyman's Initiative 960 petitions or placing the measure on the statewide ballot.

The critics said facets of Eyman's measure need a constitutional amendment, which cannot be done by citizen initiative. They noted a provision requiring a two-thirds supermajority for the Legislature to raise taxes and a reference to requiring voter approval for certain tax hikes.

Eyman dismissed the criticism. The supermajority for taxes already is in state law, first adopted by the voters as Initiative 601 in 1993 and later affirmed by the Democratic Legislature and governor, he noted. The provision has been suspended by lawmakers "when they find it inconvenient" and it's time for voters to "revalidate" their view that it should be hard to raise taxes, he said.

The other provision says that if the Legislature can't muster the two-thirds vote to raise taxes, they can put it on the ballot and try to pass it that way, he said.

"These groups obviously know that I-960 is legal and constitutional or they wouldn't be working so hard to stop it," Eyman said in an interview. "They know voters overwhelmingly support I-960's commonsense policies and that's why they want to stop the voters from voting on it.

"This is not a legal battle — it's a political battle. They're using the court as a forum for their political points."

His latest measure would require the state budget office to provide a flood of information about every tax and fee bill introduced in Olympia, including an estimate of how much it would cost taxpayers over 10 years. It also would require advisory votes on taxes.

Democratic Gov. Chris Gregoire has said the measure isn't needed. Legislators have used their taxing authority with discretion and voters backed them up on transportation and education taxes, she said when Eyman first introduced the initiative last winter.

Eyman has had a bumpy ride as the state's top initiative promoter. Last year, he failed to collect enough signatures to earn a public vote on the new gay-rights law and a perennial proposal to roll back the tax on vehicle registrations to $30 a year.

The courts typically don't opine on the constitutionality of measures before they're voted on by the Legislature or the people. But his critics said they'll try to persuade a judge to short-circuit this one, seeing it as exceeding the scope of the initiative process.

"I-960 is not a valid initiative and it will never become the law, so we shouldn't be wasting tax money counting signatures and placing it on the ballot," said Knoll Lowney, lead attorney for the challengers. "I-960 seeks to amend the constitution by initiative, which the courts have repeatedly said you cannot do."

Lowney was in the state Supreme Court last week to argue against another Eyman initiative previously adopted, I-747, which limits annual property tax increases to 1 percent.

Keith Scully, Futurewise's legal director, added: "We're confident I-960 is unconstitutional. We're hoping the courts will block it before taxpayer money is wasted putting a legally invalid measure on the ballot. For someone claiming to be worried about taxpayers, Eyman sure is wasting our money with this initiative."

The initiative could lead to deep cuts in health and long-term care services, said Carol Frontiero, vice president of SEIU 775, which represents more than 30,000 long-term care workers.

"An initiative this devastating to working people requires real scrutiny from the legal system," she said.

Eyman is collecting signatures for the initiative and needs at least 224,880 valid signatures by early July.