Joni Balter / Seattle Times editorial columnist
Eyman's new tax-cut scheme is too much of a gamble

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If Tim Eyman were king — now there's a frightening thought — Washingtonians hankering to play electronic slot machines would not have to drive 35 minutes to the nearest Indian casino. They could travel a shorter distance to a tavern, restaurant, bowling alley or cardroom where they would find a cluster of flashy new electronic gambling devices.

His vision, if that is the right term, is to reduce the state property tax and pay for the resulting budgetary slam on public schools by doubling the number of electronic gaming machines in Washington.

Eyman and the non-Indian gambling interests are joining forces to peddle an initiative that would accomplish two things: keep Eyman's Initiatives-R-Us in business, and give cardrooms and bars the expansion of gambling they have long wanted, which the Legislature, correctly, denied.

Forget for a moment that Eyman and this branch of the entertainment industry are a match made in the back room of Purgatory. There is no reason to dramatically increase the number of slot machines in our state. We have enough already.

Compacts between the government and Indian tribes allow 18,225 slot machines at casinos run by Indians. But the tribes, so far, use only 14,984.

The market is probably saturated, or close to it.

Something tells me if Indian tribes could use more of these faux slot machines and make more money, they would do just that. Industry officials say gambling revenues are flattening out.

Eyman dubs his initiative "Just Treat Us the Same." "Us," if you look at his public-disclosure forms, must be large cardroom and casino operators. Nontribal casinos and bowling alleys and other interests so far have donated $158,500 to the initiative campaign.

Unless there are a lot of Nevadans here longing for the clinking, clanking sound of home, we're sated, we have enough electronic gaming machines already.

If Eyman and his new best friends in the cardroom industry have their way, Washington will be inundated with machines, putting our state among the top four of five with gaming devices, after Nevada, California and Mississippi, according to research conducted by Bear Stearns & Co. Inc.

Eyman's latest double whammy would give property owners a break on the state portion of the property tax. Who wouldn't vote for that? But it is foolish to use this gimmick to determine a key part of the budget and make individual property-tax payments from year to year unpredictable. My guess is that tax rates would go down for a few years. Then, when everyone has forgotten the initiative, taxes would rise as the thrill of the new machines subsides. People won't remember whom to blame.

To win this time, Eyman will have to tap supporters outside his usual amen chorus, those conservatives who support traditional anti-tax measures.

A statewide poll of 500 voters conducted April 4-6 shows that people most likely to vote against an expansion of gambling have never gambled, describe themselves as very conservative, live in Eastern Washington and attend church regularly.

The poll was commissioned by the Muckleshoot Indian Tribe, which does an annual survey on public attitudes toward gambling. The Muckleshoots are dependent on casino business so they have a huge interest in Eyman's proposal.

As with all initiatives, the proposal has complicated language. For example, it describes the machines as "electronic scratch-ticket machines," which evokes, dishonestly, I think, scratch-ticket machines run by the state lottery.

Winning outcomes in the machines are created in a similar manner to scratch tickets. But tribal lottery machines seem more like Vegas slots except you don't drop coins in, you use tickets or cards. And after a win you don't hear real coins rushing out into a metal tray. Some machines play a recording of the sound of coins dropping — further proof of the effect they are trying to create.

Eyman and the entertainment industry still have to collect signatures to get the measure on the fall ballot. But voters should pay close attention and decide how badly they want the carrot, or tax cut, Eyman dangles in front of them. They have to decide, too, what kind of place they want Washington to be.

Joni Balter's column appears regularly on editorial pages of The Times. Her e-mail address is jbalter@seattletimes.com

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