Tim Eyman: Time to give it a rest

Professional initiative operative Tim Eyman is seriously past his pull date.

No, not in that cottage-cheese-left-in-the-refrigerator-too-long way, but more in the same-old-song-wrong-economic-climate sense.

If Eyman has been successful the past decade — if he and his supporters limited government spending and the size of annoying car-tab bills — there should be a moment when his work is done.

Ease up on those e-mail "send" buttons, but that moment is now.

Look at the headlines: "State may close two prisons to cut costs," "Seattle libraries may slash hours," and "King County mothballing 39 parks."

Government, especially at the county level, is not gorging itself on Twinkies. Some governments are doing less more of the time. Fewer college enrollment slots. Larger K-12 class sizes. Parks shuttering. Animal services begone.

At a time when everyone is worried about jobs or the lack of them, Initiative 1033 preserves only one job: Eyman's. His career plan is to create an initiative every year whether government needs another kick in the head or not. This year, it doesn't.

I-1033 is the anachronistic initiative that limits "growth of certain state, county and city revenue to annual inflation and population growth." Collections beyond that would reduce property taxes.

If government is doing what people want, making cuts, why apply a sledgehammer? That is exactly what I-1033 does. It says, in essence, the cost of education borne by the state is similar to cost increases of policing in, say, Pierce County, or public health services in Spokane County.

Sounds fine for a second but if you give it an extra minute of thought, it doesn't make sense.

Neither Dow Constantine nor Susan Hutchison, candidates for King County executive, are saying much about new programs. They speak instead of which ones have to go.

Eyman's timing is off. The economy is trashed.

With state unemployment at 9.3 percent, every job is worth saving. Each employed person pays taxes, buys things, spurs the slow, jobless recovery. An economic recession creates more dependence on government services, not less.

Voters often don't need to know every detail of Eyman's convoluted initiatives. They vote on a hunch: Government seems big and bloated. Or "I had to cut my family's spending radically and I expect rascals in government to do so too."

I hear you, I hear you. Property taxes have soared in recent years and the idea of easing that burden has spectacular appeal to many cash-strapped families. If only there were no consequences.

With the Howard Hanson Dam ready to flood South King County, do people really feel they can get along with less county government?

A flu pandemic? Who ya going to call? Someone has to be employed to help you when you need it.

Ask yourself. Do you want to reduce police response times? Does it make sense to further reduce higher-education enrollment? Do we want to increase K-12 class sizes?

And this, of course, is a down revenue year for all governments — the year from which future revenue calculations will be based under Eyman's plan. So when the recession ends, schools, police and infrastructure have no way to recover from the recession and keep pace with demand for services.

Economist Dick Conway analyzed state and local taxes over several decades. He says our state, which at one time ranked 13th among the states in tax burden, moved to 28th in 2006. Yes, after other Eyman initiatives. But when is it the right time to say enough?

If I-1033 passes, Conway believes that in less than 10 years our state would become 50th — dead last — in tax revenues, with all the who-wants-to-be-the-lamest, least-admired-state implications that offers.

In the end, I think voters will rely on their guts. And their innards should tell them government is not stuffing its face on high-calorie snacks. Washington is a sophisticated place that values education and a certain level of service.

The umpteenth iteration of Eyman takes us downward — to places we don't want to go.

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