Tim Eyman in the news again

Tim Eyman is filing an initiative saying that the state legislature can't pass laws restricting initiatives unless they come up for a public vote. Such an initiative won't pass legal muster since the method for passing a bill is in the state constitution. But I don't think Tim Eyman cares about that. After all, most of his previous initiatives have not been legal either.

He also got a couple slaps on the wrist for some PDC filing errors.

I think he's already done enough damage to Washington. His initiative I-695 in 1999 to get rid of the excessive fees on cars was one thing. Years ago Washington had a personal property tax. Taxpayers would inventory everything they owned once a year, have it inspected and pay tax on it. That was too onerous, so it was shifted to taxing a taxpayer's car as a representation of his/her personal property. Over time people forgot that the car was a stand-in for the personal property, and then the car fees seemed exorbitant, especially compared with $30 annual licensing fees across the river in Oregon. The initiative passed, but was legally flawed. The legislature, seeing the overwhelming support for this initiative, cut the rates down to $30 a year per car. Of course our state and local governments had to start scambling for money to replace this revenue.

Eyeman's next initiative, I-722 in 2000, put a cap of 2% on property taxes that public entities could raise. We are fortunate that we are living in the fastest growing part of Washington, because that has saved us from feeling some of the pain from this initiative. That initiative was also flawed, but parts of it were enacted.

More about his history is available here.

It's weird to see political memes sweeping across states. California started the property tax limitation with their Proprosition 13. This spread to Oregon with Bill Pridemore and has resulted in gutting the public schools there. Tim Eyman became the Bill Pridemore of Washington -- making a cottage industry out of awful initiatives. Why does this happen? Are the circumstances just right for these small men to make a difference?

It's uncannily like seeing Bush trying to apply the nationalism lessons from Margaret Thatcher here and then seeing John Howard, Prime Minister of Australia, try to use Bush's ploys there.