Yeah, see, the thing about today’s front page Seattle Times article on I-1033 — “Tax limit complex; impact unclear” — is that it isn’t, and any fair and balanced effort to impartially explain the initiative to voters only does readers a disservice.
I mean, honestly, on one side you have a broad coalition of labor and business, backed up both by the expertise of the state Office of Financial Management and the real world experience of Colorado’s disastrous TABOR experiment, and on the other side you have, you know, Tim Eyman. Yet in the typical J-School fashion, the Times’ Andrew Garber labors to present both sides equally.
To what end?
The truth is, both the intent and the impact of I-1033 is painfully clear: it will make state and local governments smaller, both as a percentage of the total economy, and in their ability to provide services and build and maintain public infrastructure. I-1033 pegs revenue growth to population plus inflation, yet it is an indisputable fact that the cost of providing government services increases at a substantially higher rate than inflation as a whole. (As I’ve repeatedly explained, it’s all gotta do with the nature of productivity.) Therefore, under I-1033, government revenue would increase slower than its costs. That is a fact. It’s simple math. And there’s nothing unclear about it.
Neither is there anything unclear about Eyman’s intentions. He wants to shrink government… you know… to the size where he can drown it in a bath tub. He’s WA’s Grover Norquist, only taller, and not nearly as smart. (And Norquist, to his credit, is at least manly enough to look me in the eye.)
He’s also an admitted liar, barred by court order from ever serving as campaign treasurer due to his inability to keep his campaign funds separate from his personal accounts. So why the hell is Eyman given equal weight as, and considerably more ink than, say, OFM, in explaining how I-1033 works? For example, in dismissing the argument that I-1033 would hurt schools, Eyman disingenuously claims that, unlike Colorado’s law, his measure doesn’t touch schools at all… rhetorical bullshit that Garber dutifully echoes:
However, there are key differences between the two measures. Colorado’s applied to all governments including school and fire-protection districts. Eyman’s affects only city, county and state government.
Uh-huh. But see, the thing is, about three-quarters of K-12 funding comes from the state, an expense that accounts for the largest chunk of the state budget, so to suggest that limiting state revenues won’t limit education spending is patently ridiculous. Furthermore, local school levies are capped by law at no more than 24% of state and federal funding (up to 33% in a handful of districts), so as state education spending declines (inflation-adjusted or otherwise) so will the amount local school districts are allowed to raise via local levies. Again, it’s simple math: if school levies are capped at a percentage of state funding, and I-1033 limits state revenue, then I-1033 imposes revenue limits on local school districts.
So yeah, Garber is technically accurate in stating that I-1033 excludes local school districts, but by failing to put the very real (and mathematically indisputable) impact of the measure in its broader context, he only ends up misinforming voters. There will be voters who cast their ballot in favor of I-1033, wrongly (if honestly) believing that it will not impact their local schools, and some of these voters will undoubtably believe this thanks to Garber’s impartial reporting.
I’m not implying ill intent on the part of Garber or the Times, or any sort of ethical or professional lapse. But this is clearly one of those times when their devotion to the traditional journalistic paradigm allows the facts to obscure the truth, and ultimately, only serves to mislead the public.
The Times failed to cover the Washington Education Association news conference last week. Four teachers — including one from Colorado — warned that I-1033 will severely harm our public schools. The impact IS clear. At least Lynne Varner’s column gets its right: Eyman’s I-1033 is bad for everyone.
Traditional journalism doesn’t exist anymore. “He said, she said” reporting isn’t journalism; it’s merely stenography.
More on The Times’ as a Fish Wrapper
Sunday’s Times/Wrapper reported on a massive demonstration against R71 up in Lynnwood. The Times intrepid investigative journalist reported on hundreds of demonstrators from local churches.
SJ News on the scene reporters found easily a couple of dozen folks gathered around a corner .. on 196tyh SW near I5. Seems like the Times was not there?
Most of these demonstrators spoke funny .. you know as if they were foreigners? Turns out they were from a Russian immigre church out in Spokane .. their bedraggled church buss was nearby!
Did anyobody ask if these were legal immigrants? One of them told me he made a living doing odd jobs for people .. you know like the folks outside of Home Depot?
Our reporter congratulated these immigrants on participating in US free speech by supporting the needs of gay people to be married rather than merely partnered.
Sergie and I hugged and he even blushed when I asked him if he was gay. My co reporter, BRS, assured him I was NOT gay!
To be fair there were about a half dozen or so real Americans there too. One of these told us that he was not only not against gay people, but against any state benefits other than the army and police. He also would not say if he were himself gay. I think he was straight because gay folks usually give SJ hugs.
Actually, Goldy, the potential impact of I-1033 is unclear.
Will it be:
a) Really awful for Washington?
b) Horrendous for Washington?
c) Devastating for Washington?
d) Even worse than the above?
Eyman never wants to pay another tax…ever.
He wants to continue to sell cheap watches for high prices to stupid frat boys without the state calling him on it. He wants to live high on the hill so he can look down at all the little people he’s walked over to get there. He wants the state to be gone, a distant memory of a time when he wasn’t the most powerful man in Washington.
But, he still wants to drive to his masseuse on First Ave. on nicely paved roads. He wants his clean bright water to come out of his gilded taps for his highball. When he calls 911 on his mistress for not assuming ‘the position’ he wants the cops to show up. When she sets fire to his house, he demands the fire department arrive quickly to put out the flames.
Thus is the conundrum of Tim Eyman and the rest of the rightwing chorus. They want it all, let the rest of us pay for it.
Kinda sound familiar?
Tim Eyman is a goon. The state should pass a law giving each resident one free slap on his pug face. Hell, make it an initiative!
The Seattle Times should describe itself as The Ethical Lapse of Record. I keep hoping that McClatchy will persuade some member in the fetid Blethen gene pool and (with no offense to the late and great P-I) bring true newspaper journalism to Seattle.
Besides, it would be fun to see King Frank in the position of an ignored and impotent minority owner.
@5 Actually, most likely Tim wants none of the above. In the unlikely event that he actually succeeded in kneecapping government and abolishing taxes, he’d lose his cushy gig paid for by his rich Woodinville patron, which largely consists of sitting on his butt and dreaming up some cockamamie initiative every election cycle, making some phone calls to hire a herd of signature gatherers–hell, there’s probably some subcontractor who does that for him–and barging into other peoples’ meetings and shooting off his mouth.
Since he originally started this shtick, has Tim really sold any watches? That would be too much like real work.
@7 – You have a point there. Every time I see his ugly mug on my TV, I can’t help but see a caption underneath:
“Would you buy a watch from this man?”
There aren’t that many stupid frat boys in this state, are there?
I think Tim’s watch scam is in the rear-view mirror. Why waste time doing that when you can reach into Michael Dunmire’s wallet for six figures per year?
The Times article is very superficial in that it neglects to mention the fact that our state and local tax burden ranks 35th (with 1 being the highest) according to the conservative Tax Foundation. Property taxes are ranked 25th. Yet our income per capita is 8th highest.
Garber repeats Eyman’s false talking points without critically analyzing them.
Government is not out of control unless you count countless filings of anti-tax, ant- government initiatives by Tim Eyman paid for by Michael Dunmire that hire out of state signature gatherers to try to promote extreme right wing agendas like transferring wealth from lower income taxpayers to wealthy property owners as I-1033 proposes to do.
Renters and fixed income seniors and working families that don’t own property lose under I-1033’s unfair tax transfer system, collecting sales taxes and other fees from low and middle income taxpayers to be used to pay property taxes for corporations and real estate developers and shopping mall owners like Kemper Freeman Jr of Bellevue Square who gave $25,000 to Eyman.
The tax rebate system proposed by Eyman in I-1033 is not based on the amount of sales taxes or other fees one pays but on the amount of property one owns. If you don’t own property you get no rebate, but you still will pay the same sales taxes and fees as before.
Last year some 54% of state revenue came from sales taxes. Businesses get some one third of the property tax rebates, yet they already have a sales tax exemption for goods they resell. The end consumer is the one who pays the sales tax.
What a great tax refund system Eyman is proposing – take taxes paid by everyone and use them only to benefit property owners. Some 35% of households in Washington State are not owner occupied according to the US Census Bureau. They will get no rebate under I-1033.
I-1033 is a wealth transfer scheme that shifts more of the tax burden onto low and middle income families to benefit mostly wealthy property owners.
Times are bad enough for low and middle income families already with the recession without making our tax system even more regressive. Vote NO on I-1033.
When State Treasurer James McIntire warned that I-1033 would damage the bond rating of the state Tim did his usual lying song and and dance. Never mind that McIntire is simply repeating what people like Moody’s have told him.
BTW King County has a AAA rating, wanna bet that goes down if I-1033 is passed?
As for the article, I just can’t believe any so-called journalist can continue to repeat Eyman’s lies with a straight face. At least they did note “Eyman, who makes his living filing initiatives”. Too bad they didn’t mention his embezzlement from prior initiative campaigns he’s run.
Eyman is the lowest sort of professional con-man.
@10 “If you don’t own property you get no rebate, but you still will pay the same sales taxes and fees as before.”
Not only that….if you’re a renter, you damned well are paying your landlord’s property tax–and under Timmy’s scheme, he (or she) gets the rebate! This effectively forces the state to play Robin Hood in reverse.
If I-1033 passes then maybe the tax breaks for the newspapers should be revoked. After all, what need will we have for a newspaper of record if there is no government left to watch over?
@3 I wonder if the Lynnwood demonstration is part of Putin’s bizzare campaign to rehabilitate Stalin’s image?
” … [A] libel hearing is under way at a Moscow court that could clear the name of the … Soviet dictator ….
“[Stalin’s] grandson, Yevgeny Dzhugashvili, is seeking … damages from the liberal newspaper Novaya Gazeta. [He] … alleges … the paper falsely accused his grandfather of … signing death warrants for thousands of people.
“The lawsuit isn’t the first attempt to clear the name of the former dictator …. Some Russian liberals see such moves as part of a whitewash being guided by President Dmitri Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who they say want to use Stalin’s achievements to justify their own repressive ways. …
“[T]he paper Dzhugashvili is suing, has been a particular thorn in the side of the Russian government. Its star reporter … was murdered … after writing a series of investigative stories on Russia’s brutal war in Chechnya. …
http://news.aol.com/article/gr.....ues/713555
@10 “transferring wealth from lower income taxpayers to wealthy property owners as I-1033 proposes to do”
Bingo! This is why Dunmire funds Eyman, and is why it’s worth his while to do so.
#14 & 15 were posted by Roger Rabbit. Mischievous Mrs. Rabbit has been playing with my computer again.
I-1033 proposes to transfer tax dollars collected from everyone to just pay property taxes for property owners. It will make our tax system more regressive and shift more of the tax burden onto lower income taxpayers to benefit those with lots of property.
I-1033 also proposes to freeze all public spending at its current level by Washington State and all 39 counties and all 281 cites. The only way to increase public services will be to have repeated votes by referendum on budgets. No services lost due to the current recession can be increased without a public vote.
I-1033 proposes to abolish our current form of representative government in place since our state was formed by removing the current power of local elected officials to increase their current budgets.
All of these proposals are radical changes, not something minor. They will have lasting impacts for years to come as Colorado saw when they enacted a measure like Eyman’s I-1033. Voters there recently suspended the measure as too severe in cutting public services.
We don’t need to change our current tax system to create an even more regressive system. Already lower income people pay a higher proportion of their income in taxes than the wealthy. We have the highest sales tax in the country and will still have be the highest if voters pass I-1033.
We also have no income tax unlike 43 other states. But the real number to keep in mind is the Tax Foundation’s rating that we are in the bottom third of states in terms of state and local tax burden overall. WE rank 35th (with 1 being the highest).