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Eyman critics: I-1033 adds a half-billion-dollars to state deficit

• Published July 01, 2009

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Tim Eyman's newest initiative puts limits on the growth of general-fund revenues that can be spent by the state, cities and counties. And one leftist think tank weighed in today, on the eve of Eyman's filing of voter signatures, to say Initiative 1033 is a bad deal for Washington.

"We think it will increase the current deficit by a half-billion dollars,"’ said Jeff Chapman, fiscal expert for The Washington State Budget and Policy Center, a left-of-center group based in Seattle. Chapman compared I-1033 broadly Wednesday to the Colorado Taxpayer Bill of Rights from 1992, a comparison Eyman rejected on grounds his measure is more modest.

Chapman spoke in a teleconference with reporters today and was joined by Carol Hedges, a senior fiscal analyst with the Colorado Fiscal Policy Institute. Hedges has analyzed the first decade of TABOR, the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, in Colorado, and she didn’t like what she found.

"We went from the middle of the pack to bottom of the barrel in spending outcomes and almost every kind of public investment you can imagine," Hedges said.

Colorado fell from No. 35 among the states for public-school investments after TABOR passed to No. 48. It also fell for per-pupil spending and now has the highest percentage of students without health insurance in the country, she said.

In the end, Hedges said, a coalition partly funded and led by business interests pushed for and won a public vote that suspended the TABOR formula that limited revenue growth. The result is that Colorado is in a "time out" from the limits until 2012, she said.

Eyman, who hopes to file more than 290,000 signatures Thursday and thereby assure his measure a spot on the Nov. 3 ballot, said TABOR is a much more severe measure than his.

TABOR dealt with smaller jurisdictions including school districts, fire districts and cemetery boards, Eyman said, and it was a constitutional amendment requiring a public vote to change some of its terms.

TABOR also covered all budget accounts, and not just general funds, which typically cover the main programs and services a government provides. But Eyman said his measure does not hinder the collection of a rainy day fund or reserve accounts.

"This says, you can tax us into oblivion if you want to; you just have to convince the voters first," Eyman said of I-1033. He said lawmakers can amend it, and it has a “safety valve” that allows revenue increases higher than the limit if voters approve it.

All told, he said, there "are quite a few differences" from TABOR.

He disputed that locking in the limit for government revenues at a low point in the economy would hurt the government. He said it would help get the state off its budget roller-coaster.

Chapman of the policy center provided an online presentation with slides showing some of the problems with I-1033. His group plans to post more criticisms of I-1033 on Thursday on its Schmudget blog.