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Ads slamming I-1033 going on television

• Published October 06, 2009

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The campaign against Tim Eyman's Initiative 1033 has gone to the airwaves with its first two television ads.

One ad features a schoolteacher, Jenny Rose, who says that schools already are facing budget cuts and will suffer if I-1033's revenue-growth limits and property-tax reductions are approved. The other ad features a senior who warns of shortfalls in funding programs for healthcare.

The teachers ad, seen here, goes on to warn that teachers are being laid off already and that bad things happened to schools when Colorado voters enacted a revenue-limiting bill. The seniors ad is here (thanks to the Seattle Times' Politics Northwest blog for seniors ad the link).

Labor groups including teacher unions and the state hospital association are among donors to the No on 1033.

Eyman has taken pains to say that I-1033 is not a constitutional amendment like Colorado's Taxpayer Bill of Rights, which voters approved in 1992 and was suspended in 2005 because of its erosion of state investment in government programs.

Eyman told The Olympian's editorial board last week I-1033 would allow general-fund revenue increases for state, city and county governments but limited to a factor of inflation and population growth, which he estimated to be about 5 percent. Any excess revenues above the limit in any jurisdiction would be used to pay for property-tax relief in that jurisdiction the following year.

Eyman called the ads "threats, lies and scare tactics. This is just another example of threats, lies and scare tactics by our opponents."

Eyman said he thinks the ads help him by putting attention on the measure, which mimics some of the revenue limitations of I-601. But I-1033 also covers cities and counties, which I-601 did not limit.