State GOP backs latest Eyman initiative

Published 9:00 pm Saturday, May 5, 2001

Associated Press

SEATTLE — The state Republican Party on Saturday endorsed Tim Eyman’s Initiative 747, which would require voter approval of property tax increases greater than 1 percent.

The party’s executive committee voted 20-1 in favor of the measure.

Eyman, the Mukilteo businessman behind several recent anti-tax initiatives, said that while the GOP has always backed him, this is the first time it has supported one of his measures before it won enough signatures to get on the ballot.

"They’re actually in a position to help us get the signatures to get this thing on the ballot," Eyman said. "It’s just a good sign of momentum."

The GOP is the second major party to back the initiative. The Libertarian Party also has endorsed it.

Eyman’s group has raised $172,000 of the $300,000 he estimates it will take to get I-747 on the ballot, he said.

Republican Party chairman Chris Vance said the party would not be paying for campaign commercials, but might provide information about the initiative in mailings and at meetings.

"Limiting the growth of property taxes is absolutely consistent with what the Republican Party is all about," Vance said after the GOP meeting in Olympia. "The Republican Party is committed to cutting taxes."

The law allows property taxes to be increased up to 6 percent without voter approval. I-747 would cut that to 1 percent.

Knoll Lowney, who founded the group Permanently Offended in response to Eyman’s group, Permanent Offense, said I-747 would jeopardize funding for libraries, fire districts, hospitals and other critical services.

"It’s not surprising that the state Republican Party and Tim Eyman are on the same page, but it’s clearly the wrong page," Lowney said.

Vance disputed that, saying the measure would not limit the ability to raise taxes, just the ability to raise them without voter approval.

Last year, Eyman campaigned for Initiative 722, which would have limited property tax growth to 2 percent or the rate of inflation, whichever was lower.

It won 56 percent on Election Day, but a Thurston County Superior Court Judge struck it down, saying it would have cut taxes and created a new tax system, in violation of a state law saying initiatives can address one issue only.

This time, Eyman says he’s being careful to address only one issue: tax growth.

Another Eyman initiative, 695, would have replaced the motor vehicle excise tax with a flat $30 fee. It, too, was found unconstitutional.

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