Tim Eyman is rolling the dice that Washington state voters will gladly legalize gambling in hopes of enjoying a jackpot of lower property taxes.
And he’s betting that residents are ready to strip tribes of their exclusive ability to operate video slot machines to install one-armed bandits and video poker machines in their neighborhood card rooms, bowling alleys and bingo halls.
"This initiative asks voters to break up a government-protected monopoly, a worthy objective by itself, and rewards them with a permanent reduction in this state’s obscene property tax," said Eyman, of Mukilteo, reading from a prepared statement Tuesday before filing papers with the Secretary of State. "It’s the most unique initiative I’ve ever done."
But opponents who watched him file Tuesday morning warned that the latest undertaking is a losing bet. They said that it will not pay off as promised but will cost residents by undermining the tax base on which public schools, fire departments and other public services are funded.
"If voters follow Tim Eyman the Pied Piper down this road, everything they like will be gone," said Steve Zemke of Taxpayers for Washington’s Future.
Zemke and David Goldstein of TaxSanity.org said Eyman’s libertarianism is going too far by linking gambling revenues with tax cuts and raises doubts about the sincerity of this attempt at revolt against the state’s regressive tax system.
"Tying the two together I find disgusting," said Goldstein, who pushed an initiative in 2003 to call Eyman a "horse’s ass."
"Tim could not find the money to cut from the state budget. This is his answer. I call it ‘slots for tots,’" Goldstein said. "Why not ‘drugs for thugs,’ legalizing drugs to pay for prisons? Why not ‘hooks for books,’ legalizing prostitution for libraries?"
This gambling initiative, I-885, could share the November ballot with I-864, a property tax cut initiative that Eyman began gathering signatures for earlier this year.
Both measures need signing by roughly 200,000 registered voters by July 2 to be on the November ballot. On Tuesday, in a bid to prevent confusion, Eyman e-mailed supporters of I-864 to focus on that measure and not get involved in the new gambling undertaking.
Politically, I-885 poses a new challenge in that Eyman takes aim at both the amorphous state but also a specific population — the residents of 27 tribes who earn income from the casinos.
By targeting them as business operators benefiting from a monopoly, Eyman risks inciting criticism as occurred in California. When Arnold Schwarzenegger campaigned for governor on a platform of compelling tribes to fork over more revenues from the lucrative gambling establishments, critics said he was fomenting anti-Indian sentiment.
Democrat Rep. John McCoy of the Tulalip Tribe, which runs a casino near Marysville, said Eyman "has a lot of work to do with his initiative. This (legalized gambling) has been tried before and it’s failed."
McCoy went further in the Spokesman-Review newspaper of Spokane, saying that the initiative would "kill tribal gaming" and it was an act of "economic racism." That enraged Eyman.
"That is absolutely laughable on its face," he said. "All this initiative endorses is the idea of having competition, and, let me make this clear, a more level playing field because the reality is that the field is still tilted dramatically to the tribes that don’t pay taxes."
Gaming interests failed last year to convince the Legislature to legalize gambling. They argued it would pump much needed money into state coffers. Eyman takes the logic one step further, letting gamblers essentially finance the tax cut.
Under the proposed initiative, the state would keep only what it needs to cover licensing, regulating those with gaming machines and administering the tax cut. One percent of the revenue would go to fight problem gambling.
As written in the initiative, the maximum number of machines in nontribal businesses statewide would equal the total number in tribal casinos. Fifteen percent of machines would be shared among the top 40 charity or nonprofit operators of bingo games, 36 percent among horse racing facilities and card room houses with at least five house-banked card tables, and 49 percent for businesses where food and liquor is served and punch cards and pull tabs are available. Those licensed would pay the state a 35 percent tax on gross revenues.
As much as card room operators want legalized gambling, the high tax could deter them from investing in machines, which can cost in excess of $10,000 each. If the measure passes, those familiar with card rooms say smaller ones might be forced out of business.
"Let’s just have some competition," Eyman said, avoiding whether he thinks nontribal businesses might suffer under this plan.
Reporter Jerry Cornfield: jcornfield@heraldnet.com or 360-352-8623.
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