No on I-747 contributions come mostly from unions

Associated Press

ASSOCIATED PRESS

OLYMPIA — The campaign against Tim Eyman’s latest assault on Washington’s tax structure is drawing most of its money from labor unions — especially public employee unions with much to lose should the property tax-limiting initiative pass.

Of the $163,864 in cash donations the No on I-747 campaign has reported to the state Public Disclosure Commission so far, $133,200 came out of labor coffers. More than $100,000 came from the Washington State Council of County and City Employees and its parent union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. Another $10,000 came from the Washington State Council of Firefighters.

Initiative 747 would limit the growth of local property tax levies to 1 percent per year. Current law allows increases of as much as 6 percent.

Compared to the current system, local governments stand to get $115 million less in property taxes during the 2001-02 biennium, according to estimates prepared by the Department of Revenue. By the 2005-07 biennium, that difference could grow to more than $500 million.

For public employee unions, that’s a bleak scenario. They see tax revenue falling quickly behind inflation — which typically far exceeds 1 percent — forcing widespread cutbacks, devastating local services and costing public employees their jobs.

"It’s going to be tough, and you’re going to see real cuts," said Chris Dugovich, president of the Washington State Council of County and City Employees. "It’s roads, it’s libraries, it’s public hospitals, things that are very basic. "

At the Seattle Firefighters Union Local 26 hall, some of the union’s 950 members are spending their free time this fall making campaign signs opposing I-747.

"It comes down to getting more firefighters on the apparatus, getting newer equipment, getting the training for the firefighting," said Cory Bostick, political director for the union.

I-747 wouldn’t bar the adjustment of levies to account for new construction — a factor Eyman contends would account for inflation. And it wouldn’t prevent voters from passing special levies to restore any cuts. But firefighters and other workers aren’t thrilled at the prospect of having to muster the money and energy necessary to pass a levy every year to maintain their budgets.

"It would take away from our concentration on being firefighters. We’d have to focus on being politicians," Bostick said.

Politicking against Eyman has mostly proven to be a loser’s game. Only the courts kept his previous measures, Initiative 695 and Initiative 722, from attaching far stronger strings on taxes. Voters approved both measures by a wide margin.

And Eyman’s fund-raising so far has put the unions to shame. The list of donors he disclosed to the PDC runs 67 pages for a total of more than $500,000. Only three donors gave as much as $10,000, and the per-donor amount swiftly dwindles to pages and pages of $100 checks.

The mail-order watch salesman-turned-tax-rebel runs a sophisticated direct-mail operation, tapping a database of 25,000 supporters for contributions, a base he says has grown more supportive and generous over the years.

"We’ve got a track record," Eyman says. "We didn’t go out and buy beer with the money, we went out and passed two very successful tax measures."

Eyman concedes that the simplicity of his basic message — your taxes are too high — gives him a tactical advantage over his opponents, who must argue for public agencies that many people find unresponsive and bureaucratic.

"How many little old ladies sent them twenty dollars saying, ‘Whatever you do, keep those property taxes skyrocketing!’?" Eyman asks.

Eyman says he likes to think that people are sharing some of the savings they won when the car-tab tax was abolished.

"People send in a donation almost like a thank-you," he says.

One of his largest donors, Wes Lematta of Vancouver, traces his support of Eyman back to the car-tab tax.

"It just was ungodly high," says Lematta, the founder and chairman of the board of Columbia Helicopters, who gave $10,000 to the I-747 campaign. "I helped him on that and kind of stayed in touch."

I-747 may not have quite such fervent backers, but it will still speak loudly to voters’ pocketbooks. When local governments increase levies by the maximum 6 percent, homeowners whose houses are growing rapidly in value take a double hit on their tax bills.

Dugovich and other leading opponents of I-747 can only seethe and hope to convince the voters who have followed Eyman in the past to desert him.

"We’re fighting the free lunch crowd," Dugovich said. "Everybody wants to believe that they can get something for nothing, and that’s just not the case."