People need to watch government

By Tim Eyman

In your story, you blamed "tax-cutting Initiative 695 by Tim Eyman in 2000" for a lack of government services (Ballard News-Tribune, April 30).

I'm very proud to have been one of the co-sponsors of that 1999 initiative to lower vehicle car tabs fees to $30, which voters overwhelmingly approved, despite our side being outspent 20 to 1.

But it's important for newspapers to accurately report that it wasn't the voters who implemented I-695 - it was Olympia. I-695 was struck down by the courts. In March 2000, Governor Gary Locke and the Democrat-controlled Legislature repealed the state car tab tax. The day the courts rejected I-695, Governor Locke held a news conference and promised "$30 license tab fees are here to stay." Within a week, the House approved the bill with a vote of 83-13. The Senate followed 39-9 and Gov. Locke quickly signed it into law.

In the legislative process, it's a constant tug-of-war. The lobbyists for the special interest groups (business, labor, and others) are always pulling the rope in favor of higher taxes, more secrecy, and less accountability. And that'd be great if they were spending their own money - but it's the taxpayers who are paying. And there's simply a limit as to how much the taxpayers can afford.

We firmly believe there needs to be a counterweight: people at the other end of the rope giving the voters the chance to pull in the direction of more reasonable taxes, greater transparency and more accountability. Politicians won't listen to the people unless the people are engaged and involved. Government is the most dangerous when they don't think we're looking. And the initiative process provides the average taxpayer an equal voice in the process; it ensures the people get a seat at the table.

This year's initiative provides a good example. Here's the policies in I-985, the Reduce Traffic Congestion Initiative: illustrating the public's support for making reducing traffic congestion a top transportation priority, opening up carpool lanes to everyone during non-peak hours, requiring local governments to synchronize traffic lights on heavily-traveled arterials and streets, clearing out accidents faster with expanded emergency roadside assistance, using a portion of vehicle sales tax revenue for these policies, removing the profit motive for red light cameras, replacing the percentage spent on public art to instead go toward reducing congestion, instituting critical taxpayer protections on future tolls, and empowering the State Auditor to monitor the implementation of the initiative's policies to ensure compliance.

These policies are based on a recent performance audit report by State Auditor Brian Sonntag. It says that implementing its recommendations will result in a $3 billion economic benefit to our state's economy and reduce traffic congestion 15 percent to 20 percent. That's more than the multi-billion dollar, multi-decade plans provided by Olympia. We think each and every one of these policies is extremely positive and helpful for our state, our economy, and the taxpayers.

But the major reason we did this initiative this year is to strengthen the impact of I-900, the Performance Audit Initiative we sponsored and approved by voters in 2005. We firmly believe that I-900 has the potential to fundamentally change the culture of state and local governments for all time. State Auditor Brian Sonntag has been taking full advantage of the tools this initiative provided to him and his team of auditors. The criminal investigation at the Port of Seattle spurred by their top-to-bottom performance audit of the Port is just the tip of the iceberg of its potential.

So far, he and his team have completed nine performance audits, made 434 recommendations, totaling $3.2 billion in potential tax savings. With a modest investment of existing taxes (1/100th of 1 percent of existing sales tax revenues), Auditor Sonntag is providing Olympia with a spoon-fed roadmap to fundamentally reform government.

Olympia needs a swift kick in the butt to get them to begin adopting Sonntag's audit reports' recommendations. They need pressure from the public.

So we picked the highest profile audit so far - the one on the (Washington State) Department of Transportation - to serve as an effective catalyst. I-985 incorporates its common sense recommendations, funds them with existing revenues, and provides us with the most effective way to push Olympia to start adopting Sonntag's growing list of audit recommendations. Either they do it, or the people are going to do it for them.

I/we don't pretend to have all the answers - but I/we firmly believe that public policy decisions are better when the people participate in the process.

Tim Eyman is co-sponsor of I-985 and heads up Voters Want More Choices, a grassroots taxpayer protection organization, and may be reached at 425-493-8707, tim_eyman@comcast.net, www.ReduceCongestion.org