This editorial appears in the Yakima Herald-Republic on Jan. 6, 2009.

Here we go again -- it's the same old singer but with a different tune.

As he has repeatedly for the past decade, Tim Eyman is back with another initiative that he wants to toss in the laps of state voters.

His latest measure -- dubbed the Lower Property Taxes Initiative -- would limit the annual growth of government tax collections to the rate of inflation. Any money collected over the cap would be transferred out of government's main checking account and used to lower property taxes.

In order to reach the ballot, the initiative will need around 241,000 valid voter signatures.

This may not be easy since one of Eyman's major patrons refused to give upfront money for last year's failed Initiative 985, which would have opened carpool lanes and diverted a slice of state automobile sales taxes toward traffic-relief projects. That meant Eyman had to borrow money against his home in order to pay for signature-gatherers. That's not a great way to run a supposedly well-oiled initiative-gathering operation.

While his last initiative didn't pass muster with voters, still others of Eyman's creation have later failed on constitutional grounds in the state Supreme Court. In other words, Eyman's batting average is nothing to brag about.

That's why it would have been nice to get a reprieve this year.

But that's not the case. While the merits of Eyman's latest property-tax measure will be discussed in the coming months, we wonder if he's still too focused on the Puget Sound area and not enough on those of us living here in Central Washington, where he grew up. Our property values never experienced the wild gyrations that the Seattle area did during the recent housing boon.

The argument behind Eyman's initiative would have us believe that a town like Mabton, which just laid off its part-time police chief, is enjoying a budget surplus. Far from it. The same tight budget conditions hold true throughout the Yakima Valley.

But as we have learned from Eyman, the allure of promoting statewide initiatives is too irresistible to pass up. It offers an opportunity to wield power in a large public arena and avoid taking a course of action that demands far more scrutiny, the kind of rigorous give-and-take that is involved in the legislative process. Too often, initiatives come with little or no revenue to pay for them.

A case in point are two measures -- higher teacher pay and smaller classrooms -- that both gained widespread support in 2000. Facing a massive multibillion-dollar shortfall, Gov. Chris Gregoire has declined to include any money for teacher pay raises for 2009-11 and has reduced by about a quarter the money earmarked for reducing class sizes in our public schools.

Other states are also sidestepping voter-approved mandates. In Oregon, the governor has only budgeted half of the $150 million needed to implement tougher prison sentencing guidelines.

Eyman's initiative will not be the only measure state voters will have to scrutinize in the coming months. We had just hoped the new year would have brought a fresh face to this process.

* Members of the Yakima Herald-Republic editorial board are Michael Shepard, Barbara Serrano, Spencer Hatton and Karen Troianello.