RSSCounty says I-1033 would have negative local impactÂ
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YAKIMA, Wash. -- Yakima County commissioners are concerned about the impact Initiative 1033 would have on county government should voters approve the measure in November.
Following a presentation by initiative author Tim Eyman on Tuesday, commissioners said the measure will hurt local governments when the real target should be rapid growth in state government spending.
State lawmakers struggled to close a $9 billion hole in the state’s biennial budget this year.
Eyman will make a similar presentation to the Yakima City Council tonight where, he said, he expects a more lively give-and-take about the initiative.
Commissioners said the initiative’s caps on revenue growth to the level of inflation plus population growth likely will mean cuts in services.
Revenues that exceed the limits set by the initiative would be returned to taxpayers in the form of reduced property taxes.
Because of sagging sales tax revenues, Yakima County currently is facing a potential budget deficit of more than $3 million that will have to be whittled down by the time a final budget is approved.
Commissioners are warning residents they will see cuts in services. Those cuts may center on law enforcement, the courts and other programs that make up law and justice and public safety. Those programs account for 80 percent of the county’s general fund.
Eyman, following his presentation and a commission study session that showed the initiative would have cost the county nearly $15 million had the measure been in effect since 2002, said the projection assumes commissioners wouldn’t have changed anything during those years.
“The idea is to change behavior,” he said.
But commissioners remain skeptical, urging voters to be well-informed about the initiative.
Commissioner Mike Leita described the initiative as a “simplistic approach” that seeks to limit growth by limiting revenues without taking into account increases in expenses that counties can’t control.
Commission Chairman Rand Elliott called the initiative a penalty on local governments for the state’s reckless spending.
He said Yakima County government has been conservative in its spending but now could feel the greatest brunt from I-1033, if it is approved by voters on Nov. 3.
“There is an unintended consequence to local government that is doing a good job,” Elliott said.
Eyman framed the initiative as limiting what he called the roller coaster of budgeting in which spending leaps during good economic times and then must be cut when the economy is ailing.
He said I-1033 will get government off the roller coaster and allow it to grow at a rate the taxpayers can afford.
“Property taxes keep going higher and higher and government keeps getting bigger and bigger. The people are losing control,” he said, reading from a prepared text.
He agreed the initiative will pose a challenge to all layers of government, but he quickly added that local governments that find themselves short on money can still go to the voters for a tax increase.
“There is a safety valve. It there isn’t enough money, you can make your case to the voters,” he said.
Did anyone really expect government bureaucrats to be happy about losing the ability to raise taxes without a vote?
Report ViolationMaybe the county should sell more driver licenses to illegal immigrants. That has worked out real well in
the past.
Dang... we enjoyed an earlier Tax Freedom Day this year so guess they'll up the ante so we need to work more days next year to pay off all our taxes.
http://www.taxfoundation.org/taxfreedomday/
Weasel-
Check out either video:
Tim Wise (9min): bit.ly/tim_wise-onWhitePrivilege
or
Shades of Youth project (5min): bit.ly/Shades-of-Youth_trailer
Hope you learn a thing on the educational and the programmatic issues on antiracism work around the U.S. and promote more intergenerational collaboration.
The negative impact on their budget is a positive impact on ours.
Report ViolationSU, I'm not sure what you are getting at, but if you are saying that enforcement of our immigration laws or complaints against illegal aliens is a racist issue, you are sadly mistaken. It is simply one of law enforcement, no more - no less. All the race criticism has come fro the racist hate group La Raza, shouting about what they themselves are mostly guilty of. Their name even states them as a racist group - La Raza, (The race). Their stated motto on their web site is, "All for 'the race', and nothing for anyone else".
If that isn't racist to the max, I don't know what is.
Weasel, the STATE issues rivers licenses, not the county.
sjuan, I live on a fixed income now. I don't have the freedom to simply spend money I don't have or can't get. The county, state, and Federal governments need to take the same direction. If the people have to suffer, then so be it. However, I feel that definitely, we should favor citizens and legal immigrants before rewarding criminal illegal aliens with benefits of any kind. Employers should be punished severely for any hiring them, whether on purpose or not. They would soon self-deport because they couldn't find jobs to staye here for.
I-1033 is more complicated than it might first appear. It is basically a freeze on public services like fixing roads and paying for police and fire protection. Only allowing an adjustment based on a national consumer price index each year means that all you can do is pay for this year's services next year at their inflated cost. There is no increase in services. And any adjustment for population only means you pay for new residents services.
The problem is that next year's spending is based on this year's recession spending so we will stay in recession mode permanently.
No one likes to pay taxes but we all love the roads being fixed, the schools open for our kids, clean parks and open libraries and police and fire protection. There is no free lunch. Taxes are what we pay to have a liveable and safe community.
But Eyman would instead of funding schools and road repair and parks and everything else have your tax dollars go to provide a special break only for property owners.
What he doesn't tell you is that sales tax dollars that now would go for public services will instead go to help businesses and corporations pay their property taxes. Some 40% of these tax dollars going into his special fund will provide a tax break exclusively for business.
Also only 65% of households in this state are owner occupied so 35% of the households that pay sales taxes will not see any tax break. They also will not see any added services.
That's because I-1033 is a complicated wealth transfer scheme that benefits only property owners. The more property one owns the more of a break you will get.
We rank number 1 in states in terms of sales taxes, pay no state income tax unlike 43 other states, yet our per capita property taxes still only rank 25th (with 1 being the highest).
These figures come from the conservative Tax Foundation which, surprise, says that last year our state and local tax burden ranked 35th (with 1 being the highest)out of 50 states.
Read the initiative before you vote. As Colorado found out, what you're being sold may not be such a great deal. Colorado is the only state to pass a measure like I-1033 and they now rank 49th out of 50 states in education spending.
Steve,
"That's because I-1033 is a complicated wealth transfer scheme that benefits only property owners. The more property one owns the more of a break you will get."
Since property owners shoulder the largest tax burden, why shouldn't they see the largest break when tax rates are reduced? Non property owners are allowed to impose taxes on property owners when they vote for school levies and bonds. You probably have no problem with this, yet you think it's unfair for the property owners to get a tax break if I-1033 passes? What kind of backwards thinking is that?
Vote for what you want to and live with what you get..
Report ViolationI don't mind higher taxes. As long as I get something in return. More law enforcement, better quality of life, healthcare...
Report Violation
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