Believing that Tim Eyman's initiatives have each pulled in the range of 60% statewide solely, or even to any significant degree, because Eyman didn't tell us he was pulling a big salary for his efforts, is the worst kind of self-delusion. If Tim Eyman hadn't existed, someone would have invented him. His initiatives have passed not because our state has the country's most onerous tax system--it's about the middle of the pack for overall tax load--but because it has one of the country's most regressive. People didn't need Eyman to watch and fume as their property taxes soared; they didn't need Eyman to take notice as they got nickeled and dimed on everything, and then soaked on major expenses like car purchases. They voted for his various initiatives not because of his pure little guy fighting the evil self-interested bureaucrats-run-amok shtik, but because their personal experience was that they were paying too damned much for what they thought they were getting from government.

There is, of course, a solution other than the Eyman meat axe, one that doesn't even involve trying to undo 20 years of anti-government rhetoric. It is to make the tax system fairer. Reduce the overall bill to most folks by making the state's big businesses and its Allens and Gateses pay their fair share. Unless and until that happens, anti-tax initiatives are going to continue to resonate with a majority of the public. Eyman makes good copy--in both his successes and his failures--but he would be just another watch salesman were it not for the failure of our legislature to listen to its citizens. Once again this month, there's a huge state budget shortfall, and legislators are talking about anything and everything except making the rich pull their weight. Pols who criticize the initiative process do so because they don't want to listen to us ignorant voters (locally, think monorail). Their fear is not that someone pays himself for working fulltime on a political campaign (imagine!), but that they can be held accountable for their actions by the democratic process. And lawmakers who fear democracy are much more of a scandal than Tim Eyman's foolish posturings.--Geov Parrish

That said, the fact still remains that Tim Eyman lied and he did it to give his campaign a moral footing. Crude efforts to slash taxes (as opposed to reforming taxes) without considering the impact on the impoverished, obviously pander to the voters' selfish desire to keep all of their money, and not give their share to support the social safety net. In other words it boils down to personal greed. We have a political system that provides a safety net for folks in trouble because we assume that it's a good thing to help one another--that what goes around comes around. If I'm doing fine today, that doesn't mean that I might not suddenly fall seriously ill and run up high medical bills, lose my job, lose my home because of a natural disaster or the greed of my landlord, become disabled from a car accident, become the victim of assault or rape--in short, need to draw on one of the hundreds of programs provided by the government's safety net. Tim Eyman and others like him seek to dismantle the safety net so they can have a little more money to put in their own pockets.

And that's not even considering the illegality of it all. For example, Tim Eyman spent campaign funds on fixing his wife's car, when Eyman's own supporters say that his wife doesn't share his work or his passion for politicking. What other personal bills did he pay with campaign funds? The Public Disclosure Commission is currently investigating some $13,000 in campaign funds Eyman spent to pay his personal bills, in addition to the secret $200,000 in salary he paid to himself. One thing's for certain: people who contributed to Eyman's initiative campaigns won't be happy to see their money spent to pay fines levied by the PDC.--Maria Tomchick

Some good news this week: Street Outreach Services, which was due to be evicted from its storefront on 2nd and Pike on January 31, has won a reprieve from landlord Richard Nimmer. After pressure from SOS and two city council members (Steinbrueck and Licata), Deputy Mayor Tim Ceis met with Nimmer and worked out an agreement: Nimmer will delay the eviction until April 30 and the city will provide more cops to patrol in front of the SOS storefront. But will those patrols harass and drive away the very people who need SOS' services? Probably. At least SOS isn't out on the street, and they have three months to find another space. If you know of any available, cheap, street-level office space, call them up at 625-0854.--MT

More good news: King County voters approved a raise in their property taxes for King County libraries. It was the first county-wide revenue increase to come before voters since the passage of Tim Eyman's Initiative 747, which limits property tax increases to 1%. State legislators take note: people will pay if they know what they're getting and want it badly enough. Resistance is strong in Olympia to putting before the voters a transportation package that includes an increase in the gas tax. Olympia politicians should look at this victory for King County libraries and remember that voter support for transportation improvements is stronger than for the library system, particularly in King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties, where traffic congestion is the worst.--MT

Dept. of the More-Absurd-Than-Usual, Olympia division: a state lawmaker wants to rename a northern stretch of state Hwy. 99--now quietly named for Jefferson Davis--after an African-American Civil War hero, because he thinks honoring historical figures who fought so that a country could become independent and maintain slavery is immoral. Which raises an obvious question: what about the state of Washington? The Columbia River (named for a guy who enslaved 8 million Arawaks, quickly killing most of them)? Or Jefferson County, or Adams County, or Columbia County...you get the idea. But we at ETS! have a better idea: emulate King County, which now pretends it is named after Martin Luther King Jr. rather than the original obscure vice president it first drew its name from. We could become the state of Booker T. Washington. Everyone loves a good beer, so how 'bout Samuel Adams County? We also love TV: a grand river for a rumpled old TV detective would be fine. As for the highway in question, Angela Davis Hwy. would do quite nicely. I'd move there.--GP