Eyman Tax Initiative Gets Legal Thumbs Up From Former Justice

Former Washington State Supreme Court Justice Richard Sanders has written a  7-page legal analysis of Tim Eyman's latest effort, Initiative 1082, and according to an Eyman press release Sander's says  "I conclude I-1082 passes constitutional muster."

That's significant given Eyman's history of constitutional questions surrounding some of his past initiatives.  Signature gathering for I-1082 is currently underway following the signature shortfall for identical Initiative 1648, an Initiative to the People targeting the 2019 ballot.

On July 5, 2019, Eyman announced "We ended up falling short. We were just shy of 200,000 [signatures]. It was less than 30 days, we were starting from scratch, we had no money... we're going to keep on working hard, but Initiative 1648 ended up falling short and what killed us was the calendar— that's all it was."

So with typical Eyman persistence he's trying again with more time for the same message.  Ballotpedia says "Initiative 1082 would require that tax increases passed by the state legislature expire after one year unless voters approve the increases as referred ballot measures."

The measure was specifically targeted toward the following 11 bills:

• House Bill 1087
• Senate Bill 5998
• Senate Bill 5993
• Senate Bill 6016
• House Bill 2167
• Senate Bill 5997
• Senate Bill 6004
• House Bill 1873
• Senate Bill 5581
• House Bill 2158
• Senate Bill 5313

​Eyman's opponents  like Fuse Washington are urging voters not to sign the petition. "Just like last time, this initiative would blow a hole in the state budget and cut billions from public schools, affordable housing, mental health care, clean energy investments, and more."