Relief reigns in Basin city halls

Initiative 864, which promised myriad of cutbacks and layoffs fails to gather enough signatures

With a mixture of relief and caution, leaders from cities in the Basin received the news that Initiative 864 had failed to gather enough signatures to be placed on the November ballot.

The initiative would have cut 25 percent from property tax revenues from local governments, hence inducing city and county governments across the state to make significant cuts to all sorts of services, from libraries to police and fire departments.

However, anti-tax crusader Tim Eyman, the man behind the initiative, fell about 30,000 signatures short of the required minimum of 197,000. Although he pledged to come back stronger next year, the prospect of having the initiative sit on the shelves indefinitely is enough to make several area authorities breathe easier.

"I am so thankful," Othello Mayor Jeannie Sanders said. "I don't know if citizens realize how hard of an impact that would have had on our police department." The cut from the Othello Police Department would have exceeded half of the total cuts from the city's general fund, for a total of more than $100,000.

City police departments would not have been the only ones affected by I-864. The need to save money would have caused strains in parks departments, library districts, as well as street maintenance. That is the case of the city of Ephrata, whose city administrator Wes Crago said he was "excited" about his town being able to continue offering these services.

Crago said that the initiative's failure to gather enough support shows that people had chosen to keep those services intact.

Moses Lake City Manager Joe Gavinski agreed with Crago, saying he thought I-864 went a bit too far, not only cutting taxes but services which "people found valuable."

In case Eyman does come back next year, as he promised, with a similar initiative, Crago said cities would have to show people once again what the consequences of cutting local property taxes would be.

"We will dust off our budgets for this fall (next year) and say 'this will be the impact,'" he said. "Then, people can make a decision with full knowledge."

Eyman told reporters last Friday that he does not plan to quit, and assured them he is coming back with another initiative aimed at property taxes. Warden Mayor Roldan Capetillo said it is critical for cities to be prepared in case they are confronted with a sequel to the failed proposal.

Capetillo added that cities and towns received "a rude awakening" with the possibility of having to tighten up their already slim budgets if I-864 passed. He suggested cities form a plan to present to Eyman in case he tries again. That way, Eyman would be more aware of the impact his initiatives have on small cities. Still, he advised caution of "what some people are capable of doing," he said, referring to Eyman.

Gavinski agreed with Capetillo, saying that cities now have to deal with an issue of communication with its citizens.

"We have to let the citizens of our community know the value of the services they get for the taxes they pay," he said. "The services that would be eliminated if those tax (revenues) were not received."

Saying he was pleased I-864 had failed to gather enough signatures, Gavinski added that should Eyman try again, there exists the possibility of putting together efforts to counterattack the paid signature-gathering by supporters of the initiative.

This would not occur by stopping the gatherers from being paid, he said, but by having people stand side by side with them, explaining to potential signees what it truly was that they were signing.

Caution was the recipe offered by Spencer Grigg, parks and recreation director for Moses Lake, who said everybody needed to remain aware and educated in order to fight similar initiatives in the future.

"People like Mr. Eyman can be bought," he said, "and it would not surprise me to see him come back next year."

Grigg remained optimistic, however, that this year's crusade by librarians, firefighters and other public servants to combat I-864 would teach people how to respond to "the efforts of Eyman and fanatics like him," he said.