Initiative 1033, offered by Tim Eyman, would lock Washington State, its cities, and its counties into using its most perilous budgets well into the future. The initiative does not take into account that tax revenues were drastically lower this year due to a deep recession. Tax revenues wouldn’t be able to grow faster than inflation and population growth, which means that I-1033 calls for putting government into a permanent deep recession. It’s a wonky topic, and the initiative’s populist appeal could result serious harm to our state. Let your friends and neighbors know about the great harm that I-1033 could have on our community.
Beyond the obvious implications on education, health services, police forces, fire departments, and other vital services of the state, this initiative could create an environment where rational investments in transportation and transit are skipped in favor of covering whatever basics the state could afford. (If any.) And governments starved for revenue are going to be much less likely to create new revenue sources for transit investments — all revenue sources may be needed to fund basic services.
Both candidates for King County Executive — Dow Constantine and Susan Hutchison — have found common ground in rejection I-1033. Both candidates for Seattle mayor are against it. All candidates for Seattle City Council are against I-1033 as well.
A government must be nimble and have its ability to function uninhibited by the short-term politics of resentment. Initiative 1033 should be rejected.
Our editorial board is Martin H. Duke, Ben Schiendelman, and John Jensen, with valued input from the rest of the staff. Read our Seattle City Council and King County Executive endorsements and our endorsement for Seattle Mayor.
Even if it passes, things like Sound Transit would be un-affected, as they are separate taxes voted specifically.
One one hand I kind of like that government has to ask before it can spend my money. And I kind of like that they can’t rely on increasing revenue just because my property value has increased. Of course if property value was factored into inflation then the limit would still be 1% above that.
On the other hand I see how many things appear to be underfunded, state parks, county parks etc, and I’d rather the government just funded them.
On the other other hand that new Seattle City office building sure looks expensive and way better than the building I have to work in, as my employer has to spend their own money.
Either way this comes down, the sky won’t fall in.
Actually, things like Sound Transit WOULD be affected.
Sound Transit receives competitive grants from the state – they would be affected. Sound Transit relies on project partnerships (like for I-90 R8A, or for the SR-518 interchange and Tukwila Station, or for Tacoma to Lakewood Sounder), so many Sound Transit projects would likely end up delayed or canceled.
Metro would also be affected, as the ferry district property tax they’re using to help close their budget deficit would be affected.
City and county projects that partner with the agencies would also be hit hard.
Don’t think Sound Transit is in any way immune.
Every transit agency would also be affected by reduction in general-fund expenditures for local streets.
Dedicated revenue streams like gas tax don’t come close to funding the cost of building, maintaining, and policing city streets. Want signals upgraded? Bus lanes striped? Parking rules enforced around streetcar tracks? Better sidewalks to your transit stop? Local police at your local transit center?
I’m actually unclear on if I-1033 counts money like transit taxes or utility fees that is dedicated for certain accounts. While most transit agencies are independent and indeed wouldn’t be affected in King County and the City of Everett the transit agency is part of local government. Similarly public utilities can be a large part of city and county budgets. If this revenue is counted it would place additional pressure on the general fund which doesn’t just mean cutting parks and libraries, but cutting cops, jail guards, firefighters, and prosecutors.
By the way just because your assessed value goes up doesn’t necessarily mean your property taxes go up. The property tax doesn’t work like the sales tax where there is a set percentage taken no matter what. Instead the dollar amount needed for various levies is assessed against the entire property tax base for the entire taxing district. The city and county general levies are the ones that are limited to rising only 1% per year without a public vote. Note that this is the entire amount of revenue not the assessment an individual property owner might seen in a particular year.
As for the City hall and municipal court buildings, they are rather nice. On the other hand we just went through an era where the philosophy was to build public buildings as cheaply as possible. This resulted in crappy ugly buildings nobody liked that fell apart quickly (see the 1960’s city hall). There was a time when courthouses and city halls were seen as a source of civic pride. I’m glad we are returning to that. The new city hall was funded with bonds so the cost is spread out over time so it isn’t as if they cut a check all at once. Oh and it isn’t like there aren’t some extremely nice and fancy private office buildings, even the private sector doesn’t always go for the cheapest office space they can find.
For county governments the sky is almost certainly going to fall in. They are already reeling from the cumulative effect of the tax and revenue limitation measures passed over the past 12 years and the current recession. Some small counties may be hard pressed to provide even basic services mandated by state law.
I-1033 goes after the general fund. It also attacks other revenue by creating the need for a separate department for every city and county to process property tax rebates. Each rebate would cost one to two dollars just to process each check, and more than that in employment and operations costs.
There are so many little bureaucratic parts and pieces to this that it’s incredible that it’s seen as some “small government” popular initiative.
The cost to educate a child typically increases at a rate of 2-4% higher than simple inflation. Healthcare costs typically increase at a rate far higher than even that. Population Increase + Inflation is inadequate, especially since Eyman uses simple inflation. This is one reason education and healthcare levies are reauthorized every few years.
Since those are top priority, everything else is getting cut more and more every year.
If you want direct democracy, then get state constitution admended so every bill is a public vote.
Otherwise, we should let the state legislature do this.
Also I-1033 is tied to the wrong inflation statistic. The cost of goods has grown more slowly than inflation for a long time, while the price of services has risen faster. As goverment doesn’t make widgets and provides services, this will force goverment shrinkage.
It is want to fix the state funding issues and how property tax can do up without incomes rising than we should swap property taxes for income taxes.
New class A office building normally look expensive and way better than existing buildings. This is doubling true if the new building is build to last.
I-1033 doesn’t just affect the state budget it would impose recession budgets on counties and cities as well. While King County and Seattle will take a big hit, the real pain will be in smaller counties and cities with much smaller budgets and little “fat” to cut in the first place.
I-1033 will eventually result in zeroing out the general property tax levy in many jurisdictions. See http://publicola.net/?p=15930
I-1033 according to the state treasurer may also result in a lowering of the state’s bond rating. You can be sure the same applies to counties and cities. King County could lose their AAA rating.
I-1033 is almost certain to devastate the state’s passenger rail, freight mobility, and ferry system capital programs. Forget any Federal grants for High Speed Rail that require matching funds. Also expect another eventual crisis in the ferry system similar to 2007-2008 as the boats continue to age and major maintenance is deferred.
Is your inner Freud hard at work? Don’t you mean “recession”?
Now it may be true that Timmy would like to rescind government (except of course for maintaining SWAT teams to keep the “skin-color challenged” members of society in place).
1033 would also be a huge disincentive to federal spending on Washington State. After all, why should they send money here if it’s just going to go right into property tax rebates?
Using this year as a base for measuring revenue increases is just brutal, and, as you say, “resentful”.
This would get rid of the only progressive tax in the state.
To pile on, this would just accelerate the regressive nature of WA state’s tax structure. As the gates report a few years back points out, already the bottom percentiles of wage earners pay a much higher percent of their income to the state then the top 20%. Really this would just funnel the tax burden more from richer property owners (which would include corporate property owners who more often than not consume a lot of government services) onto the backs of lower wage earners and renters. Yea, that smells of fair .
As a young person making less than $25k a year, owing no property, I cringe when I think of the brutal 10% sales tax I pay every day being increasingly funneled to the pockets of the wealthy land owners. God, I get sick just thinking about it. I guess my taxes don’t deserve any relief.
Please make sure all of your friends vote and vote against I-1033. We can’t let this turkey of an initiative pass. We’re going to need every vote we can get to counteract those who will vote for I-1033 because of some vague anger at “the government” and a promise of lower taxes without much thought to the consequences.
Oh, absolutely. Unfortunately, whenever I bring it up most of my friends have never heard of it. Good thing I was born pedantic.
It is really, really crucial that all those “new” voters who voted for the first time last autumn mark their ballots and send them in this year. A no vote on 1033, a yes vote on 71, and voting for all the appropriate candidates in your area is as important as last year’s election; more important in many ways. Everybody vote!
@doug: It gets worse — not only will general fund increases above the initiative limit be used to reduce property taxes, but when local jurisdictions need voter approval for tax increases to simply maintain police, fire, and other basic services, some of those voter-approved taxes will be increases in sales tax rates, not property tax rates.
Doug, I don’t believe your taxes are directly lining the gold pockets of any wealthy land owners. Anyone can correct me here, but I believe the majority of your sales tax gets spent on roadways. Not my ideal expenditure; but hey, I don’t see any wealthy land owners in that equation. The roads are public and, in theory, we all get to use them, even you. Other things bought with your sales tax dollars: schools, police and emergency services, parks, etc. Again, no wealthy, save for those filthy rich high school teachers and police men.
What gets me sick is thinking about what is being called for when people complain about being taxed: dog-eat-dog anarchy. Everyone all for themselves. I get even more sick when I realize: nah, that’s not what people are hoping for, they are just so caught up in their pocket book at that moment, they can’t even think about basic services a government should be providing us. What makes me sick about that, is these folks are the voters asked to give their opinion on whether we should have this community good or that. Why is society asking them?
This blog post is about I-1033, which will refund property taxes. Rich people, who pay more property taxes, will be refunded more money. This money comes out of the general fund, leaving less money for all the very essential public services that make it worthwhile to live in out society. Some of the money I pay goes to the general fund.
Because of 1033, less of the money that I pay to the state will go to these services because some has to refund property owners. Not all of them are rich, of course, but the biggest winners are. And knowing my friends, telling them that the rich profit from their hard-earned tax money is a good way to convince them to vote against 1033.
Apparently this may surprise you, but I am aware that I don’t pay taxes directly to rich people. I am quite happy to pay taxes; I just dislike paying taxes in regressive tax schemes that benefit those who are already doing well. Washington happens to employ one such scheme and 1033 will only reinforce this unfair tax practice.
Forgive me, misunderstood your comment. Having recently joined the “property owning” (1/20th of the property) group, I have no problem paying my fair share and will join you in voting no on Tim Ey’s most recent I.
If this does pass, Sound Transit should sue to get it overturned. If it does pass, and any ferries have to be mothballed, I nominate the Hyak, as is, and that it be parked in Mukilteo. King Tim needs to see what he is doing. Worse, he will just file another one to make it worse next year, claiming the politicians need to be punished for not listening to him. If he likes direct democracy, maybe he should move to Switzerland. I heard they practice it all the time.
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c62/RanierBusrider/RustyHyak2.jpg
Side note, I hope it does not pass, but since I am a Seattle voter, and the rhetoric I have seen in comment threads on some news stories about this issue, our votes don’t count for anything anymore. It’s a shame too, 1033 will impact the people who usually vote for Eyman Initiatives too.
Yea, while King County and Seattle will be hurt by I-1033, it is the small counties and cities that will feel it the worst. Places like Pend Oreille county or Forks. Furthermore as the state budget will be squeezed there will be no bailout from the state like there was for I-695 or I-747.
It is even worse in a way. They feel they got to punish Seattle, and when urbanites warn them that they are hurting themselves too, then comes charges of Liberal Elitism. It is as if one can’t win.
WSDoT just gave the yes campaign a good campaign item. They just signed the contract with Todd Pacific for 2 more ferries. They will be built in Seattle, but to those anti-Seattlelites, it may be the only time these boats see Elliot Bay. In the past 20 years, come to think of it, I rarely saw a Steel-Electric at Colman Dock. I know some were still on the Vashon run as late as the late 1980s. Most likely these new boats will be joining the first one on Whidbey Island and possibly the San Juans. The contract says they must be completed in 20 months. What if WSF can’t pay the contract because of 1033 while they are under construction. Tim Eyman won’t get sued, we will, that is all Washingtonians, whether you live in Seattle, Newport, Clarkston, South Bend, or Forks. I am sure that Todd will probably be buying the lead items soon. One thing about WSF, they can’t go overseas like BC Ferries does to get new boats, Jones Act says they get built here, political pressure says they got to be built in Washington State.(The Jones Act just says US Shipyards).
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2010056549_webferry13m.html?syndication=rss
I doubt the state will stiff Todd, more likely they will take the money from something else like the state passenger rail program if necessary.
The real problem with I-1033 for WSF is it puts the ferry system back in the same place it was after the legislature decided to give the public $30 car tabs even though I-695 was declared unconstitutional. In other words a ever-decreasing operating subsidy and no capital budget for vessel replacement or terminal improvements.
The “Evergreen State” ferries (Evergreen State, Klahowya, Tillikum) are all over 50, the “super” ferries (Elwha, Hyak, Kaleetan, Yakima) will be 50 in 2017 as will the Hiyu. All of these vessels will need to be replaced in the next 15-20 years, the current construction only allows WSF to retire the Rhododendron and Evergreen State. If I-1033 passes it is doubtful the program to build the 144 car ferries will start any time soon. That combined with too much deferred maintenance may lead to a situation similar to what happened with the Steel Electrics where an entire vessel class had to be pulled from service.
That is what gets me. Tim Eyman sometimes does not seem to notice what he is doing impacts people, but not in the way he says it will be. In this initiative, many voters don’t seem to see it, if one believes the polls, that we are supposed to be in this together. I wonder how much Lewis County values Amtrak Cascades stopping there every day more often than the Coast Starlight does? If it were not for the need to keep the state connected, I would take money away from fixing I-5 in that bottlenecking floodplain near Centralia/Chehalis and use it to keep the ferry construction going. The Coast Guard did not pull the Steel Electrics because they felt like being a nanny-state big government organization. They pulled them because they were a hazard, potential for loss of life was there. Although they rested at anchor at Eagle Harbor for a few years before disposed of kind of shows it was premature, but then again, there were no vehicles or people on them at Eagle Harbor.
If Eyman was not hitting a never with the voters, I wonder how many would see through him as a young wants it all now guy, without worrying about the consequences. He may not know it, but his initiatives affect people’s lives. Just when the Klickitat and her sisters were pulled from service, it was on a Holiday weekend, and contrary to some of the stuff he said in 2000, WSF was not able to get along just fine. It was at least a week before the mothballed Snohomish was fired up and dispatched to provide something to help people get across. If it were not for most TV Stations being beamed from Seattle, I would suggest commercials for the No-Campaign based on local issues. I am beginning to see a pattern, fiscal conservatives messing ferry systems up. I think that is going on in British Columbia. The Liberals are Conservative, and they have over the past 8 years made BC Ferries more of a problem child then it was under the NDP before them. The NDP had scandals with BC Ferries, but some problems at BC Ferries came up as the Liberals began to privatize it.(Although the Provincial Government still is the sole shareholder). Although the boat that sank, was more of crew error, but with a boat that was beginning to show it’s age, only built in the 1960s. BC could use a guy like Eyman, with the controversial Harmonized Sales Tax, although the opposition has an interesting ally, a former SoCred premier who is no stranger to controversy himself.
Part of Metro’s problems is due to the 40/40/20 rule, but I am still waiting to see a crosstown route cut by Metro due to 695 to be restored, took years to get night service on the 39 restored, especially on weekends.
This election needs to be over already…I’m saturated with dread thinking about the transit implications of the very real possibility of a Hutchinson/Mallahan/Yes-on-1033 trifecta.
My city government really bit the bullet this year — facing unprecedented declines in sales tax and B&O taxes, we found enough one-time cuts and short-term cost reductions that we could get through the year without a property-tax increase by spending down our rainy-day reserves. (This recession is exactly the sort of rainy day these funds were set aside for.)
We could have taken the easy way out — we had an extra ten cents per thousand of property tax increase available, we could have avoided cuts and held onto most of our reserves if we simply raised taxes. (And believe me, in a small town where the city council knows every member of city hall staff personally, cutting services can be a lot harder than raising taxes a little bit.)
We didn’t do that. We made prudent temporary cuts, hoping that the economy would begin to recover by next year, but knowing that if the recession dragged on our reserves would run dry and we would need to use that banked taxing authority.
If this initiative passes, we will be trapped with 2009 general fund revenues, revenues that were already inadequate in 2009.
Not only would we be unable to reverse the temporary cuts we made to get through 2009, we would be forced to slash spending even further, because we won’t have reserves left to deplete.
This story is repeated all around the state.
This initiative would not simply force governments to continue the spending cuts they’ve already made for this recession.
To whatever extent governments have been using one-time measures and drawing down reserves to weather the worst recession in 50 years, the inititative would require further cuts beyond those already in place.
Colorado had their own version, it has had to be weakened by the voters in order to save it a few times. One of the things I believe they did was exempt the RTD for the most part, although supposedly one of things in FastTracks that the Denver RTD asked the voters for, was permission to spend any extra revenue the bond sales would bring in, because it possibly would run afoul of TABOR. I hear conflicting sources, but I found this one on a potential TABOR(Taxpayers Bill of Rights) problem with Denver RTD.
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_12530684
Now as for emergencies, I just got a news alert from NWCN on a rockslide on SR20 near the Whatcom/Skagit County Line. Is that anywhere near Newhalem or Diablo. If that is the case, for SCL customers sake, the rockslide gets cleared quickly. Contrary to some beliefs, the Dams don’t run themselves. Would like to see WSDOT’s ability to handle emergencies on critical mountain routes(although SR20 East of Diablo should be closing soon for the winter) curtailed because of meager resources caused by those in Puget Sound and Eastern Washington were thought to be more of a priority for maintaining highways and expanding them. Although we have a major emergency hanging over us. Howard Hanson Dam’s problems could impact SR167 and many other routes in the Valley. Then there is the major Natural Disaster that is right in front of us, although Mt. Ranier has it’s own schedule.
It sounds like the slide was between Marblemount and Newhalem, which would cut off SCL’s access until the road is repaired.
Also there was a major slide this weekend on SR-410 near Naches which filled in the Naches River.
Dealing with the Howard Hanson situation was going to be bad enough with the recession putting pressure on state and local budgets. I can just imagine what a nightmare that will be to deal with if we have someone totally unprepared for the job as county exec (IOW Susan Hutchison) and the I-1033 limits to contend with. BTW according to the USACE there is a 25% chance each year while the dam is being repaired that there will be flooding in the Green River Valley.
25% just means it is unpredictable. Not sure how bad the BNSF trackage is going to be affected. I saw photos of the old Interurban from a 1906 flood, a total wash out in some places. It could be as high as 10 feet some say. On another forum, a troll already used this to poke fun at SOUNDER. The usual point, why even bother, the flood will shut it down. I said so will 167 and other roads be shut down. Unfortunately Kent Voters will probably vote for Hutchinson anyway, remember, to them Constatine is another “City” Politician, even though it is legislative, he has more experience.
As for SR20, if this persists, Seattle City Light will probably just charter a helo, again to keep Newhalem going. They got to keep the lights on in Seattle, and a few of it’s suburbs(not Kent, that is PSE Territory), and for the most part, they do a great job on that.
Diablo gets cut off regularly in the wintertime, they’re used to it. Newhalem is pretty self-sufficient also. There’s always people in both towns, and both have helicopter access in all but the most extreme of weather.
And actually the dams are largely controlled from the system control center in Seattle :-)
1033 will mean, if nothing else, much higher utility costs. It’s a real lemon of an initiative. It might also mean curtailment of the Cascades.
Still, what I meant was somebody needs to be there in case something goes wrong. I am one that on some things, can’t be too careful.
I am just hoping, if 1033 passes, some loophole can be found in it to get it declared unconstitutional. I heard somewhere, I think it was oral arguments in ATU Local 587 et. al. vs. State of Washington before the State Supreme Court, that Utility Rates are supposed to not be below costs. Transit fares are different though, the below cost issue was being raised by not the ATU’s lawyers, but the lawyers representing another party to the suit, the PUDs, on not the car tab issue but the other issue that violated the single-subject rule. Imagine having to have an election over power rates, for power being purchased on the spot market, which at the time, was pretty high. In California they almost had tonight a reminder of the dark days of 2000-2001, caused by the wind downing a major transmission line in the Central Valley.(A news podcast from KGO was where I heard it).
I have been sick of Eyman for years, he means well, but the way he is doing it, is only making things worse, and the politicians get blamed either way. Sure he thinks his performance audits will save us money, but maybe they are asking the impossible. Metro supposedly according to one Performance Audits have too well maintained buses, and although it costs money to do that, why is that a bad thing? A SOV only has the driver in it. A full 40ft bus(every seat), a driver is responsible for 40 passenger lives, in addition to his own, and all other vehicles on the road, I want him or her to have a well maintained bus. Then again, Eyman probably never rides a bus. His initiatives affect real people, but he don’t know that.
Last month Washington State Ferries due to one accident nearly had the entire operation paralyzed, in the case of the accident that befell the Wenatchee. Thankfully she was only out of service a few days. No spare boats. Not even a spare Passenger Only Ferry so some service was maintained, had to charter from the private sector for a few days with a Passenger Only boat. I think the Snohomish this time was filling in an emergency, with it’s new owners, an operator on San Francisco Bay.
Eyman doesn’t mean well. This is a business for him. If he could make more money doing something else, he would. But he’s got a Sugar daddy bankrolling him and a core group of people who believe, despite all evidence to the contrary, in his “philosophy”. Also, this sort of nonsense feeds his oversized ego.
Face it: It takes money to have the kind of society we desire, but there are those who don’t want to pay for it.
In my opinion, these wealthy men (Eyman, Freeman, etc) are the best argument there is for why Washington should have an income tax. But anytime that is brought up, everyone screams like they were undergoing an amputation without anesthetic. The sad thing is, that would make the tax burden much more equitable, especially for the middle class.
What I meant was, at the time in 1999 I thought that maybe the MVET at 2.2%(The state portion) was a little high, and should be reformed, his methods of doing it is what I had a problem with. $30 was a good sell, but I did not believe his “They will be lying about the sky is falling” trick. I did not vote for 695, 745, and 776. When the judge said it was unconstitutional, he acted like a bully, ripping up a pro-695 sign in court, and then the legislature was so scared they voted to over-rule the judge, but the judge had no problem with the $30 car tabs(something he spoke at a law school forum carried on TVW a few years later), but he tossed them out because he said the law said so. Did the State Legislature doing what Eyman wanted change the way things were in November of 2000? No, the State House was still tied 49-49.
Eyman has turned into a politician himself, but a new kind of one, one the public will believe over an elected official. As I said before, there are some public services that nobody wants to use, but don’t mind them being there when they have to. I remember seeing somebody sounding off on a PI article about potential overruns on fire station rebuilding, why do they need sleeping and eating areas in fire stations, they should run on 8 hours every day, the old system was outdated in the guy’s mind. Not knowing that the nature of a fire department is to be on call, not out on patrol like a police officer. The Fire Department is more organized on military lines, companies and battalions. Thankfully that morning when I needed them, Engine 2 was there pretty fast. The fire levy as I said was in 2003, and Station 2 getting renovated is happening this year. It may have been 6 years, but ambitious projects take a long time. Just like LINK took 13 years and was a little late due to unforeseen problems, Libraries for All was another measure that took awhile to come to fruition. Passed in the late 1990s, the last library was either built or rebuilt under it just recently. It was pretty much ever branch getting expanded or renovated, a new central branch, and a few new ones built. The immediate gratification society that Eyman perpetrates, as well as not wanting to pay for, seemed to think you can build everything overnight.
Now on a side note, anybody see the latest TRAINS magazine, an interesting article written by a local transportation expert, was in it. It did not mention anything about Eyman, nor should it have, nor did I expect it, but it did have the old addage among local transportation planners, if one wanted to ride Seattle’s Subway, go to Atlanta.
Regarding city vs suburbs/exurbs, Weekday had a good interview (http://kuow.org/program.php?id=18573) yesterday with Bruce Katz, a Brookings guy who advocates metro-centric thinking. He says American metropoli are being hindered by their balkanized governments (county, city, suburbs), whereas the need to function like single units to confront the problems of the 21st century (China competition, climate change, etc). He says Pugetopolis is far ahead of most of the country with its urban growth plans, regional transit, etc, but of course there’s lots more to do. So at some point, city and suburban governments will have to stop fighting each other and start working together. Of course, how you do that with anti-transit, anti-tax advocates is another question. Anyway, it’s worth a listen.
I saw Bruce Katz speak a couple years ago in Seattle. I agree with his argument, but I don’t see American metro areas combining governance in any cohesive manner. The cultural divisions are just too great. It’s sad to read his view that Pugetopolis is ahead of the most of the rest of the country in this regard. That wasn’t the impression I got from visiting other large metro areas, but if it’s true, I think this country is in a lot of trouble. How would Walmart adjust to a more urban customer base, for example?
I don’t know in some ways either Metro Dade or Portland are ahead of the Puget Sound area on regional government. It depends on what you count.
Walmart has been trying to move into urban areas and close-in suburbs in the past several years. New York City made it basically impossible for Walmart to get the permits necessary to open a store. In other cities Walmart hasn’t done especially well since Target and Costco have locked up much of their customer base. Besides in a larger metro area opening a super center isn’t likely to drive the other chains or local stores out of business like it might in a small town.
Cutting off spending of government will not solve the problems of excessive spending. Different leaders is how we solve the problem of overspending, leaders that will police themselves and know they are serving the public and their communities. This initiative would also force the local governments to go against Keynesian theory of spending in bad times. Forcing a reducing of expenditures even further than what they already are would hurt the general public severely. Tell your friends to vote no for 1033, we’re already in a recession, this will make it worse.