It’s exciting and amazing to think that Permanent Defense is now two years old and still going strong! As we celebrate our two year birthday, I’d like to say thank you to all our supporters, who have responded to our requests to lobby legislators and promote real tax reform. Those of you who have subscribed to Extra! have done a great thing- you’ve committed yourselves to staying informed on what’s going on in Washington politics.

As in years past, we need to stop Tim to protect our state. And we’re confident that we can do it this year. Tim’s proposal is so downright awful that people are becoming opposed to it as soon as they hear about it.

Initiative 864 is too devastating to ignore. If we don’t act, we will lose the quality of life we enjoy in our communities.

I’d like to reflect on some of the things we’ve accomplished this past year- from February 2003 to February 2004.

We saw the defeat of Tim’s initiative last year, Initiative 807, in July, after fighting it with our allies David Goldstein and Steve Zemke. We won, and Eyman’s measure never made it onto the ballot… his first initiative failure in four years.

We relaunched our site in July with a redesign, including new features, and content. We launched our new domain name, www.permanentdefense.org, to make our site more easily accessible. We continued to send messages to the media and to legislators about the defects in Tim’s plan.

Last spring, last summer, last fall, and last winter, we have been preparing to fight the 25% property tax initiative. It’s here, and we’re fighting. Opponents to I-860/I-864 filed a ballot title challenge and language challenge, causing Eyman to try and “back out” of his initiative and go for legal advice. Opponents also made the rounds with the media in December 2003. A surprised Tim was then confronted with questions from his ready opponents while he tried to reel off his latest proposal- the 25% property tax initiative.

Incredibly enough, Tim hasn’t even told his supporters about his filing of Initiative 860, or Initiative 864. That’s because he knows it’s being challenged and doesn’t want his people to even know it.

Just like when Tim shut them out in the dark for years about his pocketing of $165,000. Instead, Tim attempts to rouse fury and anger out of his supporters towards Washington government. One of the worst things about Tim’s across the board tax cuts is that it really penalizes the local governments doing a good job… the ones that can’t cut any “fat”. Tim thinks everyone should be accountable to his “standard”, but his proposals hurt the localities that are already efficient. This doesn’t make any sense!

With our alternative Homestead Exemption proposal, which was endorsed by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, we offer the means for real tax reform, not just the “slash and burn” advocated by Eyman and his fellow cronies. Eyman wants to burn down the “rainforest” so that the wealthy can use the land for cattle grazing.

That’s not our approach.

We want positive human interaction with the “rainforest”- an effective solution for Washington’s regressive tax system. Our proposal directly benefits middle and lower income families. It doesn’t give large windfalls to the rich as Tim’s proposal does.

Two years of opposing Eyman is a great track record. And we’re now excited to bring you January Launch, which commenced on January 30th. You can read all about it via the link from our home page. Please take the time to check out the new content.