Angry Taxpayer Fights Back With Initiative 650

Don Carter, patron saint of the citizen property tax wars, is a balding, bespectacled, 52-year-old man on a mission.

Carter launched Initiative 650 when the property tax on his retirement home jumped from $808 in November 1993 to $1,050 in January 1995. And the home isn’t even finished yet.

An out-of-work machinist living on unemployment benefits, Carter went barreling down to the Thurston County assessor’s office to complain. “They said, ‘We’re right unless you prove us wrong, and if you don’t like it, do something about it.”’

Not the thing to say to a guy who once built engines for the space shuttle. Carter headed straight for the state archives and public library to research property tax laws.

Initiative 650 is the fruit of his labors.

It would cap assessments - not tax rates - at 1993 levels, and allow a property tax exemption for a homeowner’s primary residence.

Carter, a plain-spoken, shy guy who drives a 15-yearold Chevy Citation, never figured he’d be in the media spotlight. But I-650 has attracted attention around the state.

Just ask Larry Hartley, who fielded more than 225 calls in less than a week about the initiative after volunteering to head the campaign in Spokane.

Carter’s not surprised the initiative is catching on. “The way the system is now, it’s like paying a capital gains tax every year on an asset you don’t even sell. A lot of people are really angry about it.”

In Spokane, Hartley said about 100 volunteers are helping gather the more than 181,000 signatures of registered voters needed to qualify the measure by July 7 for the November ballot.

Meanwhile, state bureaucrats are handling the matter with Olympian nonchalance: no one has yet troubled to figure the cost to tax coffers if the initiative passes.

At this rate, I-650 could turn out to be the sleeper issue of the year. “It would affect everyone,” Carter said. “Every property owner, and every renter. After all, when property taxes go up, they get passed right on.”

New World Order

Leave it to those House Republicans to take on the pressing issue of dominance of the United States by a one-world government.

Consider HJM4022. It passed the House Government Operations Committee this session, with seven out of 10 Spokane-area representatives signed on as co-sponsors, including House Republican Caucus Chairman Todd Mielke.

The measure informs President Clinton and Congress “there is a lack of popular support for the establishment of a new world order, or world sovereignty of any kind either under the United Nations or under any world body in the any form of global government.”

Mielke et al. also urged the feds to cut off support for military operations by any world body, including the U.N.

In the face of defeat

Gov. Mike Lowry was all smiles this week as he signed three bills dismantling his signature achievement, the 1993 Health Care Reform Act.

Some said they were puzzled when Lowry caved on his commitment to veto any legislation that fell short of universal coverage - such as the bill he signed into law.

But one reason why is as easy to find as buttons grown popular in Olympia lately. “I’m Not Running for Governor” they declare, to distinguish the wearer from the throng of challengers Lowry is expected to face come 1996.

To the links?

As lawmakers snored their way through the third week of their overtime special session in Olympia, Sen. Bob McCaslin, R-Spokane Valley, hit on a capital idea for brightening his day.

“This is sooooo boring,” said McCaslin as he headed to his office. “The worst part of being a legislator. Here they are, holding session at 1:30 in the afternoon.

“It ought to be in the morning. Then at least I could play golf.”