Tax opponent Eyman solicits salary fund

OLYMPIA – Tax rebel Tim Eyman is again urging backers to contribute to a salary fund, telling supporters Monday that it is “absolutely crucial” to keeping the movement alive.

Eyman’s salary fund, called Help Us Help Taxpayers, is to be shared with his two co-chairmen, Jack and Mike Fagan of Spokane.

Eyman, best known for the $30 car-tab initiative and ballot measures dealing with property-tax limits and affirmative action, recently qualified Initiative 900 for the November ballot. The measure would authorize and finance performance audits of state and local government agencies and programs by the state auditor.

The initiative committee, called Voters Wants More Choices, raised nearly $618,000, including nearly $490,000 from a single donor, investment banker Michael Dunmire of Woodinville. The committee spent about $569,000 qualifying for the ballot.

Eyman said organizers were unsalaried while the signature-gathering was under way. Using the same technique he now has used for three years in a row, Eyman is urging backers to contribute to a salary fund he and the Fagans will divide at year’s end. According to Public Disclosure Commission records, the fund has been receiving contributions since April and now totals about $127,000.