Eyman has his say on I-985

Initiative 985 is a pain-free way to reduce traffic congestion across the state, Tim Eyman told the Yakima City Council on Tuesday night. Opponents, including former state Sen. Alex Deccio, said it's a tax grab for Seattle.

"Predictions that this will be the end of Western Civilization are a tad overblown," Eyman told the council in his first appearance at City Hall since he was thrown out by Mayor Dave Edler last December.

"I think we should leave well enough alone," Deccio retorted bluntly. "This is a west side issue."

As proposed, I-985 would require all cities and counties in Washington to synchronize traffic lights. It also opens up carpool lanes outside of rush-hour and calls for improved roadside assistance.

To pay for it, the initiative would create a continuous revenue stream by setting aside 15 percent of sales taxes on new and used cars as well as revenue generated from red-light cameras. Backers estimate such measures would raise about $150 million a year.

Sticking with his script, Eyman told the council that the primary motivation for the initiative is to put some teeth behind performance audits conducted by the office of State Auditor Brian Sonntag.

Eyman said state lawmakers and bureaucrats ignored a traffic audit last year that included synchronization of signals among nearly two dozen recommendations.

"Too often Olympia views (Sonntag) as an adversary, not an ally," said Eyman, a native of Yakima whose tax-reform efforts 10 years ago made him a household name across the state. He now makes his home in Mukilteo, a suburb of Everett.

Appearing in opposition was former state Transportation Secretary Doug MacDonald, who pointed out that the Sonntag audit Eyman has been complaining about focused strictly on traffic reduction in the Puget Sound area.

MacDonald said synchronizing traffic lights was just one of more than 20 recommendations made by the Sonntag audit and that congestion on freeways in the Seattle area is probably a bigger problem than syncing red lights.

As for the cost of the initiative, he said lawmakers will have to cut other programs to cover the loss of vehicle sales tax money. And he suggested that the only counties in the state that will benefit from the set-aside will be King and Snohomish.

"Does it address your problems?" he asked the council, "or does it address someone else's problems ... with your money?"

That's just about how Deccio saw it. In a rare appearance since his retirement from the Legislature two years ago, the legendary senator dismissed I-985 as a boon for Seattle and a boondoggle for the rest of the state.

"Initiatives should be reserved for very important issues, and I don't think this is one of them to the city of Yakima," he testified.

Eyman's appearance was his first at City Hall since December. That's when Edler had him escorted by the elbow from a council meeting in the midst of a goofy rant on the Bonlender-Ensey blogging scandal.

Since then, Eyman's been taking advantage of the council's ongoing squabble over political endorsements to promote I-985.

But just before the hearing began, he and Edler shook hands, defusing any awkwardness off camera. Councilman Bill Lover, meanwhile, bestowed Eyman with a "Get out of jail free" card from a game of Monopoly.

Despite the anticipated showdown, fewer than a dozen people were in attendance. And that was counting members of the media as well as city staff.

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