Here are some of the things your tax dollars go for now:

educating our children
providing health care for seniors and children
mental health services
repairing roads and bridges
keeping parks and libraries open
paying for police and fire protection
paying for courts and jails
cleaning up Puget Sound
providing clean water and clean air
sidewalks and bike paths
affordable public transit
emergency services
services for seniors and disabled
and the list goes on.

But here is what your tax dollars above Eyman’s recession level limit will go for if I-1033 passes:

paying property taxes
That’s all.

The biggest winners are rich property owners, like corporations, shopping mall owners, real estate developers and people who own multiple homes or large homes. The more property you own, the more of a rebate you’ll get.

Meanwhile the tax burden shifts from the wealthy to those less well off. We rank highest in the US in terms of sales taxes, but only 25th per capita in terms of property taxes according to the Tax Foundation.

A fairer tax reduction would be to just reduce sales taxes rather than help wealthy property owners. Or just reduce property taxes. But I-1033 is really a complicated wealth transfer scheme. It’s bad tax policy and regressive, hurting lower income people to just help those with property.

If you don’t own property, you’re not going to see any rebate on your taxes. You’ll still pay sales taxes and other fees. If you rent or are a senior citizen on fixed income or a working family and don’t own property you lose twice. No rebate and no new or restored public services.

Also another thing Eyman won’t tell you is that your amount of rebate is not proportional to the sales taxes and other fees you pay but to the amount of property you own. Last year some 54% of state revenue was from sales taxes.

And did you know that one third of the property tax rebates will go to commercial property, companies like Boeing and Weyerhaeuser, even though they already get a sales tax exemption for materials and goods they resell. The consumer is the one that pays sales taxes and you’ll still pay the same sales taxes after I-1033 passes.

Vote No I-1033!