‘Direct Democracy’ usually gives us one or more initiatives and referenda on Washington’s statewide ballot each year. Tim Eyman, a conservative populist  who has sponsored repeal of affirmative action in government, rolled back car-tab taxes, capped property tax growth, created a system of performance audits, and made it harder to pass tax and fee hikes in Olympia, is back again this year.  Fans are delighted, critics aghast. 

The Mukilteo activist is the first sponsor to announce plans to submit petitions. He told the state Elections Division he’ll submit signatures sometime on July 2. That’s the deadline for any campaign that hopes to make the Nov. 3 statewide ballot. He told supporters, reporters and state officials on Monday that the campaign has passed the 270,000 mark and still wants to gather another 22,000 or more before the turn-in deadline. He called it “difficult, but doable.”

The state Elections Division is advising campaigns to bringing in at least 301,000 to allow for duplicate or invalid signatures. It takes 241,153 valid signatures of registered Washington voters to win a ballot spot. That is 8 percent of the 2008 vote for governor.

Eyman’s measure would cap the growth of state, county and city general fund taxes, with any excess revenue devoted to reducing property taxes.  Find the text of the measure and other proposed I&R  here .