I knew as soon as I saw the picture of the gorilla in the morning newspaper that the sun would not rise high in the sky before the gorilla called me on the telephone.

Actually, only one of the newspapers I take thought the gorilla picture was worth running, and then it was a one-column shot at the bottom of an inside page next to the fold.

Tim Eyman the initiative king, the man inside the gorilla suit, would have to set himself on fire at the foot of the Space Needle to get photographic attention from the other papers to which he is anathema for the damage they believe he has done and is still doing to the legislature’s ability to run the government without any input from us citizens.

Newspapers are notoriously anti-initiative as if anyone who challenges a legislative act or tries to fill a need ignored by our lawmakers is unpatriotic. Oh, I know they write editorials praising the initiative process but they don’t mean it. Note how few initiatives they support, yet they go all out to pass every school levy that comes along no questions asked.

But I’m getting off the track here. Sure enough, Eyman was soon on the phone because he wanted publicity for Initiative 900, his “900-pound gorilla” that will let State Auditor Brian Sonntag do performance audits not only on state agencies the way the 2005 Legislature authorized but local governments too, all the way down to school boards.

Legislators also kept Sonntag on a short leash with an oversight committee, whereas I-900 just turns him loose. “Our philosophy is to put Brian on steroids and let him go,” Eyman said. “We give him the free hand he needs in order to really look at the books. We provide stable and substantial funding for the audits with 0.l6 percent of the state’s portion of sales and use taxes.”

Eyman wants to collect another 50,000 signatures on his I-900 petitions by July 8 to have enough of a cushion to meet the 197,734 requirement to make the Nov. 8 ballot. .

“Legislators and newspapers think that because the 2005 Legislature acted this initiative has somehow lost steam,” he said. “But I believe the opposite. Instead, we are able to say why our proposal is better than theirs. It will be a much more interesting debate, one against the other. People like competition, like the doctors and lawyers with their two initiatives.”

Eyman said one reporter asked him if this was his last hoorah, the last of Tim Eyman on the initiative front. Perish forbid. Next year, we’ll see the $30 car tab again since lawmakers have seen fit to start tacking onto it again. “That will be $30 tabs round 3,” he said. “The third time should be the charm. Voters voted for the $30 tab twice, yet we have state and local governments jacking it up all over again. The new initiative will reestablish the $30 tab and get rid of the weight fees the Legislature passed and the various taxes and fees at the local level. This is an effort to say when voters say $30 tabs, they mean $30.”

Also next year, he said, while his group won’t be the sponsor, it will be part of a coalition to pass a property rights initiative like that Oregon voters approved last November. Oregon Measure 37 provides that when environmental or zoning rules decrease the value of private property, local governments must compensate the owner or waive the regulation.

“The brilliance of 37 is that it gives the government a choice,” Eyman said. “The value is up to the government to decide, is this worth it? Most property owners don’t want a check from the government; they simply want to protect their land. If government is doing something for the greater good, why should the individual property owner bear the total burden? If government doesn’t want to pay, waive the regulation. This is going to be a really neat thing. It doesn’t have to be our idea for us to see the value of it. It looks like a really exciting couple of years.”

Tim Eyman’s last hurrah? Sorry, spenders, not quite yet.

(Adele Ferguson can be reached at P.O. Box 69, Hansville, WA. 98340).