In Olympia, a shouting match: Tim Eyman vs. state Sen. Adam Kline

A longstanding feud between initiative king Tim Eyman and Democratic state Sen. Adam Kline of Seattle boiled over this morning at the Capitol. Lawmakers are back for a one-day special session to reinstate Eyman's Initiative 747, a 1 percent cap on annual property tax hikes, which was thrown out earlier this month by the Washington state Supreme Court. At the end of an Eyman news conference outside the Senate chambers, Kline held up a copy of the state budget and challenged Eyman to suggest specific cuts in programs and services. What erupted next was a good old fashioned shouting match. By the end, Kline's voice was breaking and the two men were shouting over each other. Here's an audio file [940 KB]. This a good, but not perfect, transcription: Kline: "So, Tim, I'd like you to show me and quit [unintelligible] and quit just repeating yourself - answer the question, Tim." Eyman: "You are the price of admission." Kline: "Where is the fat in the budget? You won't answer this question and the reason you won't is you're chicken, you're chicken, you are a coward and the reason that you're a coward is that you know there's lots of people in back of you that if you said nursing homes or if you said colleges they'd say, Tim, hold on." Eyman: "Do you believe that the voters deserve a 1 percent cap?" Kline: "Tim, there's people in my family ..." Eyman: "Do you believe that the voters want a 1 percent cap?" Kline: "There's people in my family that are in nursing home." Eyman: "Do you want a 1 percent cap or not?" Kline: "Do you mean that we're cutting nursing homes?" Eyman: "The voters of this state said 1 percent." Kline: "No, I'm talking about the budget as the whole." Eyman: "You're ignoring me because you're ignoring voters." Kline: "I'm talking about the budget as a whole." Eyman: "You're ignoring the voters." Kline: "This guy is a chicken, a coward, and will not answer the question." Eyman: "The voters are saying a 1 percent cap and you're ignoring them." Kline: "You've [meaning reporters] asked this question before, I've asked this question before, he won't answer it." Eyman: "You are ignoring the voters. You are the spokesman for the Legislature and the Legislature is saying no to a 1 percent cap." Kline: "And you've not heard an answer of this guy yet and you never will. Thank you." The Democrat-controlled lLgislature today is expected to pass two pieces of governor-requested legislation. One would reinstate I-747, the other would create a property tax deferral program for families that make less than the median income of $57,000 a year.