Tim Eyman, reacting to attempts in the state legislature to amend his tax-thwarting Initiative 960, has fired off another one of his inescapable e-mails, this one under the subject line:

GALLING: Democrats don't just get rid of the 2/3's, they gut I-960's 'sunshine' transparency policies

Translated, Eyman is complaining that Democrats in Olympia, in seeking to amend I-960 this year, are not just trying to delete its requirement that tax increases be passed by a 2/3 majority; they're also trying to get rid of measures in I-960 that were supposedly designed to provide greater transparency in the budgeting process.

Wrong.

You can listen to Sen. Majority Leader Lisa Brown explain what's really going on here, starting at 50-seconds in:

But, essentially, the I-960-amending Senate Bill 6843, which is what's so "GALLING" to Eyman, would only "temporarily suspend" the 2/3 majority requirement for revenue-related measures—in light of the urgency, and complicated nature, of dealing with a $2.6 billion budget shortfall this session.

It also would make it so that Eyman's transparency measures only apply—sensibly—to bills that actually get a hearing, so that state time and money does not have to be wasted on preparing cost projections for every no-chance idea some legislator introduces.

On top of that, it's not as if Democrats are currently trying to sneak a tax increase through the legislature. What's on the table right now is reform of existing taxes. Specifically, a bill proposed by Rep. Ross Hunter (D-49) that would bring in about $268 million, mostly by closing loopholes and senseless exemptions in the state tax code.

The money quote from Brown:

We're in a very difficult budget situation and to have to get a two-thirds vote to even transfer money from one account to another, or close a tax loophole, we believe just puts an unfair limitation on the process. We're in a situation where we have a short time to solve a big problem, and we want to be able to have a simple majority be able to respond quickly and effectively to that very difficult budget situation that we're in.