When, oh when, will Eric end this Ahab-like fixation on the takings ballot measures?

Don’t hold your breath.

Yesterday, Washington’s Office of Financial Management released estimates of the financial impact of Initiative 933. It’s not pretty. Analysts are ballparking the costs to taxpayers at between $7.3 and $9 billion over the next six years.

I won’t get into the technical details today—partly because I haven’t studied the analysis carefully yet. But scary as that $8 billion price tag may be, I actually think it’s a low-ball conservative figure. For one thing, the estimate doesn’t include any costs of claims dealing with personal property. (I-933, alone among the rash of takings initiatives, explicitly deals with both real estate and personal property, including stocks, bonds, contracts, livestock, vehicles, etc. Yes, I know, it’s mind-boggling.)

The best media coverage was in the Seattle Times.

Other coverage in the Seattle P-I and the Olympian (where I’m quoted).