Tim Eyman is at it again and Renton might lose what could become a key piece of the city’s efforts to keep busy intersections and school children safe.

Eyman went toe-to-toe recently with the City Council over Initiative 985; the council didn’t buy what Eyman was selling at the properly announced meeting.

Eyman bills his latest initiative as relieving highway congestion but in reality it punches a multimillion-dollar hole in the state’s hemorrhaging general fund and likely would doom Renton’s red-light and school-zone safety programs.

In channeling Eyman’s imaginings, it seems like one way to speed people on their way is to let them run red lights and roar past kids walking to and from school.

The initiative redirects some fees, tolls and fines – including money from the red-light camera programs – to the state. Eyman argues if the program really works, the city can find the money elsewhere; the city counters, rightly so, that the cameras are a cost-effective way to extend its already-stretched budget for public safety.

We can’t help but think that Eyman is banking on that subtle fear of Big Brother in the guise of a traffic camera to garner some votes. It certainly wasn’t the money – the cities would hand over to the state about $13 million.

Congestion relief deserves and is receiving a regionwide coordinated effort. Eyman’s initiatives go unvetted and often in the end are illegal and are often riddled with unintended (or intended) consequences.

I-985 is a bad initiative that despite its seductive and short title doesn’t deliver and actually could make matters worse and our roads less safe. Let Eyman sit in one of Renton’s busiest intersections where someone is a T-bone away from a potentially fatal accident. Then he’ll understand why Renton voted against this flawed initiative.