Variable Issues..........[Help]

[eluser]Kanra[/eluser]
Now i'm really confused....

When I have an echo statement in between the declaration it says
Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_ECHO, expecting T_FUNCTION

Code:

class Reg extends Controller
{
        //this has no problem
    var $currentYear1=2010;
        //this gives me Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_ECHO, expecting T_FUNCTION
    echo "debug 1";
        //this gives me syntax error, unexpected '(', expecting ',' or ';'
    var $currentYear2=date('Y');
}

Oh, my god... Why.......

Oh, and btw my file is located in "..\application\controllers\TXTU\reg.php"