What do $30 tabs have to do with Seattle’s mayoral race? Quite a lot based on what happened last week.
Last Tuesday, we launched the signature drive for our new $30 Tabs Initiative. Taxpayers are absolutely furious about their skyrocketing car tab taxes. And compounding people’s anger and frustration is Sound Transit’s dishonest, inaccurate scheme to artificially inflate car tab taxes. I haven’t seen this much enthusiasm for one of our initiatives since Initiative 695 in 1999, which got 514,000 signatures, the second highest number in state history, on a shoe-string budget of $50,000.
Last Thursday, when Jessyn Farrell, one of Seattle’s mayor candidates, held a media event to attack our $30 Tabs Initiative, I went to debate the issue with her (see photo above left). Instead of responding to taxpayers’ legitimate outrage over skyrocketing car tab taxes, she instead attacked me. I didn’t respond to it.
While there, I said that I used to live in Green Lake and added: “If I lived in Seattle, I’d vote for Jenny Durkan.”
Jenny Durkan then descended into name-calling, referring to me as the “village idiot” and comparing me to “mobsters and criminals.”
Like Donald Trump, who I voted for, Jenny Durkan is a wealthy first-time candidate. Jenny Durkan is making the same missteps that first-time candidate Trump did: name-calling, punching down, and making racially-insensitive remarks (what would have happened if Bill Bryant had used the term “colored person” during a comedy skit in front of the media and a roomful of Seattleites?). Yet despite all her rookie mistakes and her Trumpian remarks, I’d still vote for Jenny Durkan just like I did for Donald Trump last November. Jenny Durkan is the most viable conservative candidate in the field as evidenced by her opposition to the city’s new income tax and for me, issues matter more than her schoolyard taunts.
I went to last Thursday’s mayoral forum in Seattle to ask the candidates a question (unfortunately, audience questions were not allowed). I also went there to meet ’em all. As you can see, I was in the front row (that’s Jenny over my right shoulder in the photo on the right above). When it was over, I moved to the stage where the closest candidate was Jenny Durkan. She literally ran in the opposite direction. I met and shook hands and exchanged pleasantries with all the other candidates who were all friendly, civil, and respectful (as was I).
Voters approved our $30 Tabs Initiative in 1999. Voters approved our $30 Tabs Initiative again in 2002. It’s clear the people support this policy. Nonetheless, over the past 15 years, state and local governments have imposed more and more taxes and fees on vehicles. Barnacles have grown on our $30 tabs and it’s time to scrape ’em off.
I’m really excited about this new initiative effort that brings back our $30 tabs for everyone’s cars, trucks, vans, SUVs, motorcycles, motor homes, RVs, 5th wheels, and other vehicles. Our team is going to work really hard over the next 5 1/2 months to collect the signatures to qualify it for the ballot.
Tim Eyman is a conservative troll and co-sponsor of Bring Back Our $30 Car Tabs Initiative I-947.