Career troll Tim Eyman is at it again. The Seattle Times reports that the anti-tax zealot has finally collected enough signatures to get a $30 car tab measure on the ballot. This comes despite the fact that voters approved raising car tabs to fund South Transit 3 (ST3) in 2016 by 54 percent—and the fact that we explicitly told you people not to give him your signature. Don’t you ever listen??
Initiative 976, which will go the Legislature before being put to voters (unless lawmakers toss it out), would create a flat $30 fee to renew all car tabs in the state. Currently, municipalities can charge extra depending on local transit projects. Seattle, as the Seattle Times notes, charges an additional $80 fee to pay for expanded bus service and road maintenance as well as to expand light rail service. Voters, once again, presumably knew what they were approving when they, you know, approved it, but Tim Eyman fucking haaaates these fees almost as much as he hates light rail. (Actually, has Tim Eyman ever ridden light rail? Tim, sound off on the comments! We know you’ve got a Google alert for this.)
Eyman has tried this car tab bullshit many times before, but apparently the fifth’s time’s the charm—which probably has something to do with the fact that Eyman paid people to gather signatures this time around instead of relying on volunteers who actually want this. It’s also true that car tabs have tripled in the area since ST3 passed, and there was a not-small amount of anger last year when it emerged that Sound Transit inflates car values when calculating tabs. But—once again—voters approved ST3 because they, unlike Tim Eyman, want better public transit. It’s good for communities, it’s good for the planet, and it’s good for people who’d rather not spend all their spare time sitting in traffic.
Of course, if we had income and or capital gains taxes like a normal state, perhaps we wouldn’t be relying on car tabs to fund transit projects, and we all know how Tim Eyman feels about taxes on wealth. At least he’s consistent, I guess?
Eyman, by the way, filed for bankruptcy last year after being sued for $2.1 million by state AG Bob Ferguson, who alleges that Eyman has been using the money he raises on his initiative “activism” to line his own pockets. Gotta pay those car tabs somehow! As of last November, he’s $3.2 million in debt, and nearly all of it is owed to the state.
