Opponents of our new $30 Tabs Initiative resort to name-calling & schoolyard taunts

by | Jul 17, 2017

Skyrocketing car tab taxes are indefensible.  Sound Transit’s campaign lies are inexcusable.  That’s why politicians, instead of addressing the problem, are instead attacking me.

         Last Thursday morning, when one of Seattle’s mayoral candidates held a media event to attack our $30 Tabs Initiative, I went to debate the issue with her.  Here’s a pic:
 

      Instead of proposing a solution to 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” (she’s the only one who’s shown even the slightest hesitation over the city’s new income tax). 

        Jenny Durkan then descended into name-calling referring to me as the “village idiot” and comparing me to “mobsters and criminals.”

        So I decided to attend that evening’s mayoral forum in Seattle (that’s Jenny directly over my right shoulder):    
 
       I went there to ask the candidates a question about our $30 Tabs Initiative (unfortunately, audience questions were not allowed).  This short TV news story about it is a must-watch:
 

        Tonight (Monday), there’s a Seattle mayor candidates’ debate sponsored by KING 5, KUOW, and others.  I need your help to convince the moderators to ask a question.  

         Please cut and paste these email addresses into the “To” line of your email (KING 5’s Natalie Brand & KUOW’s Ross Reynolds):

 
 
         Send them an email that says this or something like this:
 
As a moderator for tonight’s debate, I urge you to ask all the candidates:  “What is your message to Seattle’s taxpayers whose skyrocketing car tab taxes are making Seattle unaffordable?  And is it appropriate for mayoral candidates to call Tim Eyman names and attack him when all he’s doing is sponsoring another $30 Tabs Initiative, a policy the voters have twice approved?”  That’s what I’d like the candidates to be asked.  I am angry and frustrated that politicians aren’t responding to the clear fever-pitched outrage over skyrocketing car tab taxes.  And rather than addressing the problem, they’re instead trying to shoot the messenger — I find that unacceptable.  Initiatives succeed when politicians don’t listen.    
 
          The greatest threat to this initiative’s signature drive is OVERCONFIDENCE.  Having qualified 16 initiatives for a statewide public vote over the years, we’ve made it seem easy.  It’s not.  It’s really tough.  The only way we’re gonna make it is with a massive grassroots effort.  We did it with Initiative 695 in 1999, collecting 514,000 signatures in 5 months.  We have 5 1/2 months — July, Aug, Sept, Oct, Nov, and Dec — to collect signatures for our new $30 Tabs Initiative — the deadline is December 31st. 
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