Eyman’s latest $30 car tab effort fails to get signatures

Tim Eyman’s latest initiative effort to bring car tab fees down to a flat $30 has failed to gather enough signatures by the December deadline.

RELATED: Income tax initiative slated to counter Seattle effort

Eyman sent an email to supporters Dec. 28:

Despite months of hard work and effort by a lot of great people, I’m really disappointed to announce that we didn’t make it … I know that this is heartbreaking news.

Eyman explained that the effort failed to produce the required 350,000 signatures needed to get the initiative on the ballot. He also expressed his disappointment given all the reasons he felt the timing was perfect: drivers were “spittin’ mad” about rising car tab fees; and Sound Transit controversy made car tabs unpopular, especially around Puget Sound.

It’s not the first time Eyman has campaigned to get car tabs down to $30. He ran an initiative effort in 1999 and in 2002. This time around, however, he argues that money was a factor in the failure.

Why didn’t we make it this time? It boils down to money — we just didn’t raise enough funds to hire paid petitioners to supplement our volunteers. Getting 350,000 sigs in a handful of months is hugely difficult even when the initiative’s policy is super popular.

Last year, 4 liberal initiatives qualified for the ballot — the AVERAGE amount of money raised and spent was $1.6 million (the low was $1.2 million and the high was $1.8 million). If we had raised that much, we would’ve hired paid petitioners and then we would’ve made it. Nowadays, it’s near essential to hire paid professionals.

We will learn from this experience and make sure to use those lessons in future efforts.

Now, Eyman is shifting his focus to his next initiative campaign, “We Don’t Want An Income Tax.” He argues that with Democrats in control of both the state’s House and Senate “the threat of an income tax has never been higher.” The initiative would prohibit state and local governments from imposing an income tax, including capital gains taxes.

Seattle is currently fighting for an income tax through the courts. The Seattle City Council passed an income tax over the summer. That tax has been challenged in court. The city hopes to take the issue all the way to the state Supreme Court to get the legal understanding of income taxes changed.

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