Is Washington closer to getting a $30 car tab fee?

Anti-tax activist Tim Eyman is pushing for the flat fee for every type of vehicle, and believes that reality may be on the horizon.

“In the last four months, we’ve received 250,000 signatures, and we need 75,000 signatures in the next three months in order to get it over the finish line,” Eyman told The Jason Rantz Show. “We’re three-quarters the way there.”

RELATED: Big defeat for taxpayers seeking car tab relief in wake of ST3

Eyman says he faces the same kind of opposition when pushing these initiatives, questioning the likelihood of it passing, and the use of these petitions when the potential lowered fee won’t last.

“What I always have to emphasize to them is: We kept them down for close to 15 years with those two earlier initiatives,” Eyman said. “It took them 15 years to get the guts up to ignore what the voters have done. It’s only recently that they’ve gone back up, and this new initiative just chops out all the taxes and fees that they’ve imposed.”

Recently, a Pierce County Superior Court judge ruled against a class action lawsuit targeting Sound Transit over the high car tab fees. It contended the exorbitant fees Sound Transit is using are based on an inflated vehicle valuation schedule from the 1990s, as opposed to the current 2006 valuation schedule that’s more accurate.

Eyman says that he and his wife sold off their retirement fund in order to loan the 30tabs.com campaign $500,000, which he needed for the seed money to hire paid petitioners all over the state.

“When we fell short last year, I knew the voters are there,” Eyman said. “I feel it in my bones, and I just couldn’t walk away from this fight. So we went all in to make sure this thing is successful.”

Eyman believes he is being targeted because of his politics

At the moment, Eyman is the subject of Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s attention after the state public disclosure commission alleged that he shifted money from one initiative to another, garnering a kickback. A Thurston County judge has also doubled the contempt sanction against Eyman for not turning over documents that are supposed to go to the state.

“This has been going on for six years, and we have a constant effort where the goal posts keep getting moved. No matter how much information we give them, they ask for more,” Eyman said. “What you learn when it comes to government litigation is when they target somebody, it doesn’t matter if you’re innocent or guilty, saint or sinner; the process itself is the punishment.”

Eyman believes that the Washington state government is attempting to drive him out of local politics, and has set up a legal defense fund to support his defense costs. But he doesn’t want this initiative to be about him.

“What is kind of neat about the initiative process is that you even help your enemies. We’re lowering car tabs for everybody in the state of Washington, whether they want that tax relief or not. If they feel immensely guilty about keeping more of their own money, I’m sure the state will voluntarily take any additional donations they want to give the government.”

“Every time we put one of those ideas forward, the other side attacks me,” Eyman added. “But the voters say, ‘I don’t care about Eyman, what I care about is I like these ideas being brought forward.'”

“Unfortunately, in a liberal state like Washington, you’re not getting this type of stuff out of Olympia. Your only shot is the initiative process itself.”

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