Latest ballot initiative from Tim Eyman misses signature deadline for 2022 ballot
Dec 31, 2021, 11:29 AM
Anti-tax activist Tim Eyman. (Getty Images)
(Getty Images)
The latest ballot initiative from anti-tax activist Tim Eyman appears to have failed before ever getting off the ground.
Why Tim Eyman’s $30 car tab initiatives keep getting struck down in court
Eyman first unveiled Initiative 1373 in September of 2021, which sought to invalidate Washington’s soon-to-be-implemented capital gains tax, and prevent the state — as well as individual cities — from imposing any future excise, income, or payroll taxes.
Days later, state Rep. Jim Walsh filed the nearly identical Initiative 1408 on Eyman’s behalf, with small edits made based on legal advice Eyman had received from his attorney.
The date to submit signatures for either initiative to make the 2022 ballot was Dec. 30, and as of publishing, it appears as though that deadline has been missed.
In a late-September email to supporters, Eyman indicated that the process for gathering the roughly 400,000 required signatures to make the ballot would cost upwards of $2.7 million in donations to his Permanent Offense organization. At the time, he called on wealthy donors to help fund the effort, petitioning for “successful folks who are willing to break open their piggy banks.”
Reporting filings from Permanent Offense show that Eyman fell well short of that goal, raising just over $2,800 between September and November.
Eyman remains in financial trouble with the state, after defaulting on a $5.4 million debt. That stems from a ruling in a lawsuit which found that Eyman had enacted a “scheme” to funnel kickbacks to himself through signature-gathering campaigns.
Tim Eyman defaults on payments to state stemming from lawsuit
As part of that ruling, he was required to pay out that amount in monthly $10,000 installments. After failing to submit those payments in September and October of 2021, state Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed a request for relief, requesting that a trustee be appointed by the court to distribute Eyman’s payments themselves, and if necessary, sell his house to cover the costs.
A U.S. bankruptcy judge ruled in favor of Ferguson in December, meaning that Eyman’s assets will be soon be sold and distributed to his debtors.
