Eyman: No plans to cut ribbon at Skagit River bridge
Jul 26, 2013, 12:42 PM | Updated: 3:38 pm
When it comes to initiatives, no name is more often associated with putting an issue to the public vote in Washington state than Tim Eyman. If you haven’t heard of Eyman before, you’ve still likely voted on something he’s worked on.
That’s why it seems it must be a ‘smart alec’ behind the latest initiative regarding the Skagit River bridge. Following the bridge collapse in May, Northwest Progressive Institute ran with one of the first memes declaring the bridge the “Tim Eyman Memorial Bridge.”
In case you haven’t come across Eyman lately, or his name only sounds vaguely familiar, you might know him from one of the many initiatives for which he is responsible. Many of the initiatives aimed to cut or reduce taxes – including some that reduced funding to transportation projects, like the voter-approved I-776 to cut motor vehicle excise tax.
Sixteen of his initiatives have made it to the ballot. You could say he knows a thing or two about what it takes to file an initiative: $5.
Nicholas Santos has filed an initiative to name the bridge the “Tim Eyman Memorial Bridge,” and expressed in an email to The Everett Herald that he hasn’t done much in politics, but filed the measure to demonstrate “the ease of getting active.”
“It’s easy to file an initiative,” Eyman said. “To qualify the initiative for a vote, you’ve got to get over 300,000 fellow citizens to sign a piece of paper saying, ‘Yeah, I agree with you, we should vote on that.'”
That’s a hard thing to do, according to Eyman. While Santos expressed it was easy to file an initiative, he told The Herald he has no plans to gather the signatures.
Said Eyman, “I don’t think there’s a huge danger that there will be a ribbon cutting ceremony where I’ll be standing next to Governor Inslee and we’ll cut the ribbon together on the newly named bridge.”
Following the news of the bridge initiative, Eyman released this statement:
It’s always so silly when opponents of our initiatives attack me personally, as if I have tremendous power. I don’t. I have a great team who works super hard each year to give voters a greater voice in their government.
Regarding our initiatives, some pass, some don’t, but all of them give the average taxpayer an equal voice in the process and that’s something I’m very proud of.
