Disgraced initiative promoter Tim Eyman said today that he will again attempt to defund Sound Transit, Puget Sound’s regional mass transportation authority, telling reporters in front of Seattle’s King Street Station that he’s “excited” to launch a new attack on the highly successful agency, which continues to build out a voter approved network of light rail lines, Sounder commuter rail runs, and Express bus routes.

“Let’s stick it to Sound Transit!” Eyman sneered in an email distributed to his followers immediately after his appearance.

The Northwest Progressive Institute stands ready, through its Permanent Defense project, to once again take on Eyman and win — should he actually have commitments from his wealthy benefactors to finance a signature drive this time around.

“The people of Puget Sound have voted repeatedly, by clear margins, to authorize Sound Transit to build the mass transit network our region needs to ensure we all have the freedom to liberate ourselves from auto congestion,” said NPI founder and Executive Director Andrew Villeneuve, who has been organizing opposition to Eyman initiatives for fifteen and a half years. “That investment must be protected.”

“Ridership on Sound Transit’s system is soaring. People want the freedom that rail and frequent bus service offer. It’s important to note that Link light rail has just surpassed two million boardings per month. And more service is on the way: Sound Transit is on track to extend light rail north to Northgate by 2021 with three new stations.”

“Tim Eyman admitted today he has no respect for the voters’ will and remains obsessed with destroying the crucial investments in regional mobility that they have approved. The team at NPI stands ready to provide the vigorous opposition his destructive scheme deserves should his wealthy benefactors be on board. And we won’t be alone. We’ll be working to re-mobilize the coalition that successfully advocated for passage of ST3 and defeated Eyman’s 2008 and 2011 attempts to mess with our transportation system.”

It remains to be seen if the measure Eyman announced he’s doing today is going anywhere. Eyman has now failed to make the ballot for two years in a row because he could not get his wealthy benefactors to pony up the hundreds of thousands needed to hire petition crews to collect the 330,000 signatures required to pass a random sample check.

The gears of Eyman’s initiative factory cannot turn without money, and at present, money remains in short supply. Eyman’s fundraising to date in 2017 has been anemic, and the Mukilteo-based pitchman recently disclosed that he’s taken out a second mortgage on his house to raise money to defend himself against the four lawsuits filed against him by the State of Washington for serious public disclosure law violations.

But, as Eyman considers initiatives his business, he must always have one to sell, even if there is no prospect of it actually qualifying.

Eyman’s last four consecutive announced initiatives have all turned out to be fakes, including I-1421 and I-869, which Eyman tried to qualify last year as initiatives to the people and the Legislature, respectively. I-1421 and I-869 closely resembled I-947, the measure Eyman said today that he’s printing petitions for. I-1421 was announced in February of 2016 and acknowledged as abandoned three months later. It was succeeded by I-869, which met its demise six months later without so much as a word from Eyman.