The following is an original statement by Tim Eyman on July 2nd (in italics). Interjected between each blockquote is Permanent Defense’s response, in roman font.
If politicians had one ounce of compassion for the average taxpayer, I-776 would not be necessary.
Politicians care about taxpayers, Tim. The problem is, we don’t give them enough money to fix Washington’s problems. It’s not their fault we keep blowing holes in the budget every year.
Washington is the 2nd highest taxed state in the nation- I-776 keeps us from hitting #1.
Please, Tim. Stop spreading lies. In 2001 you said we were the 4th highest taxed state. Do you mean to tell us that, despite your initiatives, we moved up in your fraudulent rankings? Incredible!
I-776 offers $30 tabs on your car, truck, motorcycle, motorhome, and other vehicles. Working class folks, not just rich people, should be able to afford a newer vehicle. $30 is reasonable.
Obviously not. We are out of money for transportation infrastructure and you don’t care.
When political judges vetoed voter-approved I-695, politicians frantically embraced $30 tabs during that election year.
Well, no wonder. They were surprised by our misinformed vote and didn’t have the courage to fix the motor vehicle excise tax in a responsible way.
Gary Locke said “Despite the court’s ruling, we have no intention of returning to the old system of high license tab fees. $30 license tabs are here to stay.”
It actually costs more than $30 to pay your registration even if you repeal excise taxes.
Passing I-776 also sends politicians a message: don’t increase taxes and fees unless you ask voters’ permission first (read I-776’s language).
Remember, Tim, you’ve gotten into hot water before by having more than one subject in an initiative. Once again, you try to do too much.
Leadership involves listening.
But you never listen. You’re too busy talking.
Taxpayers want their voices heard.
But not in your words.
With voter approval, politicians must convince us that current revenues are being spent as effectively as possible before we OK more – that’s accountability.
Well, they try, but you blast them with the usual: you always say politicians are lying.
I-776 ensures a long-overdue revote on light rail.
We don’t need a revote. What we need is more mass transit. The people of Seattle voted in Greg Nickels as mayor in 2001. That means that the majority of people in Seattle want light rail, because Nickels is a strong advocate of it.
By ensuring “$30 Tabs for Everyone”, I-776 brings accountability to the worst government agency in state history: Sound Transit. I-776 repeals car taxes which provide 20% of their funding and forces this reckless rogue agency to get renewed.
Actually, Sound Transit may not be affected. Sorry, Tim. The agency can use its dollars to repay its debt, so I-776 will do nothing to Sound Transit’s Central Link project.
If politicians still want light rail, then put a new tax package before the voters.
Why? Your initiative won’t stop Sound Transit, and we in Puget Sound approved Sound Transit in 1996 anyway by saying yes to Sound Move.
Beginning construction with a majority opposed is arrogant and unacceptable.
The majority of people in this region want light rail.
In January, a poll commissioned by the King County Council showed 68% of King County voters wanted a revote on light rail (the numbers in Pierce and Snohomish must be stratospheric).
Numbers change, Tim. You can’t hurt Sound Transit.
Washington is the 2nd highest taxed state in the nation, so the problem isn’t lack of taxes.
Once again, Tim, you lie. We don’t know where you get your statistics from, but they’re not true.
Voters have been clear:
No, we haven’t. We send different messages at each election.
$30 tabs and voter approval for tax and fee increases. I-776 sends that message again.
Because it wasn’t irresponsible enough the first time?
Anything but an overwhelming “Yes” for I-776 will be seen by politicians as an endorsement of higher taxes. I-776 helps everyone so we ask for your support this November.
It doesn’t help us at all. It eliminates funding for road improvements and transit.
We’ve faced some extraordinary challenges this year.
Exactly, and none of them weren’t deserved.
But standing here today, there is no doubt that Permanent Offense, its’ leaders and its’ supporters, have never been more unified and more energized.
Uh huh. That’s what you’d like people to believe.
Our supporters kept their eye on the ball, stayed focused, and made I-776 a reality. More than 250,000 citizens voluntarily signed our I-776 petitions because they believed in the simple principle that politicians should keep their promises.
Actually, Tim, you used paid-signature gatherers to buy your way onto the ballot. Most people are too polite to refuse signing a document that someone is earning wages from.
But frankly, it would be incredibly inconsiderate of us to not give credit to those most responsible for our continued success: our opponents, our detractors, and their allies in the press.
Tim thinks we help him, but we don’t.
Permanent Offense – the four of us – would be nothing without you.
That’s why you took money from your supporters, isn’t it, Tim?
It is incredibly gratifying to me to watch our initiatives continue to elicit such contempt from the elitists in government, business, labor, and the ivory towers of the media but continue to garner overwhelming victories by regular voters each and every year.
A misinformed voter will vote on anything that puts money into his or her pocket. You and your lies, Tim.
To watch you all sputter and huff and puff with no real impact on the electorate is an illustration of the disconnect you have with the hopes, dreams, and fears of the average taxpayer.
Tim, you’re the one that stole the money. You are completely out-of-touch and we’ve seen no indication that your attitudes will change anytime soon.
Work yourself into a lather if you want to concerning our efforts to limit taxes in Washington state, it makes no difference to me, because to the average voter, you have all reached the point of near-irrelevance.
Earlier, you complained about people playing dirty, Tim. You yell at opponents for doing it, then you encourage it. Way to be consistent.
Throughout our campaign, we have sent our supporters a monthly letter keeping them updated on our progress. I’d like to read an excerpt from the letter we sent in May:
Our opponents and their allies in the press have pulled out all the stops to derail our efforts to protect taxpayers this year. Big Labor’s fraudulent scheme to attack our bank account, the government’s lawsuit against Tim, blaring smear headlines in the newspapers, scoffing editorials, and politicians’ vicious threats and scare tactics.
It has been the most ruthless, relentless, shameless, transparent effort to stop an initiative campaign in state history. They’ve emptied their chamber on us. They dropped their A-BOMB. We’ve seen their worst.
We didn’t do everything we could have done to stop I-776, but we never stooped to breaking the law. There’s not much one can do against paid-signature gatherers.
Let’s take all their venom and use it to energize us. Let’s absorb all their attacks and become stronger.
You’ll only get weaker when you’re forced to deal with the Attorney General’s lawsuit against you.
If we work together and succeed this year despite all THIS, there’s no limit to what we can accomplish in the future.
That must be why you’re begging you’re supporters for money to pay your legal defense bills with.
Our supporters took that message to heart. The qualification of I-776 for the ballot is a testament to the faith, loyalty and junkyard-dog determination of our supporters. It is truly an extraordinary accomplishment and one that is worthy of the history books.
Three words: Paid-signature gatherers. Junkyard dog determination, indeed.
Thanks to our supporters’ perseverance, Permanent Offense and Tim Eyman will be a punching bag for pompous politicians, pious political practitioners, and premadonna press people for years to come. We hope so. It’s gonna be a lot of fun. Because thanks to our supporters, there’s no limit to what we can accomplish in the future.
There’s a huge limit. When you’re forced to pay the state for breaking the law, we’ll laugh, and when you use paid-signature gatherers again, we’ll point it out. You lied, and it’s obvious if you’d take your supporters’ money without asking or saying anything, then cover it up, you’re not to be trusted with government management.
Tim’s words are, once again, up front and cleverly themed to include nothing about any money-taking, only the fact that “I’ve busted my butt off for years” and “my need to be compensated”.
Tim’s message is once again full of potholes. When he says, “we’ve beaten them handily year after year”- referring to business groups, labor unions, and the press – he has conveniently forgotten that only one initiative out of four was really successful. Two were tossed out by courts, one failed, and one is unfortunately on our books.
Tim says that voters, year after year, “agreed with our common-sense ideas of reasonable taxes and increased accountability.” In reality, the public was misinformed. Tim is essentially calling budget-slashing, transportation-gutting, police & fire-chopping, ferry fare-skyrocketing, park-closing reasonable.
After I-695 was thrown out in court, the Legislature went back and re-instituted it. This is the first year we haven’t been able to backfill the giant hole I-695 blew in state and county budgets. By approving I-747, voters decided that police, firemen, and public employees’ salaries really didn’t matter very much.
Tim’s “team”, Permanent Offense, can’t even manage their own finances. They let Eyman sneak thousands under their noses, then they turn around and expect us to take their advice on how to manage government. Simply ridiculous.
As for the accusations about the Washington State Labor Council playing dirty… he’s just exaggerating to attract attention. We don’t condone what WSLC tried to do, but it’s nothing compared to Eyman’s trickery.
Eyman also says that he gets “an avalanche of phone calls, emails, faxes and letters from supporters offering their encouragement.” We haven’t seen any of that correspondence, Tim. How do we know you’re telling the truth?
Tim says that, after I-695, “I figured that I-695 was such a tremendous victory for taxpayers and that it sent such a clear and unambiguous message to politicians I figured my work was done.”
It’s obvious why politicians didn’t accept I-695’s message: it was an irresponsible initiative.
Eyman then goes on to proclaim that, after I-695 “It’s also when I made a decision: that I couldn’t work for free.” So you decided to sneak money and lie about it! Real clever, Tim! All the while trying to hold the “moral high ground” against your opponents.
Tim laments that there are people, such as politicians, bureaucrats, lobbyists, and others: working around the clock, all year long, to raise the taxes of Washingtonians. But no one does that. That’s what Tim would like people to believe. He asks people “to stand with me now”. Why should anyone do that?
Obviously he’s a liar, a cheat, and deceiver.
It’s time to send Tim and pals a real clear message: Stop. Enough. If voters have the sensibility to reject Initiative 776, then it will prove that finally people understand that Tim Eyman and Permanent Offense don’t have the public interest at heart.
Their goal is to help themselves.
