Bigot-for-pay Tim Eyman fails in referendum bid on Wa. gay rights

[TechBear_Seattle]

Washington state resident Tim Eyman has championed some very bad initiatives in the last decade, mostly tax cuts that have bad hurt the state's ability to pay for transportation issues. One of his latest stunts is a referendum on hard-fought civil rights legislation passed this year which added sexual orientation to the state's civil rights laws protecting against discrimination in housing, credit, insurance and employment (Referendum 65.)

Eyman has been saying for weeks that he had enough signatures to force the law to a public vote, and many conservative churches around the state have been holding "Referendum Sunday" events to help collect those signatures. In an email on Friday, he stated that he would be submitting signatures on Monday, implying that the signatures would be for Ref. 65; the deadline to submit at least 112,440 qualifying signatures (4% of the total number of votes cast in the last election for Governor) is Tuesday, June 6, with the law going in to effect on Wedensday, June 7, if signatures are not turned in. But typical money-grubbing, spotlight-seeking neo-con that he is, Tim Eyman lied.

When he showed up at the state Elections office in Olympia, he did bring in petitions... for yet another of his hare-brained tax initiatives, petitions which are not due for another 4 weeks. And following in his own ridiculous footsteps, he showed up in costume, this time as a lightsaber-wielding Darth Vader (insert appropriate jokes about being a Dark Lord of the Evil Empire here.) In the past, Eyman has submitted signatures dressed as a gorilla and as a prison inmate.

Now, the law requires that ballot measure sponsors notify the Secretary of State's office and make an appointment when bringing in petition signatures. This is so the SoS can hire temporary workers to expedite validating the signatures. Eyman likely broke the law by making an appointment under false pretenses and wasted the taxpayer money he claims (fraudulently) to protect through his ballot measures. Adding insult to injury, he didn't submit the petitions he did bring with him, chosing to wait until that deadline next month.

Further information can be found in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Eyman dupes news media, doesn't turn in signatures as expected.

[MadMaddie]

1. I am ready to see this guy in jail....

[Mythsaje]

2. I actually supported the car tab initiative...

Car tabs were so hideously expensive at the time that sometimes it made more sense to drive with them expired until you could actually manage to scrape together the money to get them again. If you were low income--which I was at the time--they could be a serious hardship.

Despite this, I thought the guy was a gasbag. Raving about mass transit as if it's a bad thing. Pinhead.

This latest? Words escape me. ME!

[TechBear_Seattle]

3. Problem is, many people's car tab went UP as a result of I-695

And overall revenue from the taxes went down sharply, forcing the state to abandon several transportation projects for lack of funds.

[Mythsaje]

5. What do you mean, UP?

Didn't work that way for anyone I knew. They're creeping back up now.

[TechBear_Seattle]

6. Before, the tabs were based on the value of the car

And for "clunkers" and cars older that some number of years (I don't recall exactly), the base cost of the license tabs was less than $35 dollars. And, as usual, the people with older and less valuable cars were the ones who most needed a vehicle and could least afford the increase.

[Mythsaje]

8. Funny, my old clunkers

cost me a heck of a lot more than 35 dollars to license back then. This is simply untrue. I'm remembering paying twice that for my old beat up Datsun 310 or my Ford Grenada. Or, sometimes, NOT paying it because I couldn't afford it at the time.

[TechBear_Seattle]

9. I'm just going on one of the arguments against I-695

I didn't own a car back then, so I have no personal experience with tabs under the old system.

Added Just talked with one of my neighbors, who worked against I-695. The cost of the tab itself was (and remains) only a small part of the full tax bill. There were city and county taxes, emissions fees and various other add-on charges (like the Seattle monorail fee which was added soon after I-695 passed.) Initiative 695 did not change any of those other fees, just the license tab fee. I recall that some 30% to 35% of the registered vehicles in Washington had their total tax bill go up as a result of that initiative, as their license tab fee assessment went up. I remember hearing that for most of the remaining vehicles, the decrease from the lower tabs was negligible, with most saving less than $20. Only the owners of new luxury cars saw a substantial savings.

[Mythsaje]

10. I'd say the highest and the lowest

probably saw the most savings. When you have very little money, a twenty dollar break can make a big difference.

[flamingyouth]

4. Good

What an asshole. He is clearly deranged and a laughing stock.

[TechBear_Seattle]

7. He is a liar and an attention hog

He is also a horse's ass. I don't think he is particularly deranged, though; just completely amoral.