The Washington Supreme Court struck the provision for voter approval of taxes, but allowed the car tab cuts to remain. After its passage, the initiative was immediately challenged by opponents, citing its effect on government budgets and its violation of a single-subject rule for initiatives. Initiative 695 not only cut car tabs to $30, but also required voter approval of all proposed taxes at the state or local level. Prior to the passage of Initiative 695, car tab fees were 2.2% of the value of the vehicle. Despite a broad institutional consensus in opposition – including "politicians, governments, the media, business big and small, environmentalists, civic groups, and labor" – voters approved the initiative with 56.16% of the vote, garnering nearly one million votes. Įyman's effort to circulate petitions and gather signatures resulted in 514,141 signatures total. It was an Initiative to the People to lower the fee for "car tabs" (the common name in Washington for car taxes, or motor vehicle excise taxes / MVET) in the state of Washington to a flat fee of $30. Inspired by the 1998 "No Car Tax" campaign slogan of Virginia's then future governor, Jim Gilmore, Eyman sponsored Initiative 695 in 1999. Initiative 200 was approved by voters in 1998, winning 58.2% of the vote. Ward Connerly, an African-American businessman and Proposition 209's sponsor, would become Eyman’s hero and inspiration for his own initiative activism. This experience drew Eyman into politics, and he often describes it as his “baptism of fire.” As he saw it, “They overruled what the voters did.” In 1997, Eyman sponsored his first ballot measure, Initiative 200, a Washington spin-off of California’s Proposition 209, which passed in 1996. Despite opposition from voters, the stadium now called T-Mobile Park was built and new taxes were imposed. In an emergency session, Governor Mike Lowry and the legislature authorized King County to levy stadium bond taxes, which ended up being placed on restaurants and car rentals. Mariners' owner Nintendo of America insisted the city provide the $250 million funding, or the team would be sold. Voters ended up rejecting the tax package. There Eyman decided to help gather signatures at Green Lake while holding a cardboard sign reading, “Let the voters decide”, and gathered 100 signatures on his first day. Eyman attended a public meeting where a Seattle radio host, Dave Ross, was speaking. In 1995, while living in Seattle's Green Lake neighborhood, a King County tax proposal before voters sought to raise $250 million for a new Seattle Mariners stadium. Career Mail order business Īfter graduating from WSU, Eyman began a mail order business out of his home selling engraved wristwatches to members of Greek Letter Organizations. He received a bachelor's degree in 1988 in business management. He graduated from Yakima's West Valley High School and went on to attend Washington State University (WSU) on an academic scholarship.Īt WSU, he was initiated into Delta Tau Delta and competed on the university's intercollegiate wrestling team, finishing third in the Pacific-10 Conference. Timothy Donald Eyman was born in Yakima, Washington and adopted shortly after birth. 5.1 Payments from campaign contributions.2.3 Initiative 695 and $30 Car Tabs origin.He is currently bankrupt, and in December 2021 a court ordered sale of assets to meet $5.4m in legal liabilities to the State of Washington. In April 2021, he was ordered to pay an additional $2.9 million to reimburse the Washington State Attorney General's legal costs in pursuing civil penalties against him. In February 2021, Eyman was convicted of violations of campaign finance law and fined $2.6 million, and barred from "managing, controlling, negotiating, or directing financial transactions" for any kind of political committee. His first and only notable success was an initiative preventing affirmative action in Washington State.Įyman's most prominent ballot measures are part of an unsuccessful "20 year tug-of-war" with the state over lowering motor vehicle excise taxes, or "car tabs" to defund Sound Transit, under the slogan "$30 Tabs", of which 2019's Initiative 976 is the most recent. Some resulted in changes in the law, though most of these in turn were later struck down by courts as unconstitutional. Since 1997, Eyman has become the most prolific sponsor of Washington ballot measures in its history, having qualified seventeen statewide initiatives, most of which failed. Timothy Donald Eyman (born December 22, 1965) is an American anti-tax activist and businessman. Washington State University ( BA, cum laude minor: Economics)
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