Eyman keeps new initiative simple

By Paul Queary

Associated Press

OLYMPIA — Hoping to steer clear of legal challenges, Tim Eyman has pared down his latest anti-tax assault, dropping plans to repeal taxes on campers and boats to concentrate on his longtime nemesis — taxes on passenger vehicles.

The new version of Initiative 776, filed Monday with the secretary of state’s office, would repeal the remaining portion of the state motor vehicle excise tax, along with the local motor vehicle excise tax paid by people in the area served by Sound Transit and the $15 local-option vehicle fee paid by residents of four counties.

Eyman said he wants to take a "laser beam" rather than "shotgun" approach, as well as avoiding the legal issues that led courts to overturn Initiative 695 and Initiative 722. Courts ruled that both measures were unconstitutional because they addressed more than one subject.

"One could argue: ‘What do boats have to do with license fees?’ " Eyman said. "We didn’t even want it to be a question."

Eyman used a similar narrowing approach for Initiative 747, the successful property tax limitation measure approved by voters last month.

After losing in the courts on

I-695 and I-722, he hired Jim Johnson, a prominent appellate lawyer, to sharpen I-747 so it would survive legal challenges. Johnson, who defended I-695 and I-722 but did not write either measure, also worked on the rewrite of the new initiative.

"I advised him that it raised a question," Johnson said of including boats in I-776. "The starting point is we don’t want to have to defend it."

Eyman says I-776 is intended to follow through on one of the ideas at the center of I-695: $30 car tabs. Although the initiative was invalidated by the courts, the Legislature responded to its passage by repealing most of the state motor vehicle excise tax.

But lawmakers didn’t repeal the law that allows Sound Transit to collect a similar tax in the central Puget Sound area. A court later ruled that lawmakers also hadn’t repealed the portion of the state tax that went to local transit districts, although the Supreme Court is still considering a challenge to that ruling.

The overall result is that vehicle owners in central Puget Sound often pay far more than $30.