Half the fun of voting for a Tim Eyman initiative is reading all the whiney letters in The Herald. The other half is not having to endure all the self-righteous “here’s what the voters really said” hooey.
I do have some advice for the Eyman haters out there.
How does Eyman get 60 percent of voters to agree on anything? Simple – unite and conquer. He finds the common denominator.
I offer myself as an example. I almost didn’t vote for Initiative 747, simply because I despise property taxes. I-747 could have been named the property tax preservation act. With property taxes rising at 6 percent per year with no politicians to directly blame, it wouldn’t take long before property taxes became as universally despised as the car tab tax. But in the end I voted for I-747, simply because I despise property taxes.
I don’t think I’m alone , judging by how often this topic garners heated discussion. My guess is that most folks hate property taxes for the same reason I do. I feel like I’m being punished year after year for my lifestyle choice. Some rich folks choose to spend their money on expensive jewelry, art or hobbies, and thereby escape much property tax harassment. But your average middle-class citizen typically goes up to their ears in debt to buy as much home as they can. Does the latter group really present a relatively heavier burden on society?
I was astonished to learn just how much of my property tax went to fund transportation. What? The more expensive my home, the more I drive? Nonsense! The more gas I buy, the more I drive, the more I benefit from the transportation system.
My advice to the Eymanaphobes is to come up with your own initiative, and divide and conquer the Eyman voting block. The initiative could mandate that all transportation funding must come from gas taxes, and the I-747 property tax base would be reset to the current base minus the transportation funding. Sweeten the initiative by mandating 80 percent (or whatever) of the gas tax revenue be spent on the section of road where it’s combusted, and you’ll hook even more of the Eyman crowd.
There’s no need to mandate voter approval with gas taxes. They are highly visible and self-regulating – we vote on the gas tax every visit to the pump.
Do this and you’ve got my vote. Otherwise, I’m sticking with Eyman.
Everett
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