NEW INITIATIVE LAUNCHED: “We Love Our Cars”
Initiative 869 limits taxes, fees, tolls & charges on vehicles
Monday, September 19th, 2016
To: Our thousands of supporters throughout the state (cc'd to the media, house & senate members, and Governor)
From: Tim Eyman, Jack Fagan, & Mike Fagan, Fighting for Taxpayers for 16 years, 425-493-9127, tim_eyman@comcast.net, www.VotersWantMoreChoices.com
RE: I love politics -- on Saturday I went to political rally for presidential libertarian ticket
Where would you rather go: a Mariners game, a Husky game, or a political rally?
For me, the choice was easy -- on Saturday, I trekked down to downtown Seattle, plunked down an insane amount of money for parking, and went to the political rally for Gary Johnson and Bill Weld, the libertarian ticket for president this year.
Pictures first:
Isn't it obvious that I'm loving every second of this stuff? :-)
Yellow-haired guy is former Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld (candidate for Vice-President) and to his right is former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson (candidate for President).
"Hey, you're Tim, uh ... that car tabs guy, can I get a picture with you?" -- here's my new friend Max.
Mary Moss was chair of the Washington State Libertarian Party in the late 90's when I sponsored my first initiative -- Initiative 200 which prohibited affirmative action in public employment, public education, and public contracting. Hadn't seen her since then.
Steve Nielsen, a good friend who has also sponsored some great initiatives.
The Big Guy
Krist Novoselic, who I've met on several occasions because he's also a committed political activist He was the bass guitarist and co-founder for the band Nirvana.
Highlight: I got to meet Bill Weld. In the late 90's, he ran against John Kerry for the US Senate and the two of them had around 8 debates that were truly iconic. They were true debates -- there were no moderators (in one, there was a moderator but his involvement was barely noticed). The two of them just went back and forth, neither interrupting, neither hogging all the time. And they did it for over an hour each time.
For a political junkie like me, it was thrilling. True Lincoln Douglas debates. The courage and confidence it takes to do what they did really can't be overstated.
Steve Nielson introduced me to Weld and so I got the chance to tell him how amazing those debates were to me. Frankly, the man came across stiff as a board as I talked. But whaddya expect, he had a gushing groupie talking about stuff from the 90's! Geez, get a life, dude, he musta been thinking.
Anyway, the rally was a blast. Everyone was laughing and smiling, whooping it up. Great fun.
So I've now gone to Bernie's rally, Hillary's rally, Trump's rally, and now this. Hey, when's Jill Stein coming to town? :-)
You can count on us to fight against next year's tax-hiking insanity. The voters' passage of our Initiative 1366 last year certainly shows that the people are in no mood for any tax hikes, let alone increases totaling $3.5 billion.
Petitions for "We Love Our Cars" I-869 have been sent out (if you need more, just email or call). Our polling shows it's another big winner. Please help us make it a reality.
To make this effort a success, we need your financial support. Please send us a donation for $50, $100, $250, $500, $1000, $2500, $5000 or more (there are no limits on how much can be given). Fill out the form below, and return it with your check or credit card info – OR, you can You can click here to donate now by PayPal/VISA/MC. Either way, please send in your most generous contribution TODAY. By working together, we can accomplish anything. Please help us make I-869 a success.
Best Regards, Tim Eyman, Jack Fagan, & Mike Fagan, fighting for taxpayers for 17 years
P.S. We’ve been doing initiatives for many years. Our $30 car tab initiatives and property tax limiting initiatives have provided over $32 billion in direct tax savings so far. Our initiatives requiring a 2/3-vote-of-the-legislature-to-raise-taxes indirectly saved taxpayers billions more. After voters approved our I-960 in 2007, the Legislature didn’t raise a single tax in 2008 and 2009. After voters approved our I-1053 in 2010, there wasn’t a single tax increase in 2011 and 2012. After voters approved our I-1185 in 2012, there weren’t any tax hikes in 2013 and 2014. After voters passed I-1366 last year, this year’s Legislature didn’t raise a single tax. We’ve had an amazing track record of success protecting taxpayers.
All of us are obviously disappointed that the Court struck down I-1366. We all worked really hard to get it on the ballot and to get it approved by the voters. No one had ever tried to do an initiative to force the Legislature to do a constitutional amendment before. So there wasn’t a road map for us to follow. We did the best we could. We will learn from the experience, adapt, and persevere.
Our political philosophy is “permanent offense.” It means we must always stay on offense. In the tug-of-war over taxes, politicians are never gonna stop pulling the rope in the direction of higher taxes. So our mission is to help taxpayers pull the rope in the direction of lower taxes. We all work really hard for our money; it oughta be tough for the government to take it away.
