Seattle Times shreds Tim Eyman’s I‑976 with a powerful editorial urging a NO vote

The Seat­tle Times Com­pa­ny has just pub­lished its posi­tion on Tim Eyman’s Ini­tia­tive 976, urg­ing an emphat­ic no vote this Novem­ber, and it’s tru­ly a thing of beau­ty. Rarely have I read a more sat­is­fy­ing editorial.

This indict­ment of I‑976 is tru­ly a thing of beauty!

“In his lat­est bal­lot mea­sure, ini­tia­tive pro­mot­er Tim Eyman is over­reach­ing again,” the edi­to­r­i­al begins. “He con­jures a fan­ta­sy world in which Washington’s trans­porta­tion infra­struc­ture is com­plete, effi­cient and everlasting.”

Fan­ta­sy world… love it! The Times is spot-on; it’s as though Eyman is inhab­it­ing some weird alter­nate uni­verse. He has late­ly been false­ly claim­ing that I‑976 will have no adverse impact because there are bil­lions of dol­lars lying around that could be used to back­fill the cuts. But that’s a total fabrication.

Kudos to The Times for rec­og­niz­ing this.

“The real-life Ini­tia­tive 976 is a direct threat to Washington’s well-being,” the edi­to­r­i­al goes on to note, delv­ing into the grave impacts. “It would cut repairs to streets and bridges of six­ty-two dis­tricts across the state, delay vot­er-approved mass tran­sit in mid-con­struc­tion and cost tax­pay­ers more mon­ey in the long run. The statewide trans­porta­tion bud­get, includ­ing high­way con­struc­tion and the State Patrol, would be short­ed $4 bil­lion over the next decade.”

The total loss of rev­enue over ten years goes even high­er when you add in the amount of fund­ing that would be lost at the region­al and local levels.

“When The Seat­tle Times Opin­ion page recent­ly asked read­ers to send in their ques­tions about I‑976, con­cerns about the statewide con­se­quences came up repeat­ed­ly,” a lat­er pas­sage in the edi­to­r­i­al adds.

“Pro­grams that would be stripped of fund­ing can be found in every cor­ner of Wash­ing­ton, includ­ing trib­al tran­sit, para­tran­sit for peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ties and the elder­ly, and earth­quake-proof­ing of bridges and tunnels.”

“Eyman seems not to care about col­lat­er­al dam­age of his mis­sion to “gut” Sound Tran­sit — as he described it to the East­side Repub­li­can Club — through I‑976.”

That Eyman address to the East­side Repub­li­can Club was record­ed by a friend of NPI and released through our Per­ma­nent Defense project ear­li­er this month. It was sub­se­quent­ly picked up on by Times colum­nist Dan­ny Westneat.

In the audio clip (which you can hear for your­self at PD’s web­site), Eyman can be heard mak­ing the fol­low­ing state­ment about his pri­ma­ry moti­va­tion for spear­head­ing an ini­tia­tive that slash­es vehi­cle fees (empha­sis ours):

I love the idea of every vot­er in the state being able to reg­is­ter their vehi­cle for a flat-rate, easy to under­stand $30, but what gets me gid­dy is the idea of rip­ping the heart out of Sound Tran­sit. This agency is so unac­count­able, so rogue, so com­plete­ly devoid of any real­i­ty that this is our one chance to be able to gut them like a pig, and that’s what I real­ly love about this ini­tia­tive.

The best part of the edi­to­r­i­al, though, is its conclusion.

“Noth­ing about I‑976 is a good idea, in terms of respon­si­ble gov­er­nance or pru­dent mon­ey man­age­ment,” the Times declares.

“Eyman asks vot­ers to buy a fal­si­ty that there’s some mirac­u­lous way to fund our state’s back­log of bridge, road and tran­sit needs.  Because the courts can­not end this tox­ic non­sense quick­ly enough, vot­ers must reject I‑976 themselves.”

Amen!

Out­stand­ing, Seat­tle Times. Sim­ply out­stand­ing. Thank you for mak­ing the case against Tim Eyman’s I‑976 so well and so powerfully.

Join NPI and the broad coali­tion work­ing to Keep Wash­ing­ton Rolling in say­ing NO to Tim Eyman’s I‑976 this autumn. Bal­lots must be returned by Novem­ber 5th.