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Points of View: Don't Sacrifice Our Transportation Needs |
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Written On: February 2006 |
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Written By: by Jessyn Schor - Executive Director, Transportation Choices Coalition |
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Professional anti-tax activist Tim Eyman is at it again. This time, he's attempting to repeal new transportation funding — a move that would cost us more than $2 billion in revenue for projects across the state. Eyman’s so-called "Save Our $30 Tabs" initiative is already enduring harsh criticism from business, labor and the environmental community.
The new car tab initiative would flatten the Department of Transportation's currently graded scale, which calibrates a vehicle’s tab from its weight, assuming that heavier vehicles cause more wear and tear on our roads. For example, a car weighing less than 4,000 lbs (84 percent of the vehicles registered in the state) would have a tab fee of $40 — a $10 increase from last year.
Eyman's campaign to expunge these new fees has led him to characterize Washingtonians as "junkyard dogs," "tortured victims" and "uneducated voters" who will eat up whatever he's dishing out. We see them as innovative problem-solvers who can look at a multitude of funding sources and technological choices to solve our state’s transportation problems.
One thing clearly seen in the last election is that voters want progress, and Tim Eyman's initiative is a clearly out-of-touch fringe sentiment. His us-versus-them message won't resonate with voters. Indeed, this initiative would effectively kill many of the projects that voters just endorsed by rejecting Initiative 912.
Business, construction, consulting firms, transit agencies, the environmental community, drivers, walkers, bike riders and bus riders all rallied behind the "No on I-912" campaign and soundly defeated it. Our citizens said that they are willing to pay small tax increases for massive improvements to our transportation system, and they will do so again to defeat another attempt to obstruct progress on transportation.
Don't believe Eyman when he says these fees are unnecessary extra taxes for transit. The gas tax and the car tabs combine to create the pool of money for our transportation solutions. These small fees are a significant funding source that makes it easier to move people using different modes of transportation. If we lose our current car tab fees, we'll lose a huge chunk of transportation revenue — one that pays not only for transit, but bike lanes, sidewalks and road projects all across Washington. Approximately 50 percent of the new funding from car tabs is for road congestion and safety projects. So whether you ride your bike, take the bus, or drive your car, you lose big time. In addition, loss of these fees will severely impair our ability to effectively move Washington-produced goods.
Tim Eyman is also trying to convince citizens that our elected officials are corporate fat cats smoking cigars, counting cash in the back room, and spitting on the face of voters, but that notion is ridiculous. Eyman claims that public trust in government is at an all time low, but in reality last November we saw citizens cautiously put their trust in the elected officials who represent them, representatives making tough choices that truly benefit their constituents.
Most interesting is what Tim Eyman is not saying. He has offered no solutions on how we would fund more road projects, congestion relief, transit, bike lanes or sidewalks.
From today until next year's election, we will be educating citizens about the funding and governance of our transportation agencies and how it affects their lives, as well as making sure every new tax dollar is delivered as planned. Most Washington citizens understand that just saying no on transportation doesn’t mean much — who will be concerned about slightly lower taxes if our bridges collapse or we're sitting in traffic 2 to 3 hours a day?
Let's look at Eyman's new, thinly veiled attempt at taxpayer protection for what it really is — just a guy who found an easy way to make a buck at the expense of every citizen in this state. Eyman is attempting to divide and conquer, but he won't succeed because we're all in this one together. If Tim Eyman says "$30 tabs, round 3," we say "Real Transportation Solutions, round 2!"
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