“It’s been a long, long time,” said the voice on the telephone.

“Hi, Tim,” I said, “I wondered when you’d call.”

I think the hardest part of initiative guru Tim Eyman’s five-month exile from the public part of the campaign for I-776 for him had to be the orders from his partners to shut up, especially when it comes to the press. That came after he publicly confessed to having taken $45,000 in salary from initiative contributions in 2000 and tucked another $157,000 into a private fund for the future after denying he was compensated at all. This, without the consent or knowledge of his partners although his treasurer knew and eventually blew the whistle on him.

For many, he went in one day from being the hero of the hoi polloi for bringing us the $30 car tab, to the dung heap, not because he took the money but because he lied about it.

Tim Eyman was and is in big trouble over breaking public disclosure laws and has been sued by the Attorney General. Nonetheless, he still has a slew of devoted fans who don’t care what he did they are forever grateful that they can fork over $33.50 ($30 to the state, $3.50 to the county, 50 cent equipment fee) instead of hundreds of dollars for their license plates each year.

Except that it doesn’t come out like that everywhere, which is why I-776 is on the ballot this year. Brief history: I-695, the $30 car tab, passed in 1999 by 56 percent but was declared unconstitutional because it had two subjects. It also gave the people tax approval powers. Gov. Gary Locke and the Legislature looked at that 56 percent and declared they got the message. They repealed the Motor Vehicle Excise Tax and enacted a $30 car tab.

They did not, however, repeal a $15 MVET fee charged by King, Pierce, Snohomish and Douglas counties, or the Sound transit tax levied in Pugetopolis, of 0.3 percent of a vehicle’s value, which provides 20 percent of the Sound Transit agency’s budget.

Eyman and his partners felt they were being stiffed on their $30 car tab promise so they got out I-776 to repeal laws allowing local governments to impose taxes or fees on motor vehicles for transportation purposes, including light rail, without a vote of the people.

They brought in their validating signatures by deadline time with Eyman making his first public appearance since February because, he said, they wanted to show he still was part of the team, unmuzzled but on a short leash as to what he could talk about. He called me afterwards.

You won’t answer most of what I’d like to know, I said, but tell me, just as polls showed that voters went for I-695 more for the proposed power to approve any tax increases than the $30 car tab, do you think the real appeal of I-776 might be the ability to kill the light rail system?

“It’s a fringe benefit, not the driving force,” he said. “The driving force is the politicians promised you a $30 tab and we want to send that message again. I-776 doesn’t kill light rail. It repeals 20 percent of their funding and forces a revote. They turned it down once in a regional vote. Backers carved out areas that were heavily against it, put it back on the ballot and it passed. I’m asked why should Spokane vote on this now? Light rail is a black hole for tax dollars and would leave nothing for anything else. If a revote is authorized, Spokane won’t be voting then, just the region.

“Originally,” he said, “56 percent voted for I-695. We should have those people now. But a heckuva lot of the 44 percent who voted no then, got used to and like the $30 tabs, so we will get converts from the ranks of our previous opponents. All we are trying to do is get the politicians to keep their promises. They all said $30 license tabs are here to stay when they passed it. Did they mean it, or were they just kidding? I want to nip any $30 tab creep in the bud.”

He’d better hope the converts aren’t angry yes voters who can’t forgive him for lying to them. But angry enough to pass up a chance to ensure the $30 car tab stays at $30? I doubt it. Since it took effect in 2000, I’ve already saved about $1,200, my husband the same. I like it.

(Adele Ferguson can be reached at P.O. Box 69, Hansville, Wa., 98340.)
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