If you’re approached by a petitioner hawking Tim Eyman’s I-976, decline to sign!

NPI’s Permanent Defense has been sounding the alarm over Eyman’s latest attempt to wipe out transit funding for several weeks now. Today, we got a boost from Western students Giovanna Orecchio, Anna Kemper and Rosa Rice-Pelepko, who wrote a guest editorial echoing that call to action for the Associated Students Review:

I-976 is the brainchild of conservative anti-tax activist Tim Eyman. Eyman makes his living off filing ballot initiatives, and is hardly the guy from whom we should take public policy advice. This year, he’s decided to gut the prime source of funding for the biggest public infrastructure project in the state: light rail.

Sound Transit 3 (light rail) gets most of its funding from car tab fees which are calculated based on the value of your car. If you drive a fancy new Mercedes, you pay more. If you drive a 2003 used Honda Civic, you pay less. All in all, it’s a decently equitable system. Instead, I-976 would make everyone pay a regressive flat fee of $30.

At the end of the day, I-976 will cut car tab fees for people with fancy cars and slash funding for our light rail expansion. That’s not fair, not smart, and not what we voted for. We encourage you to stand up for jobs, mass transit, and the will of the voters: don’t sign I-976!

A big thanks to Giovanna, Anna, and Rosa. We appreciate your efforts to educate your fellow Washingtonians about the grave threat this initiative represents to our communities. It is important to note that I-976 would also destroy funding for Amtrak Cascades, local bus service, and transportation projects at the city level in dozens of cities across the state.