Well, it's been awhile since I wrote an LTE, so I finally get around to putting one together, this time in response to HA Tim Eyman's Guest Opinion:


In Monday's Guest Opinion, Tim Eyman railed against the suspension of I-960. That really should be a surprise to no one, as that was his initiative, part of his long career of being a tax crusader for hire. I'm sure that someone that has spent as much time through the years as Mr. Eyman, coming up with ways to reduce the burden on taxpayers, has a few ideas on how to balance the budget without raising taxes. I can't wait to hear what those ideas are.

I find it odd, though, that in the years that Mr. Eyman has crusaded to reduce our taxes, he has filed to repeal domestic partnerships, eliminate mass transit and HOV lanes, and expand gambling, but not once, has he filed an initiative or referendum to reduce sales taxes. Why is that? Because the sales tax hits the poorest in our society harder than the rich. And guess who's donating to the coalition that pays his consulting fees? The ones with the bigger property tax bill, that want to drive I-405 alone without getting passed by those pesky car-poolers.

Do the Democrats really want to raise the sales tax? I highly doubt it, but the budget must be balanced and there aren't a lot of alternatives being offered by the other side, just anger. In time, we need to reexamine how we fund our state government, probably reducing the sales tax dramatically, and establishing a true rainy day fund that can be tapped only when the economy inevitably goes bad (another idea Eyman is against). The sooner we can make our state more financially sound, the better. Until then, the Legislature and Governor must act to fulfill their constitutional duty.

I expect that there will be many challengers to a variety of offices this year that hope to cash in on growing anger, especially with a likely tax increase. I would suggest asking those folks simply, what do you suggest we can do right now to balance the budget, meet our obligations to have a functioning state government, and reduce taxes? If they have an answer, listen. If they change the subject, then they really did answer the question for you.

Steven Puvogel
Aberdeen

Well said.

Tim Eyman is a real piece of work. I think the public is starting to catch on, because his most recent initiatives have failed to pass. If you look at his history, most of those that have passed have been so poorly drafted that they have been found to be invalid by the Washington Supreme Court. He makes the same "mistakes" in drafting initiatives over and over, i.e. more than one subject. Even his big claim to fame, I-695, which eliminated the motor vehicle excise tax, was later found to be invalid. People forget that it was the legislature itself that saw the handwriting on the wall and passed a bill to eliminate the motor vehicle excise tax.

I believe that Eyman deliberately writes and or sponsors initiatives that he knows will be invalidated by the courts. He doesn't care. He still gets paid. In fact, when an initiative is invalidated, it fires up his contributors and they give him even more money.

The Eyeman was trained at the P.T. Barnum School of Hucksterism. He has a huge list of suckers and an excellent business model.

It's remarkable that after he was caught with his hand in the cookie jar his followers continue to lick his boots. More of a cult than a political movement.

I guess it beats selling watches to frat-boys.

Nicely written, HK.

I find it interesting that the same people keep writing LTEs over and over again. For example, Bruce Daniels had three LTEs in 7 days. And I didn't really think the second and third said much new. They just were reiterations of the same general complaints from the first one, imho. And, of course, most letters have been from the angry right-wing, often devoid of facts.

So it's nice to see a reasonable letter being submitted that has some common-sense behind it.

Outsiders because they never had product they could sell, the local GOP has a new leader and new strategy: attack anything guv'mint and attack often. They can say with a straight face, "It ain't us!", because they've lost for 60 years in Grays Harbor. With TDW, they have a willing, if not naive partner. There are now no limits to the number of letters and no editing of the letters... a flame-throwers haven.

I don't even bother reading letters if they are authored by certain people. Why waste my time. They never have anything new to offer. You can probably guess who most of them are. The aforementioned Daniels is one. Straka, Dutton and Armstrong are a few of the others.

They are the most prolific. Armstrong! What a piece of work. A real newspaper, rather than a tabloid, should do some research into how much he did against the rules and then scoff at his "cost me thousands of dollars" claim. But, I'll not hold my breath.