Justices affirmed that position in their ruling. They have said the measure does not limit the agency’s authority to collect the excise tax until the bonds to which the tax is contractually pledged as security are retired. Sound Transit officials contended the wording of the initiative did not affect current bonds. And it aimed to force the regional transit authority to retire or refinance some outstanding construction bonds and switch to using vehicle values in Kelley Blue Book when calculating the Sound Transit excise tax on vehicles. It also called for slashing the motor vehicle excise tax collected by Sound Transit, a pivotal source of revenue for carrying out voter-approved light-rail expansion known as ST3. The measure sought to limit the annual vehicle registration fee to $30 and axe vehicle-license charges levied by local transportation districts in more than 60 cities. He should look in the mirror and apologize to voters for once again sending them an initiative that failed to survive a legal challenge and deliver on its promises.” “He will again blame my office for language in the ballot title that he specifically requested to be included in the title, and that was pulled word-for-word from his initiative. “Tim Eyman will, of course, do what he has done throughout this case - blame everyone but himself,” Ferguson continued. “Tim Eyman has never written a successful tax initiative that passed legal muster. “To be candid, we knew this would be a difficult case,” Attorney General Bob Ferguson said in a statement. The court rightly recognized that a clearly inaccurate initiative title and log-rolling subjects is unlawful.” Eyman has never sponsored an initiative that’s withstood legal challenge, so today’s decision shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. “We knew this initiative had some fairly obvious legal problems from the outset.” said Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes in a statement. The Washington State Transit Association, whose members include Sound Transit, Community Transit and Everett Transit, and the Association of Washington Cities, were part of the coalition. Voters in South King County cities uniformly approved I-976 in contrast to most Eastside cities and Seattle, which largely rejected it.Įven before the results were final, a coalition of transit agencies and local governments, led by the city of Seattle and King County and including Garfield County’s transit agency, challenged I-976’s legality in court. In King County, 40.73% of voters approved the initiative, while 59.27% voted against it. The ruling comes nearly a year after 53% of state voters approved Initiative 976, which, like previous car-tab-limiting measures, was the handiwork of serial initiative promoter Tim Eyman. The initiative, he continued, “contains more than one subject, and its subject is not accurately expressed in its title.
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