car tabs

On Thursday, the state Supreme Court struck down Initiative 976, a measure Washington voters approved last November to reduce the cost of annual vehicle licensing fees. The measure has been on hold for nearly a year as legal challenges worked their way through the court system.

Thursday was supposed to be the day that a Washington state ballot measure to lower car registration fees took effect. But the state Supreme Court has let an injunction stand against what is known as the $30 car tabs initiative. That means hundreds of thousands of drivers will get full price bills in the coming months that they thought they had voted to reduce.

As expected, the initiative’s passage prompted legal action, led by Seattle-area governments and public transit supporters protesting a projected $4.2 billion cut in revenue for transportation and transit projects over the next six years. But there has been an unexpected addition to that Puget Sound-centric group: the Garfield County Transportation Authority.

Eyman says his decision to run is motivated in part by legal efforts to overturn Initiative 976, his car tabs measure that voters just approved.

Nearly 20 years after Washington voters passed Initiative 695, which repealed Washington's motor vehicle excise tax, anti-tax activist Tim Eyman says he's close to qualifying a new initiative to repeal taxes to support Sound Transit and restrict car tabs to $30.