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EFF President Offers $500 Reward - Challenges Ref. 51 proponent's claims OLYMPIA, WA 10/26/02 - Evergreen Freedom Foundation President Bob Williams is offering a $500 reward to the first person who can successfully find the actual language in Referendum 51 addressing safer roads, providing for traffic congestion relief, listing expected completion dates of the projects, or authorizing quarterly audits of revenues and project progress. On October 24th, Mr. Williams made a $100 offer at the Seattle City Club debate on Referendum 51 and neither House Speaker Frank Chopp nor any other proponent of the referendum came forward to take the offer. On Friday, Williams raised the offer to $500. "I challenge the public to read through the text of the bill in the voters' pamphlet and point out where Referendum 51 itself deals with traffic congestion relief, safety and quarterly audits," Williams said. "Voters are not voting on good intentions or the television ads but on the actual language in the voter pamphlet." While R-51 is concerned with funding, the transportation projects themselves are listed in Senate Bill 6347. Unfortunately, the bill is just a "grab bag" of projects with no priorities, no start or completion dates and no estimate of the cost of completing projects. "Referendum 51 provides tax and fee increases to partially fund projects that are lined out in Senate Bill 6347. And that bill can change at a moment's notice by a simple majority vote," Williams said. The Seattle City Club debate will be aired on TVW Friday night at 6 p.m. and Saturday at 2 a.m. and 10 a.m. Portions will also be shown on King 5 Up Front with Robert Mak on Sunday at 4:30 p.m. on KING 5 and at 10:30 p.m. on KONG 6/16. ### Resources: |