Oregon Public Broadcasting

Washington anti-tax guru Tim Eyman is blasting a tax hike proposal aimed at averting some cuts to healthcare programs.

The bill under consideration would temporarily raise the sales tax by .3 percent. Eyman testified Friday morning at a hearing in  Olympia.

In typically colorful language, he told majority Democrats there should be a special place for them in Dante’s “circles of hell.”

Tim Eyman: “There needs to be an eighth circle added and reserved for politicians who are willing to throw the elderly and the disabled under the bus to defund their programs and then exploit them – using them as props and pawns in their never-ending pursuit of higher taxes. Have you no shame.”

Voters would be asked to approve the three-year-tax this November.

Supporters say if higher taxes aren’t approved, vulnerable people in Washington will lose essential state services and in some cases die.

The state is currently facing a $9 billion budget shortfall.