July 11, 2005
Not a ‘Game Over,’ but a ‘Reset’
Jerry Cornfield of the Everett Herald quotes me in his article "Gas tax anger fuels initiative" this morning. Most of my contribution is pretty standard fare that won't be surprising or thought provoking to anyone who's been paying attention:
Opponents are also angry with lawmakers who they say acted arrogantly by attaching a clause to the transportation bill pre-empting any challenge through referendum.
"We didn't think this tax was done in a good way. It was an end run around the people," said Timothy Goddard of Lynnwood, a member of the Republican Roundtable and contributor to the political Web page called soundpolitics.com.
And fueling gas-tax foes further is a residual frustration with the outcome of the governor's race.
Goddard contended that this was a case of a Democratic-controlled Legislature driving through a tax hike while a Democrat governor held power. Had Republican Dino Rossi been in office, he argued, no increase would have occurred.
"This initiative sends a message to Olympia. Though the election challenge didn't work, the people still have a voice," he said.
The most important thing I have to say comes at the end of the article:
"This is not just a game over. This is a reset," Goddard said. "Once it passes we'll have a chance to go back and remind the Legislature that the people have a voice, and we can begin to find something that is acceptable to more of us."
This is extremely important. I have no doubt that 912 will pass--opponents can and will spend millions of dollars fighting it, but they'll only succeed in reducing the margin from "immense" to "sizable." But once it passes, we still need to think about transportation policy, and the best way to fund transportation projects.
Unfortunately, it sounds like people like you and me will have to do the heavy lifting on that task, too--our elected officials have apparently exhausted their efforts. Rep. Brian Sullivan, D-Mukilteo, of the 21st District, says at the close of the article, "I really don't know what Plan B will be." That's right--Rep. Sullivan, who serves on the Transportation Committee, can only think of one way to fund roads. And, surprise, surprise, it's through a tax increase. Apparently other ideas--such as toll roads, a milage tax, or even something as groundbreaking as responsible spending--have never occurred to him.
A big reason for our transportation problems is becoming pretty clear--our legislators suffer from a severe lack of imagination. Maybe that's something we can change in 2006.
Cross-posted at The Flag of the World.
Posted by Timothy Goddard at July 11, 2005
06:22 PM | Email This
1. Hopefully the people of the state will wake up and realize that the Dems have no ideas, outside of more taxes, more regulation, and more spending.
2. TTBO
Through The Bastards Out.
No incumbent, none, not republican not democrat gets reelected to any office until Olympia learns to heel. 420,570 signatures is just the first tug on Olympia's lease.
Carlson today had disclosure figures from the 912 folks and Keep Washington Rolling.
912 received no contributions greater than $1000.
KWR received no contributions smaller than $1000.
Remind me again who the voice of the little guy is?
3. If the KWR folks have that kind of money to throw around, why don't they use it to fix the roads and bridges? ;-)
4. Hey lets start reviewing other states cost for transportation. The biggest problem I see is that we have run away costs. Lets look at other states to see what they do to save money. How they can do so much road construction and we get nothing. I still dont understand with all the gas tax money Olympia has been collecting over the past few decades that so few new general purpose lanes were ever built. The people driving have been paying the tax. Yet the State does not do anything to improve the communte. WHY? Could it be because they want even more money. I remember the week before we voted down the last intitiative with all their great traffic fixes that only paid 20 to 40% of the projects. And wrapped up the gas tax into repaying loans for decades. Union members where on the road slowing down the traffic. SO the week before the election for one week I saw the commute take forever. Backups started hours earlier. Election day no backup in traffic. Amazing. How did I know union members were doing it. Every once in a while I see space for 5 to 10 cars to move into the next lane and the car providing so much protection from hitting the guy in front of him had a UNION sign. I get off the main road and magically all the traffic was gone and I could get home with no issues at the stated speed limit. You see they want to make people believe this tax hike will fix all the congestion yet not a dime will improve the traffic situation. We have to spend another Dollar a gallon before they may start finding money for a general purpose road. We can only get a nickel on the dollar to go to fix the commute. The other 95 cents well who knows where it goes. Just trust our elected officials they know whats best for all of us.
5. I've got a suggestion. Seattle and King County use the tax authority the Legislature gave them to fix their own transportation problems. I have no interest in helping Seattle and King County fix their transportation problems if they are unwilling to help themselves.
6. I agree JC. And I live in KC.
What the gas tax should be setup in a regional kitty of cash. The amount that comes in for a region will be used to fix the highest problems first. And you do a pay as you go. If 50 million comes into the region for a quarter you plan you jobs so that You pay for highway jobs in process and if you have extra money you either save it for the next quarter or start a new job off the list. You could save all the money that comes in for the winter months and then use it during the Summer to fund all the jobs you can complete with the available funds. If more money is needed you get the legislature to give a grant for transportation funding or Increase the Region taxes to cover the necessary expense as desired by the voters.
If they would show how the money is wisely spent. It would make it easier to vote for a gas tax hike. Adding General purpose lanes in any region would cause the voters to see yes if they have more money then they can add road capacity in my area also.
Target the funding to specific projects that help traffic and the people will vote for more taxes. If they don't see a return on the investment or have the money thrown in the general fund for other spending why would the voters increase there tax burden. It is up to the Government to show they are spending the money responsibly. This can include needed road repairs and bridge fixing projects. If a need is shown and spending is responsible I am all for providing more money. But when you hide the spending and move the money around then you can not be trusted. I dont want a dime of gas tax to end up in Mass Transit hands. THere funding must be independent of the gas tax or they will demand 40 to 60% of all gas tax for their use. Then no road work will ever get accomplished.
7. I say start by following suit with the airlines and other companies in America. Can their fat pensions, cut their wages by 25% and lets start laying off the dead-weight.
8. Make the law charging sales tax on state construction projects go away, get rid of the 1% art silliness, stop the duplicative and unendingly expensive EIS's, and drop the prevailing wage requirements. Then, our $0.28 per gallon taxes would go a lot (33% maybe?) further, absolutely negating the need for this goofy new gas tax.
Oh, and vote the bums out, ASAP.
But that's just me.
9. GS you are dreaming.
Cut the Government Dead Weight. Two years ago there was 2 Employees for every Manager. Too many managers and they make up rules and regulations that affect businesses. They interpet the rules so they can hurt businesses.
You could cut on the Federal and State levels nationwide 10 to 20%. Some agencies should just be closed. They have been draining the budget for decades and never fixing the situation. We have spent trillions of dollars in the last 50 years on Inner City Projects. ONly the Government Officials are getting rich. Sure not helping proverty. Same percentage of poor today as there was decades ago. So tell me if those trillions of dollars accomplish anything.
10. Amazing. Supporters say "tax is crucial to State's economy". So why didn't they run on it goddammit?
I have paid for everything in my life so far, and of course I don't mind paying for roads, but I will not pay for:
1. A tax stuffed down my throat at the last possible moment with "emergency" attached to it
2. Bicycle paths. Let's tax bicycles. I'm not paying. Want to cycle, then pay up.
3. Three Seattle trains.
4. More HOV lanes.
5. Studies to find more revenue sources.
6. Never-ending environmental studies and litigation.
7. Transit Centers.
So, get me some smooth road w/o pot-holes and I'll pay.
BTW Anyone seen the new signs "Your Dollars at Work" on I405? They just appeared over the last week or so. Coincidence?
11. Standard fare it may be, but it's well put and well taken. I suggest our legislators start by exempting construction materiel for transportation projects from the State sales tax, something they pointedly declined to do last session. Good to see your pixels again, Timothy. Welcome back.
12. Yeah, a severe lack of imagination AND a severe lack of spending discipline. They could cut $5 billion per year out easily.
13. 5 things need to happen: Read my post "Transportation isn't rocket science" at
http://www.seattlerant.blogspot.com/
14. I keep seeing these yellow loops on the backs and sides of other cars on the freeway, etc. saying "Support out Troops" and "Freedom isn't Free". I interpret that to mean "support our war in Iraq" and "quit bitching about the 10's of thousands of lives lost and $300 BILLION spent on an endless war".
I guess my response to you folks is that good roads and a public transportation system aren't free either. Neither are good Fire Dept's, good Police Dept's, a Public School System, and all the other amenities our gov't provides. But here's the same bunch of folks griping about every nickel they have to pay in taxes to make it happen.
So, I'm proposing yet another bumper sticker: "Support our Economy", and "Good Government isn't Free". It will be purple to represent a cross between thoughtful conservatives and liberals on both sides of this debate. And it will be shaped like a peace sign to represent the really stunning waste of taxpayer dollars in out time, the war in Iraq.
Only $10 a pop, order early, supplies are limited.
15. Unkl Witz,
I'll gladly pay for things that work. Will you?
Dumping more money into schools clearly doesn't work - how much does it take to teach kids to just be able to read? In 10 years? It's clearly not a money problem. Can you point me to a country where they spend more on eduacation and simultaneously produce more illiterates? How much should I pay for education where a great percentage end up practically illiterate? Tell me. Do you have any limit in your mind? Is anything too much?
The gas tax - it just got increased and I don't see better roads. Does it work? I don't think so. And in any case I want to know what I'm paying for. Is that a problem with you? Should I just pay and shut up? How much do you think I should pay for nothing? Is there any limit in your mind?
With Iraq I can at least see some results, but yes, it is expensive.
16. Unkl Witz sez:
"Good Government isn't Free."
We HAD good government in the 20's before the income tax and local, state and federal governments that now demand up to 50% of everyone's income, only because they don't think they can yet get 80%.
17. Unkl Witz:
Tell me what would you rather have happen. Kill terrorists overseas or Have Terrorist kill Americans by the hundreds, Thousands and maybe Millions.
I have watched while I was in the Military at cutback after Cutback after Cutback. Only during the Reagan years did we actually have Good support for our military. Bush 1 was not a very good support our troops kind of guy. He did cutbacks like all the Democratic Presidents. Why is it when Democrats are in power they dismantle the military and weaken it.
Of the 200,000 government jobs that Clinton got rid of during his time in office. Yes he did cut back on Government Jobs. We lost 250,000 military personal. Golly gee that means we added 50,000 more people to the government Payroll.
Back to your tens of thousands of people killed. Where do you get your numbers. We have not killed tens of thousands of civilians. Yet Sadam had killed hundreds of thousands of civilians. Just be invading Iraq we may have saved several thousand lives every month. Sure innocent people are killed when terrorist hide behind civilians and shoot at our troops hoping that we kill some kids to get the IRAQ's mad at us. Who do the terrorist target now. Some US Military but mostly Iraq Government Officials and Civilians. They find that maybe they can scare the IRAQ's to demand our leaving so they can run the country as a terrorist training camp.
Why can you not understand the billions we spend building in IRAQ should provide stability once we kill off all the terrorists. If we have a stable Democratic government that cares for the people then it will advance. Our billions spent in IRAQ do more good than all the billions we spend in Palestine. Alot of which finds it way into SWISS BANK ACCOUNTS. Our foreign should stop for all countries but those we can activily ensure that the money will help the people. 300 is cheap compared to the cost to the economy due to 9-11. We lost trillions there. Millions of jobs lost. If it were not for the tax cut for all AMericans we would be in a depression just ripe for terrorist attacks. WE are strong. We can bring hope but we can save the whole world. WE can only do so much. You can not bribe the world to like us. IT is people like you that causes them to hate us. It is the Liberals in the US that cost thousands of lives to be lost every year due to inaction. We can do positive things but ignoring the issues will not solve the problems people face.
ANd yes the WMD are missing in IRAQ. THe delays in the invasion allowed those weapons to be moved out of the country. THe UN could not stop it. THey could care less. IT is UN peacemakers that help kidnap ISraels to be moved out of ISreal in to Palestine. It is the Red Crescent(Arab Red Cross) used to bring suicide bombers into Isreal. Do you honestly think the UN will prevent any nuclear bomb to be smuggled into the US or other types of WMD.
What say you that Seattle has a nuclear weapon aimed at it right now. Who is doing it, North Korea. We are trying to negotiate but dont hold your breath. YOu have a 50-50 chance of a nuclear weapon landing in Seattle area. I think those are pretty good odds. since North Korea does not care about anything but blackmail. We have provided and still provide them with Hundreds of millions of dollars in AID. Like Free Oil. All due to negotiations conducted by that great AMerican president CARTER. THe same man that brought you Hostages in IRAN. It is going to take Trillions of dollars to fix one nuclear weapon going off in a major US City.
18. To AES:
I only wish you folks would be as circumspect with your tax dollars in Iraq as you are in King County.
Our public school systems works way better than the war. We turn out hundreds of thousands of well educated young adults each year (including my two children). Yet you choose to focus on the very real, but relatively minor problems of illiteracy.
All the while completely ignoring the catastrophy of our foreign relations policies.
And then there are idiots like Ex who want to return to the tax structure of the 20's. Good thought Ex, maybe we could relive the Great Depression too.
19. Sorry David, but your proposition that we are somehow preventing more terrorist attacks in the homeland by invading Iraq is pure hogwash. There is absolutely no evidence of that bit of wishful thinking. Just ask the Brits. If anything, our little adventure in Iraq has created a very fertile breeding ground for future terrorists while crippling out economy for decades to come.
You go on with a series of non-sequiturs that leave me stunned at your lack of any grasp of international politics. I know it feels satisfying to go around saying such nonsense. But it really doesn't add much to the debate.
20. Right, uw, I forgot that the Depression was caused because we were undertaxed. When (I won't call you an idiot) those of your ilk found it was easier to be lazy and demand productive people pay for their idleness and incompetence, taxing became their 'equalizer', since they couldn't compete any other way.
21. Call me whatever you like Ex. But I am neither lazy, nor demanding that productive people pay for my idleness or incompetence. That is merely your straw man you posit to somehow justify your simplistic view of the world and economy. All the while carefully avoiding my point of a mind-numbingly expensive and senseless war in Iraq.
While we're at it Ex, what was the cause of the Great Depression? Liberal tax policy???
22. ROTFLMAO!
Thanks, uw. I appreciate a good laugh before I retire for the night. I need my sleep, because I have to be at the top of my game each day to make so much more money than the day before to pay my outrageous local, state and federal tax rates to support your certified incomptence.
PS...You're right, the Great Depression was caused by our invasion of Iraq, Karl Rove, and Florida 2000.
Stop, I'm laughing too hard.
Good nite, JA.
23. "We turn out hundreds of thousands of well educated young adults each year (including my two children)."
Take well educated out of that sentence and you might have it right. I know of some honors graduates from local high schools who don't even know the difference between "there" and "their" and when to use which in proper sentences...these are HONOR grads. It is a running joke with most recent grads I know; when they make a mistake they say," What can I say, I graduated from public school"
Well educated.. that's funny.
24. Unkl Witz,
You're absolutely right. There's no proof whatsoever that the war in Iraq helps prevent terrorist attacks. Unless you consider Abu Nidal and Abu Abbas, who both killed American civilians, to be terrorists. There's no proof - unless you consider the Palistinian homicide bombers in Israel, to whose families Saddam gave 10 grand a pop, to be terrorists.
You're absolutely right. Iraq is now a fertile breeding ground for terrorists. Unless you consider that the terrorists in Iraq aren't FROM Iraq. And unless you consider the historical context that democracies traditionally aren't terrorist breeding grounds.
And you're absolutely right that our public schools system works out way better than the war. You're only right on this point because I have no idea how to counter such an illogical statement, such a worthless comparison. My SUV works out way better than your underpants. Whatever.
So you're absolutely right on all your points, unless you consider additional more relevant information.
Go ahead, ask the Brits. You'll be surprised at their answer.
"If you are going through hell - keep going."
-- Winston Churchill
25. To back up what others have said in these threads... I too would gladly pay more in taxes to fund a decent transportation system... both in the commute and in a good mass transit system. I would PREFER not to have to drive my car to work, but there is really no realistic option. But I object to just throwing more $$$ into a system which was forced on us dishonestly in the first place, and secondly which has terrible directional signs (how many of us are wandering around on our highway/freeway system trying to find places because of mismarked or unmarked roads)? Logjammed by stop signs on freeway onramps? NO decent mass transit and the ones that ARE planned are so ridiculous they will serve no real purpose? Give us something worth paying for and we'll pay for it. Also there is NO specific plan for this money... just give us the $$$ and we'll come up with a way to spend it. I am glad to have been a small part of gathering the signatures for 912!
26. UW,
Your number on civilians killed in Iraq are pure Hogwash, there were so freaking bad enough those who reported the numbers retracted the report.
Do you in your holier than thou elitist wisdom know where those numbers came from and how they where obtained?
I do.
From the British Medical Journal Lancet.
Here is the methodology used to arrive at those BS numbers. A stringer for Lancet, he couldn't peddle his crap story anywhere else, talked to 95 people in Sadr City. Sadr City saw heavy fighting. He asked these 95 people about how many people they knew where killed by American fire. He just took there word for it no names, dates or follow up. No way of finding if there was duplicates which is very possible since he interviewed in the same neighborhood. The the statistical genius extrapolated that bogus number to cover the entire population of 25 million.
I knew to do better analysis in the fifth grade.
Lancet retracted it's claims.
I get so feed up with moonbat propaganda on civilian deaths in Iraq. The most reliable numbers I have seen is 3500 to 10,000 with the majority of those cause by the foreign terrorists.
Also UW if you're so friggin' stupid and partisan as not see the difference between targeting children and accidently killing children you need some serious help. No country in the history of warfare has spent so much money, nor have their troops done more to avoid civilian causalities.
Further your education if you dare to get real facts, go download the ISG report. Read it and learn something. It contradicts you BS rants about weapons, terrorist and the threat from Saddam.
Before you peddle your moonbat froth around here you better come armed with real facts, not MoveOn.org talking points.
27. If you replace "toll roads, mileage tax" with "alternative energy sources", you have the main argument against drilling in ANWAR. Which, by the way, IMNSHO is a horrible argument against both the gas tax and drilling, respectively.
Come up with a solution. It will get heard.
For the record, I was for the initiative but also believe we need more money for building roads. If the powers that be do a mea culpa on the 'emergency clause' and do a better job of explaining how well the money is being spent (or not and how to fix that part), I could very well vote against the initiative when I get a vote.
28. Unkl-
Forget the off-topic Iraq decoy debate strategy. We are talking taxes.
You have investments. You have monetary accounts. They are audited by independent parties. Audit problems are fixed. Do you read your investment companies' annual reports? Are you concerned about how they handle your investment nest eggs? You probably are. Probably watch them like a hawk, unless you are insanely rich or delegate it to someone else.
All this inititative represents is the people's desire to have taxes effective, efficient and accountable. No emergency bill games. Just be up-front with the taxpayer. To me, it's a backlash against lax attitudes more than just the money part itself.
Why anyone on either side of the aisle would not want to be responsible with the public's trust and fiscal assets is beyond me. Simple trust.