Sound Politics: Strippers, Streets & Buses

November 07, 2006

Strippers, Streets & Buses

We'll track a total of three Seattle and King County ballot measures in this thread tonight. Brief overviews, with updated election returns, are below. UPDATE, 8:25 a.m., Nov. 8: Voters resoundingly want Seattle strippers closer to patrons, under dimmer lights; the city's effort to raise property taxes for street repairs is a winner; as is a small sales tax hike for more King County Metro bus service. Morning-after numbers below.

OVERVIEW: Seattle Proposition 1 is a nine-year property tax levy lid lift adding $0.36 per $1K assessed valuation, to raise $365 million for street repairs and a host of other transportation infrastructure needs. Text here; Seattle Times backgrounder here.

Sea. Prop. 1 results: Morning-after count: 53.99% (52.4K votes) Yes, 46.01% (44.7K votes) No.

OVERVIEW: Seattle Referendum 1 would uphold existing city law mandating a four-foot separation between strippers and patrons in Seattle strip clubs, and mandating other strip club regulations, i.e. bright lighting, no tipping and city inspections while shows are in progress. Seattle Post-Intelligencer backgrounder here; text here. Strip club owners, naturally, object. Lawyer Gil Levy explains their viewpoint. Ref. 1 supporter Tim Burgess, a former Seattle police detective, and former head of the city's ethics and elections commission, argues the current regs are justified by corruption concerns, not nanny-ism.

Sea. Ref. 1 results: This one's effectively done. And Seattle is once again.....Lap Dance City. Morning-after count: 64.04.5% (62.7K votes) No, 35.9 % (35.2K votes) Yes.

OVERVIEW: King County Proposition 2 would raise the sales tax one-tenth of one percent to expand the county's metro bus and vanpool services, and provide additional funds for the maintenance and operations of facilities such as transit stations and park-and-ride commuter lots. Text here; Seattle Times backgrounder here.

KingCo Prop. 2 results/analysis: The "ayes" have it. Morning-after count: 56.03% (155.4K votes) Yes, 43.97% (121.9K votes) No.

Seattle Election Results link.

King County Propositions election results link.

Posted by Matt Rosenberg at November 07, 2006 11:26 PM | Email This

Comments

1. Matt,

"Sea. Ref. 1 results: So far, support for keeping the tight rules on strippers that Ref. 1 seeks to repeal. 56.1% (18.5K voters) No, 43.8 % (14.4K voters) Yes."

Um, you have it backwards. Referendum 1 asked if we should keep the regulations on strip clubs, not if we should get rid of them.

Posted by: Chad Johnson on November 7, 2006 09:57 PM

2. Yeah, the referendum on strip clubs is the opposite as described, thank God. The repeal of the 4-foot rule and the possible reelection of Reichert are the only bright spots on an otherwise awful night. The staggering dimwittedness of Seattle/King County voters continues to astound me.

Posted by: Charge on November 7, 2006 10:02 PM

3. Thanks Chad, Charge. Fixed it.

Posted by: Matt R. on November 7, 2006 10:06 PM

4. Bad night for the country, but good night for Seattle strip club patrons. That's what I call looking at the glass as half-full!

Posted by: JW on November 7, 2006 11:28 PM

5. At least Seattle had enough sense to reject that nanny-state nonsense strip club rules.

So now, they will have higher property taxes to pay for roads, higher sales taxes, and soon higher energy bills thanks to I-937 passing. This is all before the RTID is up for a vote which will boost it even higher. It's no wonder families have fled Seattle.

Posted by: Palouse on November 8, 2006 08:31 AM