...the King County Council. Their huge game of "let's raise taxes" has Danny Westneat flummoxed at the "taxapalooza" - and it's safe to say Westneat is more sympathetic to tax increases than the average Sound Politics reader.
Posted by Eric Earling at November 14, 2007 07:26 PM | Email ThisThe other taxes are also unnecessary & a slapdown of the voters. Talk about skewed priorities! I guess those council members are hoping the voters will forget by the next election.
Ron "Tax to the Max" Sims has to go; we can't afford him or the rest of the council members anymore.
Posted by: Clean House on November 14, 2007 07:58 PMThe whole governmental and press structure in King County is like a mad automaton that is set to automatice, like Nomad in the Old Star Trek. Originally it was designed to research and find life, but it's programming got scrambled when it crashed with an alien ship and turned it into a one-robot Columbine whose mission was to "protect the creator" by zapping everyone.
Maybe way back when, the Government of Washington, King County and Seattle were one with the people and shared and enacted their ideas. But now it is a disenfranchised bureaucracy that operates sole for its own existance! Thank goodness that SoundPolitics is here to Whack-The-Moles.
Posted by: John Bailo on November 14, 2007 08:16 PMWhat's the irony they do this w/in 24 hrs of the simple majority vote for school levies?
Ferries should be funded only by ferry fares. People who do not use ferries should not have to pay for them. Taxing property owners for ferries is absurd. This is a special interest subsidy to people who live or vacation on the islands, and this demographic is mostly not poor. I'll bet the anti-growth folks on the islands would also like to see ferry fares increase! It could reduce interest in building houses there. Oh, well.
Flood control should be paid for only by affected properties, NOT those at the tops of hills. This is subsidizing building housing where housing probably should not be. It should be more expensive to build in flood planes, and the houses that are built there should fund all of the measures designed to protect them from flooding. When you subsidize something, you tend to get more of it, so this measure will increase the amount of property damage and perhaps loss of life that may happen during floods. It is stupid. This is a special interest subsidy to those who live near the water.
The substance abuse and mental health sales tax increase will reduce retail sales, and hurt entrepreneurs, consumers and employment. It will hurt the poor more than it helps those of the poor with substance abuse or mental health issues. This is a special interest subsidy to four groups:
1) The poor who have mental illness
2) The poor who are substance abusers
3) Mental health bureaucrats
4) State Unions
Mental health care and substance abuse counseling providers spend most of their time filling out forms in order to get funding from the state, not actually helping poor people. They want job security, and their private agencies would be much better off increasing their reliance on private donations because these have fewer strings attached. Right now they get less than 5% of their funding this way, and their organizations don't even do much active fundraising. Reducing their reliance on government funding could evntually reduce bureaucracy and increase the proportion of their time actually spent helping people. But about 75% of what the state is paying them to do right now is to fill out paperwork.
The Unions actually threatened to oppose this tax increase for the poor unless the service agencies that recieved the increased funding were required to sign deals with the union to require union membership of employees or get them to sign agreements with the unions. This was a really ugly power grab, that the liberals would argue could have come at the expense of the poor. This shows the unions bald-faced play for power, and lack of concern for the poor. Thugs. Unions are the very worst kinds of special interest groups.
Special interests have taken over local goverenments, and corrupted our officials. It is time to move out of King County. It is time for Atlas to Shrug.
Posted by: Bruce Guthrie on November 14, 2007 08:54 PMThey were mad because we kissed their 158 billion goodbye, so now they will take it at a boil the frog slowly speed.
Oh and 12, King Klownty is not the center of the universe...
Posted by: gs on November 15, 2007 05:24 AMProve it. What sales and property taxes are going to be build eastside roads?
And before you start with the gas taxes you pay, you have roads on the island too, and I'm pretty sure most island residents leave the island at some point and use the roads that everyone else uses too.
This property tax for passenger ferries is the biggest waste of tax money for the benefit of a tiny few. It taxes everyone to subsidize a miniscule percent of commuters so they can get a direct route to their required destination, instead of using the already subsidized state ferries. The cost per commuter of this program will probably blow away what we pay to subsidize those Sounder commuters.
For the levies tax, Jane Hague had the only reasonable solution. She wanted a smaller tax for all county taxpayers, and a higher tax for those in the flood plains. If you CHOOSE to live in a flood plain, you should pay the lions' share for the necessary infrastructure instead of making others subsidize your decision. Same with living on islands.
Posted by: Palouse on November 15, 2007 08:52 AMBoy, I can't imagine what a *democrat* would have done....
Could someone decent run against her, *please*!
Posted by: bfr on November 15, 2007 09:39 AM
Ever hear of the King County Dept. of Transportation?
Look, it's part of the county's responsibility to increase transportation access for its residents. Vashon is part of King County and thus are fairly included in this.
This isn't the equivalent of a magic road that goes from some random suburb right to downtown, this is utilization of existing (and free) transportation infrastructure (our waterways).
What you and others need to do is quite with your archaic mindset that water is a barrier to transportation and that those who live across water should be stuck with no or little access. You'd think that if anyone understood the opportunities that exist in our waterways it would be a Washingtonian, but apparently there's still room for closed-mindedness.
Posted by: Greg on November 16, 2007 08:04 AMEver hear of the King County Dept. of Transportation?
Look, it's part of the county's responsibility to increase transportation access for its residents. Vashon is part of King County and thus are fairly included in this.
This isn't the equivalent of a magic road that goes from some random suburb right to downtown, this is utilization of existing (and free) transportation infrastructure (our waterways).
What you and others need to do is quite with your archaic mindset that water is a barrier to transportation and that those who live across water should be stuck with no or little access. You'd think that if anyone understood the opportunities that exist in our waterways it would be a Washingtonian, but apparently there's still room for closed-mindedness.
Posted by: Greg on November 16, 2007 08:04 AMI don't think it fair they can change their minds. Either it is or it isn't, and in this case, it wasn't.
Posted by: swatter on November 16, 2007 09:11 AMOf course, same for highways - if you chose to live on the eastside and work in Seattle, or vice-versa - pay totally for your bridge. Why should I subsidize your choice?
Same goes for 405, 167, etc. etc. "Free"ways are overused. Charge for use and congestion will be reduced.
Posted by: BA on November 16, 2007 12:42 PMAllan--You can't have your cake and eat it too. You either pay into the system and everyone benefits or we balkanize transportation to the point where every road you drive on is tolled. Roads alone are not and cannot be the answer.
Posted by: Greg on November 16, 2007 02:46 PM