Traffic jams, bad bridges and too few ferries

Tim Eyman’s last hurrah may be Initiative 976, on the ballot this fall for you to decide on reducing “car tabs” – vehicle taxes to $30, period. A yes vote does that, and more, reducing vehicle taxes statewide by $4.2 billion dollars over six years.

This is a caveman proposition, another attempt to drive a stake through the heart of government, ignoring the fact that Washington’s population, now over 7.5 million, grows at over 100,000 people annually in good economic times, as it has steadily grown for decades.

Combined state and local vehicle taxes are among the nation’s highest, about 7%. Vehicle taxes are part of the most regressive state tax system in the country. Reform of Washington’s tax system is needed, but this is not reform – it is slashing and burning. Reducing vehicle taxes to $30 will not buy much road repair, will reduce bridge maintenance and make a mockery of expanding mass transit systems, sinking ferry building and halting trains. Skagit County might as well secede; its citizens will never make it south to Seattle, much less Olympia on car-jammed roads.

Consider your last drive through Seattle or trip on a ferry. Were you stuck in traffic? Did you wish there was one more ferry that would reduce the wait?

The light rail line from Seattle to Everett will be finished in 2036 at current funding levels. 2036! Great. At that point we can take it and go to the museum or out to dinner, but how many reading this will be taking work trips to Seattle 17 years from now? And why isn’t that line planned to Mount Vernon? A five letter word: costs. It’s synonym: taxes. Living in the modern age is taxing.

Putting more money in people’s pockets by reducing taxes is not going to make anyone’s life easier or provide solutions to the problems of living together in increasingly complex times. Our futures are in community, not individualism.

Washington’s Office of Financial Management estimates the initiative would mean a total revenue loss of $4.2 billion over the next six years: $1.9 billion to the state and $2.3 billion to local governments

Clichés are common and trite and true: There is no free lunch. We get what we pay for.

Not paying for roads, bridges, ferries and light rail is a dead end. It gets us stuck in traffic. There is no light at the end of that tunnel.

Voters are casting their ballots for the next 13 days. It is your responsibility to learn about this initiative, pro and con, and make a decision to vote it up or down. The voting pamphlet you received last week from the secretary of state’s office has for and against statements, each written by true believers. Read the arguments and decide which positions us toward a sane, sustainable transportation future.

You decide the value of reducing vehicle taxes to $30 and vote accordingly.

I-1000 addresses affirmative action and remedies discrimination

Voters will decide whether to re-endorse and continue state discrimination against people of color. A yes vote on Initiative 1000 overturns I-200, passed in 1998. I-200 prohibits state and local government from making decisions on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin in public employment, public education and public contracting.

I-1000 will allow the state to remedy documented discrimination or underrepresentation of disadvantaged groups in public education, employment and contracting.

We can enter into the 21st century with this decision or remain mired in a 19th century attitude of fear and blame.