If you’re like me, you probably like the King County Parks System. Growing up in the suburbs, I loved Marymoor Park. I played many a youth soccer game there, and tasted victory and sometimes bitter defeat… If only after defeats in life everyone got to go out for ice cream at the Dairy Queen.
But parks cost money. Tax money. We have to fix them up and add more of them. We’ve got trails that don’t connect- let’s connect them! People are moving to King County, and if we don’t add to our parks system, people will be forced to hunt Knute Berger for sport and leisure. No one wants to see this happen. No one.
So show up at today’s “I (Heart) Parks” Levy Fundraiser:
Monday, May 14th, 2007
5pm – 7pm
King Street Bar & Oven in Pioneer Square
170 S. King St Seattle
Um, Will, I’ve known some “Daily Queens”. . .but I generally go to Dairy Queen for my ice cream.
Fixed…
No, we went to Daily Queen. Drag queens who dip ice cream. Those ladies/gentlemen have to make a living.
YOU GOT SOMETHING AGAINST SEQUINED SUNDAES, HONEY????
Why do they put all the stuff like parks, schools, and fire statoins up for levy vote?
How about putting things up that are less popular? Like the money the council members get to shell out to their favorite charities every year with their name attached? How about their parking spots? How about the office furntiture and office space? Maybe the SUVs you see with Sound Transit logos.
4
How about we put up for vote the important things like going to war, lifting restrictions on stem cell research, and reauthorization of the Patriot Act? Then, maybe you rightwing cave dwellers would have to confront how out-of-the-mainstream you are. Of course, facts have never intruded upon your delusions and it’s unlikely to expect they ever will.
5 The principal of our children’s elementary school had a bumper sticker on her car that said, “Won’t it be great when education is fully funded, and the Air Force has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber?”
6
There’s a sad irony in rightwingers complaining about the cost of furniture for local politicians but turning a blind eye to the billions the Bush Administration throws at Iraq every week.
Mr.(?) Drool:
I haven’t seen any public money going to private charities with council member’s names attached. Of course, I don’t live in Seattle, so I don’t watch that very closely, but when I have looked, the only money I’ve seen going in that direction has been the rather small budget for public art and some charities that perform civic functions for a negotiated fee.
Please bring up examples of public money going to council members’ favorite charities, and we can debate that.
As to the rest, it should be obvious. Parks and fire stations will get public support, while if the public got to vote on office furniture and supplies, we’d have civil servants making desks out of cinder blocks and scrap lumber, and most of our fleet of public vehicles would consist of 1974 AMC Matadors.
While some folks might like that idea, it isn’t practical.
Does this get abused? Of course it does. Some bureaucrats are better at “gaming the system” than others. so some offices get new furniture and computer systems every other year, while other offices are using surplus salvage furniture and working on 486 computers running Windows 95.
Just so that you don’t think that it’s just city government that has that problem, back when I was in the Navy, most of my department’s office furniture came from the DOD salvage unit. The Air Force threw away furniture that was in such good shape, I couldn’t see spending my budget buying furniture. (I was hoping to shift some money over to replace some obsolete computers.)
Of course, they refused the request, and the following year they cut my budget, as I hadn’t spent every dime of it.
Hunting Knute Berger…for sport and leisure.
I dunno Will – that phrase alone would make for a GREAT local blog title. ;-)
Why should retired rabbits living on non-inflation-adjusted pensions pay higher taxes to build more parks for people who don’t live here yet? Why shouldn’t the newcomers pay for the new parks we need for the newcomers? If they can afford the housing here, they can afford the park taxes.
I tired of people prying my mouth open, sticking their fingers down my throat, and digging the food out of my stomach to pay for things I don’t need, don’t want, won’t use, and can’t afford so the people who need, want, will use, and can afford them won’t have to pay for them.
I’ve been paying taxes for Green Lake Park for 40 years. I shouldn’t have to pay taxes for parks in Redmond, Bellevue, Issaquah, and Woodinville too.
But, aside from the taxes, I like parks. I especially like the grassy parts of them.
12 You’re unusual, Roger. It seems an awful lot of your bretheren appear to prefer hopping around the North Creek industrial megaplex in Bothell. They seem especially adept at dodging Hyundais.
Hi, Roger
You’re talking about impact fees, and this is one place that even my rather rightward-leaning trade association (Washington Association of Realtors) breaks its lockstep with BIAW.
We’re in favor of reasonable impact fees, figuring that current residents (and current homes) have already paid for the existing infrastructure, BIAW wants to do away with them completely, calling them “onerous and unfair.”
It becomes a rather odd juggling act, trying to determine what should be paid for through impact fees and what should be paid for through tax levies. The whole situation is made worse by the fact that local governments tend to raid park and recreation funds to pay for other services, then ask for more park and recreation money.
Eventually, it becomes impossible to figure out exactly where the money is coming from or going to.
John Barelli – it has been a long time practice by the King County Council that each member gets to earmark a percentage of the fund that goes to local charities. Check out page 27 of the King County budget. The practice has also been that names are not attached. As I recall, the practice has changed. But as you can see, a lot of our tax dollars go to local charities.
Gee, Roger, an awful lot of your relatives seem to have moved into the Tukwila business park area. They particulalrly like the “condos” set into the low banks along the seldom used rail right-of-ways.
Now THIS is going to be fun…
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18661066/
PLEASE run Newt – PLEASE. The first four questions the press should ask Newt The Hoot when he announces…
1) Did you feel bad about having an affair with your intern while your wife was laying in a hospital bed fighting cancer?
2) Did you feel like a hypocrite for trying to impeach President Clinton for having an affair with an intern while you yourself were having an affair with an intern
3) Have you had any recent affairs we should know about?
4) Do you think the fact that your own party censured you for ethics violations while you were in Congress should impact what voters think of your ethics or lack thereof?
and a bonus question
5) Is the Publican party really so bad off that you’re the best they have to offer?
For what it’s worth, I’m not necessarily a park person. Up the street there was a ramshackle overgrown orchard that was just fine with me. A great place for kids . . . so the community got the City to grant them money and now it is still called the orchard sans trees, tall grass and any character at all. It looks barren and preppy. And I never see anybody there. But several empty park benches.
I do like parks. But, isn’t there even one item that a community can help provide with elbow grease and time along with some bake sales?
BTW, at my school, we were just told that bake sales aren’t legal during school hours. So, the kids (classrooms) that used to hold them for charitable reasons or to earn money for a project or field trip may no longer do so. (of course, this is Seattle . . . )
What a backward mixed-up society we have become.
@13 Not as adept as you think, which is why I’m still here and they ain’t. A lot of fucking can create the illusion of a lot of a long rabbit life; but if you look closely, you’ll notice all the Bothell rabbits are youngsters.
@14 “local governments tend to raid park and recreation funds to pay for other services”
This pernicious game is older than Rome. However, in fairness to local governments, they have numerous unfunded mandates heaped on them by higher level governments (e.g., lidding water reservoirs), even as they’ve had their revenue taken away from them ($30 car tabs). So, what else can they do?
@16 As official spokesperson for rabbits, I wish to reiterate that, like all creatures living in their natural state, we seek to fill every available niche within the ecosystem in hopes of sometime being the dominant species.*
* We’re already the superior species (or, at least, we’re smarter than the stupid humans paying $3.50 for gas), so we’re only one small step away from becoming the dominant species. All we have to do is wait for humankind to blow itself up.
#5 Leftist,
Before you start calling me names I support stem cell research using real live embryos that are sitting around waiting to be adopted (yeah right…more like tossed), I am against the patriot act. Who can trust a government that does things like rendering people and having secret prisons? What kills me is people want to GIVE UP their rights under the Constitution with the belief these clowns are looking out for our best interests.
As far as the war, Congress punted to the president like the wimps they are. THEY are supposed to declare war….not the President. This is typical of their behavior like when caving to their reckless spending habits to stay in office.
#6 Artfart,
How about a bake sale before an Iraqi invasion? Up front funding instead of 400 billion or whatever in hock!!!
You could have people enlist there to for the specific project. Go to a recruiter to fight the real enemy (Islamic nutjobs), but this line at the sale for knocking off Saddam for no good reason. Maybe Ann Coulter and Michelle Malkin could sell kisses or flash their tits to entice young wingnuts to sign up.
I would like to address an alternative to taxing people for parks. Its called taxing real estate developers; whom we’ve established are below people. Essentially you charge park impact fees of around $1 per foot of development. the money is then ear marked for parks. Incidentally, did I mention that most cities in King County actually have them but Seattle doesn’t? Oh and did I mention Nickels proposed and then retracted a development impact fees ordinance? Hmmmmm….. its almost as if Nickels represents developers.