Jason Rantz is being his regular ignorant bullshit spewing self about Sound Transit. I was just going to ignore it, or maybe just make fun of it on Twitter, but, well about half way through, see if you can spot what sets me off.
With no direct voter oversight, the Sound Transit Board of Directors is responsible for spending billions of dollars on transit expansion. That may change thanks to five Democrats teaming up with 24 Republicans in the Senate. Now, transit activists are apoplectic.
I mean ST3 was literally approved by the voters. It was put on the ballot by an elected legislature and governor. The board is made up of elected officials, including King, Pierce and Snohomish countywide elected execs. But when will we let the people have a say?
The lawmakers are pushing legislation that changes the makeup of the board. If passed, the ST board would be directly elected so that board members may face voter consequences for some of their actions (like bilking taxpayers out of car tab fees with an obscenely inaccurate formula). Further, it forces the board to create districts so that King County won’t be over-represented.
Any democratically drawn up district is going to favor the large population centers. King County has more people in ST’s region. There were 829,469 votes on ST3 from King County, 277,141 from Pierce, and 193,114 from Snohomish. If districts have an equal number of voters, there will be more than 60% of King County representatives to just be regular represented. There may be some population variations, but it’s a decent proxy.
Martin H. Duke, a blogger at Seattle Transit Blog, is not happy with these Democrats. In Duke’s world, no Republican supports high-quality transit and Democrats who see a problem with the current ST board structure must not care either.
“This bill is a transparent attempt to override the will of the voters in approving Sound Transit 3 by adding yet more veto points to the process,” Duke wrote.
That’s a great point! If the legislature is willing to give an ST board taxing authority so the region doesn’t have to go back to the legislature hat in hand every time we want to expand transit, that would be a compromise worth looking at. But that’s not the proposal.
He’s wrong. It doesn’t change the results of ST3. ST3 couldn’t be dismantled as a result of this bill. Instead, it’s an attempt to make sure the voters have a say in how their money is spent and that King County transit activists don’t get more money than they should. I am a big supporter of light rail but not happy with how it’s being approached. As a voter, I have no way to impact the decisions of unelected politicians when they waste my money.
Literally 1 of the 18 ST Board members is not elected. That’s the secretary of the Washington State Department of Transportation. You literally had the chance to vote on at least one of those people if you’re paying the taxes. Anyway, enough of this disagreeing about how to organize the ST Board bullshit, let’s call Martin Duke a communist in the jack-offiest way possible and for no reason:
Activists like Duke don’t want the board accountable to the voters because the voters don’t support some of the crazy ideas Duke and his “comrades” support. He speaks for a loud but small group of activists. Understandably, he’s upset that he’s about to lose his unearned power over Sound Transit.
Really, “comrades”? Comrades? I might even have ignored it if it wasn’t in quotes. But there’s no way that’s not wink wink nod nod calling Duke and other activists communists. Fuck off. Oh a person wants a different organizational structure for a subregional government agency and so they’re a communist. You know the scariest part of the Soviet Union is how they handled transportation governance in the Ural Oblast. Comrades? Fucking unbelievable.
One of the Democrats who supported the legislation is State Senator Guy Palumbo of the 1st district. He actually supports accountability where Sound Transit represents the voters, not special interests. I supported his efforts to defeat the disturbingly dishonest incumbent, Luis Moscoso.
The First District goes pretty far into King County. You think he should run on “King County won’t be over-represented” in ST next time he’s in a competitive race?
“I supported the bill because I believe that any government organization that manages $54 billion in tax dollars needs to be directly elected and accountable to the voters,” the Senator told me. “It’s a good governance thing for me, it has nothing to do with dismantling ST3.”
Is there a timeframe for that? Oh, it’s between now and 2041. Oh, and it’s in 2041 dollars, so less than that in today’s money and even less in when the voters voted on it dollars.
Senator Palumbo and his colleagues should be celebrated for breaking the Olympia gridlock. Instead, thanks to the reaction of militant transit activists, he’s getting harassed.
Did someone imply he was a communist?
He received an email where he was called a “bastard” with the sign off “Get cancer.” Shameful.
I mean, that sucks. The cancer thing. Bastard is something I’m guessing every elected official at every level has been called. Oh hey, remember when your colleague Dori Monson got people to harass Senator Kohl-Welles for changing state laws that say “fireman” to “firefighter”? I’m sure you were equally outraged about that, but I’m just having trouble finding it.*
“I understand they disagree about an elected board and reasonable people can disagree on policy,” Senator Palumbo told me. “However to paint it as me being anti-transit, or as wanting to roll back ST3 is patently false. I come from New York where there are real mass transit options, unlike the Seattle area. I am an open advocate for large new investments in infrastructure, far beyond what we have done in the Connecting Washington package and ST3.”
So take away another veto point in exchange. Give them the ability to raise an income tax and as much car tab as they want, and to not have to beg the legislature.
This is a common sense bill. It deserves some changes (Palumbo wants to make the board positions paid and I support that), but bully activists want to kill it. They’ve been getting a free ride on the backs of drivers for too long. Let’s change that and come up with policies that are truly supporting multi-modal transportation.
Oh God! The current proposal is to have the part time non experts not even be paid? Why are you going all out for that? Anyhoo, solid ending.
* Full disclosure: I did not waste my time googling that. I’ve been writing this post for far too long already.
Republican legislators from all across our state thought they had a good deal. In the bloated “transportation package” passed last year, they got huge slabs of tasty, tasty government pork — sorry, highway funds — with which to purchase re-election from their constituencies. In return, they helped pass the regressive taxes in ST3 and put it to a vote. See? They got their guaranteed pork, we got a vote, and if we voted no on ST3, our money would go for their highway projects, not our mass transit.
But then we pesky, pesky voters in Puget Sound *approved* ST3, daring to spend our own tax money to solve our own problems, and the Republicans feel screwed. What happened to their *wink, wink* deal?!? Well, they lost the bet on ST3, but by saddling Sound Transit with yet more “oversight” (read: more chances to elect Republicans to oversee tax money in liberal counties) they can prevent Sound Transit from succeeding in future.
“…purchase re-election from their constituencies.”
Another good reason for term limits.
Another good reason for term limits in the trailer park legislative districts.
ftfy
He received an email where he was called a “bastard” with the sign off “Get cancer.” Shameful.
Probably from a libtard. It’s been documented that libtards say nasty things all the time!
Nasty things like “grab ’em by the pussy”?
‘Cause thats pretty nasty.
Or is it just “locker room talk”?
Senator Palumbo and his colleagues should be celebrated for breaking the Olympia gridlock.
So, the Senate will have Democratic leadership, just as we voters have said for years?
Because any “gridlock” in Olympia had been the result of minority-party control of that chamber.
@3 – OK, let’s give it a try: term limits for ALL Republicans only. When the public sees how good that idea is, we’ll amend the Constitution to have it apply to ALL Democrats, Socialists, Libertarians and all independents, too.
Look, a lot of us who will never use any light rail system are being forced to pay for it with our car tab fees. OK, that’s the way it is, but what many of us object to is the methodology used to determine our cars’ valuation for the fees assessed. If I have a wreck and total my 2017 car that I bought 2 months ago, the value my insurance company will pay is about 70 to 75 percent of the car’s cost. Why does ST say my car is worth 90 or 95 percent of the cost from 2 months ago?
That’s the beef. The assessed value should be more in line with the real market value of the car, not some fairy tale figure. I know they want to pay for the damn system up-front, but be fucking realistic, for Christ’s sake!
8,
so wait. That upsets you more than the thousands in sales taxes, B&O taxes, gasoline taxes, and levy equalization taxes you are paying each year to build covered Middle School football stadiums, fund abstinence education, and pave empty highways in Douglas County?
Its pretty simple….
ST used the same vehicle valuation formula the state had in 1990s(the same valuation formula responsible for the voters saying “fuck you” and reducing the car tab fees back in the day) rather than the states revised valuation formula thats been on the books since 2005. The 2005 formula is far more in line with actual values, rather than the inflated one used in the 1990s.
ST had a choice between the two…they chose the out of date valuation formula for one simple reason: “more money”(their words)
How much $$ is tensor paying in car tab fees and property taxes to support ST3?
Answer: $0
He loves ST, as long as he doesnt have to pay for it.
Typicxl sxattle lxfty.
Chxx chxx!
Look, a lot of us who will never use any light rail system are being forced to pay for it with our car tab fees.
We had to pay for a $250M redundant highway in Spokane before we could even vote on ST3. That was just one of the many pork boondoggles for which Republicans in the legislature held our ST3 vote hostage, thanks to their un-elected control of our state’s senate.
The legislature also dictated to ST what taxes it could use.
So, the car-tab fees were allowed by the legislature, and were known before the ST3 vote. As Carl noted, ST is held to more democratic scrutiny than other programs. Legislators and citizens approved everything about ST3, including the car-tab fees.
Just admit you don’t ever want to pay anything toward ST. It’s a lot simpler, and more importantly, more honest.
How much $$ is tensor paying in car tab fees and property taxes to support ST3?
Answer: $0
How do you know that?
Oh, right — you don’t.
You’re just saying that because you’ve got nothing. Nothing.
The billions of dollars which flow annually from King County’s taxpayers to other counties pay for many things which will never, ever benefit me — including, quite possibly, construction and maintenance of the roads you use.
But spending other people’s tax money for your benefit never gets a peep of protest out of you, now does it?
You lost. Grow up.
12
I am not paying into ST. I am out of the boundary.
13
you dont own a car = no tabs
did your rent suddenly go up with the new property taxes? no?
they call that freeloading.
apples dont look or taste like oranges, do they? nah.
remember how ST1(Sound Move) doubled its original budget while reducing its scope? good times had by all…….
maybe someday you will actually be a grown-up, with, like, responsibilities and stuff!
car share….must be awesome for dates…lolz loooza.
oh…and fish on!
did your rent suddenly go up with the new property taxes? no?
Rent goes up all the time in Seattle, moron. Just because it’s not a line-item (unless the landlord has a political axe to grind) doesn’t mean I’m not paying it.
And you can tell the Republicans in Eastern Washington how much they’re freeloading off of us liberals in King County. After you’ve done that, and demonstrated you know what the word means, then you can expect anyone here to listen.
How much subsidy does your local transportation department get from King County’s taxpayers, via WSDOT? Do you even know?
Nah, your own freeloading is always & forever ok with you.
You lost. Grow up.
I am a King County(among other places) taxpayer…..and I would surmise a whole hell of a lot more taxes than you pay.
Vote for shit, then dont pay…..freeloader…just like you freeload off your friends looking for a ride anywhere outside the city…
“Hey man, can I borrow your truck?”
“No, go fuck off”
“Hey man, can i catch a ride to that group hike on Tiger Mtn?”
“Fuck dude, you ever going to get a car?”
“Hey man, can I get a ride to the music festival at the Gorge?”
“Fuck off asshole, go get your own car, you leaching piece of shit”
And when tensor finally meets that one cool gal, he will get to ride bitch as she has to drive them everywhere….wow, thats a pride-buster, but when you already snipped your nuts and turned in your man-card, I guess there isnt much pride left to bust.
Lolz millenials…..so easy to call them out and get them riled up.
Me? Im DRIVING to idaho this weekend to go snowboarding and snowmobiling. Kinda cool having an active life where you arent trapped in the city
Does ST make it up to Crystal Mtn?
Bam! Out!
Man, even YLShx has a car…..
I can only imagine how much Carl hates my pickup.
18
Ya, well at least it comes equiped with a set blueprints.
;p
@18 I don’t think the truck would even start if there wasn’t a roll of drawings behind the seat.
LOL @ 17 The 40-grit hands work the unit – again.
Car sits in the garage 5 days out of 7 most weeks… Once broached the thought of just ditching the thing and substituting car2go, reachnow, renting for weekenders, etc..
Wife acceptance factor wasn’t good. Oh well.. Insurance, gas, car tabs, etc. aren’t killing us. Again bought it new in 2003 and still we don’t have 60k miles on the thing. January tabs went up less than 50 bucks.
Average price of a new car is almost 34k? Who needs that shit?
Average price of a new car is almost 34k?
Well for one, that digital screen with the kool multiplayer and GPS are great. The improved gas mileage with new technology. The new car smell is excellent. The new radio technology is wonderful. Depends on the model and make. Some are worth the 34K. Others are useless war junk.
Well worth it!
@18,
I don’t care at all what you drive. Just don’t drive it like a maniac. Sorry if you made a several thousand dollar purchase just to annoy me. Better luck next time.
“Sorry if you made a several thousand dollar purchase just to annoy me. Better luck next time.”
Stuff it up your ass, Carl. Not my truck. Your bullshit attitude.
One friend who lived a half block off MLK on Raymond paid taxes on your light rail for years but didn’t live long enough to see a station at Graham so he could actually use the damned thing. Another friend is paying for it but lives a block east of Rainier on Lucile so he’ll never get to use what he’s been paying for either.
So fuck you and your fucking light rail.
@24:
It sounds like you drive angry. Is it possible that maybe you confused people giving you the finger because you’re bad at driving with people giving you the finger because you drive a fairly common vehicle, and somehow extrapolated it to me?
It sucks about your friend who lives near Graham. I also supported the Graham Street Station, and would like it added in the future. That said, it’s not a bad walk to either Othello or Columbia City from there.
“It sounds like you drive angry. Is it possible that maybe you confused people giving you the finger because you’re bad at driving with people giving you the finger because you drive a fairly common vehicle”
No, I don’t drive angry. And no, I don’t get finger no matter if I’m driving a pickup, Jaguar, Porsche or any other vehicle I’ve owned. You may find it hard to believe, but there’s such a thing as courteous drivers. But somehow it’s easy to imagine an arrogant, ignorant bitch like you getting fingered every day of your fucking life.
“That said, it’s not a bad walk to either Othello or Columbia City from there.”
Don’t you know your city or your beloved rail system? There is no station in Columbia City, Carl. Columbia City is on Rainier Fucking Avenue, you dolt. And you might consider that not everyone is capable of walking a mile. Neither of the people I mentioned could do that. What do you do, Carl, flip the bird at my surviving, ailing friend as he who pays for your rail system which doesn’t serve him drives to his weekly doctor’s appointment?
Make the choo choo riders pay $10 each trip.
Watch carl and tensor scream in agony…
26:
(a) You might want to tone down the sexism a bit.
(b) You’ve never been a courteous anything.
(c) I find it difficult to believe that you’ve ever owned a luxury car. Do you mean you stole a jaguar from the zoo? You don’t have to capitalize that.
(d) I find it even more difficulty to believe you’ve ever had a friend.
(e) I was obviously referring to the station names. Try to keep up.
(f) “I don’t get finger”?