Publicola is reporting on the Senate Transportation Committee complaining about the Highway 99 Tunnel. As someone who will be complaining about the 99 Tunnel for years to come, and who is pro oversight generally, that’s fine. But Curtis King (R-Yakima) is a jerk.
That pissed King off even more: “I’ll make one more comment, and then I’ll shut up. So, the city of Seattle is concerned about diversion because they’re the ones that are going to be affected. [But] we should be concentrating on the cost of our portion of this project [the state promised $2.6 billion for the tunnel as a whole]. And if they want the tolls so low that it only generates $165 million, then they can help us replace the additional monies that we’re losing because we don’t have the toll revenues that we had origianlly [sic] projected.”
No. First off ignore that the chair of the Transportation Committee seems to not understand the problem with tolling right after it was explained to him, or we’re never going to get anywhere with this post. Focus instead on the fact that it’s a state highway. We in King County don’t ask Senator King (R-Jerk)’s constituents for our money back for social services or education that we give his constituents. We don’t ask for the tally of all these things as we make policy because it would make us look like jackasses.
No. King County gets 62 cents back from the state for every dollar spent. Yakima County gets $2.24.* The state could literally take all the money it spends in King County, match it 2 to 1 and just make a massive bonfire of 1 dollar bills and we would be considerably less profligate spenders than Curtis King (R-Jackass)’s constituents.** I mean what kind of fucker looks at that math and demands the 62 cents people pay more?
No. Senator King (R-Fucker)’s constituents are a disproportionate share of the state’s people in need of social services. And King County happily, happily, happily pays for the social services that the state provides. We want to do it, because we care about our state. We believe that they’re our neighbors and but for the grace of God go us, etc.
Further, Seattle and most King County school districts are able to pay for our levies. Hell, Seattle made up a work around when we hit the artificial limit imposed by the state. But even though Yakima can’t be relied on to pass its levies, we’ll still willingly spend money on educating Yakima children. We recognize that the state’s interests are tied up together. East and West we should all be educated.
Sometimes Seattle needs money from the state. When that happens, state legislators shouldn’t try to complain about the way the money flows. It makes them look like goat fuckers.
All that said, I recognize that there are plenty of people of good will in Senator King (R-Goat Fucker)’s district and in every district throughout the state. People who realize that we’re all in it together in the state. I just wish he didn’t feel the need to pander to his constituents by bashing Seattle.
* Whoever wrote the Publicola piece makes the same point, but with different numbers. I think it’s more current, but it has at least one typo, so I’m sticking with Goldy’s.
** Ignore who pays for it; If you have to make the math work in this example, we’re deficit spending, so no new money from anywhere.
It’s an even more direct comparison than that. On a per-capita basis, the state spends far more on roads in Yakima County than in Seattle, because it’s so much more sparsely populated, even factoring in that there more state roads here.
Well, the demographics in E. Washington are not in favor of folks like King; I would think Yakima County has to be close to flipping to a white-minority status, and that certainly won’t help Republicans.
I will give you one statistic that will prove you wrong, kb:
Supreme Court position no. 8, 2012 Primary
Yakima County
Bruce O. Danielson 16,380
Steve Gonzalez 9,085
“…I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very (money) that (King County) provide(s),then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather that you just say ‘thank you’, and went on your way….”
Jack Nicholson as Col. Jessep in “A Few Good Men”, (changes marked in parentheses).
This is HorsesAss at its finest — calling horseshit what it is. But I predict a million such posts will never stop the eastside freeloaders from bleating about how they “subsidize” Seattle … that evil liberal town with the Lenin statue in Fremont. (Which, btw, was put there by a free-enterprising private entrepreneur with a sense of irony and humor — a human trait the bleaters do not have — not public funds.) This is, of course, all about the liberalness and godlessness of Seattle, and the gayness of parts of it, with no small amount of materialistic jealousy thrown in. All of which makes the actual facts about who actually pays the actual taxes, and who subsidizes whom, in this state completely irrelevant. Which is why you can’t reason with these people. And this is probably where you missed the boat, Carl. It isn’t about tolls at all. What’s really in the bleater’s mind, even if he won’t say so, is what is the point of building a $2.4 billion tunnel in a Gomorrah slated for divine destruction? Won’t the tunnel become a useless and empty construction after the Almighty visits his just wrath upon this den of liberal iniquity? All that money goes down the drain the moment the Rapture lifts up the righteous and leaves the rest of us down here below to be consumed by the fires of holy retribution. This guy knows a bad investment when he sees one; and he’s merely being a prudent steward of the public fisc. I can empthasize. Roger Rabbit wouldn’t put money in the stock of a company he knows is bankrupt and bound to go under any day now. I’m just waiting around for you humans to either self-destruct, or become subject to a product recall by your maker, so that we rabbits can reclaim this turf and fill your niche. Like Senator Jerk, we don’t need no damn tunnel. The money would be better spent on building more parks filled with lush green grass, and thrown in a few P-Patches filled with lettuce, carrots, and other yummy vegetables while you’re at it.
@1 And what does that say about the rest of eastern Washington, which is much less densely populated than the Yakima Valley? It’s laughable that some of those people over there want to secede from Washington and form their own state! We ought to tell them, “Yeah, go right ahead, we’ll help you!” That’d scare the shit out of them, or at least it ought to.
# 5: You are right, the right-wing in this country has been selling a load of lies which they keep repeating over and over again, despite all evidence to the contrary. Reminds me of Himmler’s statement that if you keep repeating a big enough lie, people will believe it.
Among them…
* private businesses can alwasy do anything more efficiently that government.
* Democrats start wars, Republicans end them.
* lowering taxes creates a boom of economic activity which actually increases tax revenues (the Laffler curve).
* the rich are the job creators.
* Democrats run up budget deficits, Republicans cut them.
* government workers are lazy and unproductive.
* union workers are lazy and unproductive.
* Seattle is subsidized by the rest of the state.
and so forth. Every time one of these lies appears, we need to squash it like a bug.
Any of you guys ever go to Eastern WA? The wine areas are nice.
“* private businesses can alwasy do anything more efficiently that government.”
Not when it comes to intervening in other countries’ affairs it ain’t: the government is much more effective in that regard!
Got it: Rich people in Seattle to poor people in Yakima: “Shut up. We pay the taxes. Don’t question how we spend money or we might stop paying.” And this is a Democratic Party blog??? Sounds oh so Republican to me.
@8 I hope you like that socialist wine made from grapes that are grown with subsidized water and power from government-owned dams.
@9 Government isn’t designed to be more efficient than private business. It’s designed to do things businesses can’t. For example, deliver mail in rural areas where the mailboxes are a mile apart, which can’t possibly be made profitable by anyone. When the Pentagon fights a war, the object is to win the war, not be cost-effective. If accountants ran wars, our troops would be equipped with spears and given a voucher to buy food in native bazaars.
While we’re on that subject, the Soviet-Afghan War of the 1980s gives us a pretty good picture of what a cost-conscious war looks like. The Soviets were cheap because they had to be; their economy couldn’t support $100 cases of Coke. In some cases, their troops deployed to Afghanistan weren’t fed by their own government. So what did their soldiers do to feed themselves? A variety of things, which included selling weapons to the enemy to get money to buy food in local bazaars, and stealing from local civilians (sometimes killing the civilians in the process). The enlisted men made their own booze; every Russian garrison of any size had a still. And, of course, they smoked lots of hash which they bought from — you guessed it — the enemy.
There was so goddamned much fraternal trade going on between the invaders and the invaded that you wonder when they found any time to kill each other.
Government, in general, isn’t supposed to be efficient in the way that a business has to be. In our country, government is given tasks that business can’t or won’t do, or tasks that involve exercise of governmental powers that we don’t want to entrust to private entities that we can’t control through the ballot box. For example, I don’t want federal meat inspection privatized, which is what George W. Bush tried to do — he wanted to give taxpayer money to meatpackers to run their own inspection programs. Is any explanation needed of why that was a bad idea and wouldn’t work?
We ask government to do things that are important to us, and we pay taxes for these functions precisely because they are important to us and because business can’t, won’t, or shouldn’t do them.
Government isn’t business, and business isn’t government. That’s why business degrees are different from public administration degrees.
@10 I’m pretty sure we’ll continue to send them our money, and won’t send the National Guard over there to shut them up, even though some of us might like to.
Nearly one in seven of Yakima County’s residents lives on the Yakama Indian Reservation. That reservation is 36% of the total area of the county. (That stuff from Wiki.)
27% of those under 18 in that county live below the poverty line. (Same source)
Yakima County’s median income per household is $34,800, and King County’s (2009) is about double that at $67,800.
It’s very common on this site for people to bitch about how King County gives and eastern Washington takes, taxwise, and it’s these same people who, separately, advocate for the monetary transfers to those in need, who seem to live disproportionately on the other side.
Really, if you’re going to advocate for helping those in need, stop using that help as a means of bashing them when their perspective ends up differing from your own here and there.
Consider the possibility that people in dire need of money on the other side of the mountains may be raising concern about the cost of a tunnel because their own financial issues are far more burdensome than ours.
@13 – Your National Guard comment cracked me up. Thanks – needed a laugh today!
RR @ # 12: “…If accountants ran wars, our troops would be equipped with spears and given a voucher to buy food in native bazaars. …”
Reminds me a bit of the Japanese in WWII. They quickly ran out of money and the ability to delivery logistics support to their men. So most Imperial Army garrisons were required to provision themselves from “local sources” – without even bothering to get vouchers. The headquarters guys envisioned Japanese troops requiring local civilians to hand over a portion of their food supply as a tax to pay their invaders. But the realities were quite different.
In China, the only way to get at food supplies was to wait for the rice harvest and then conduct an offensive to seize the harvets. That worked early in the war, but by 1942 civilians were adept at getting their harvests out of harm’s way, and the lines stagnated as Japanese efforts were drained off elsewhere. The troops either traded with the Chinese or starved.
In New Guinea, the protracted combat in hostile jungles over mountain passes brought the realization that there was no food supply available – an army can’t live off a jungle. There were reports of cannibalism, and Australian troops learned to carry out their dead quickly.
At Guadalcanal, the island earned the nickname “Starvation Island”. The Japanese commander asked for logistics support to feed his troops, but was dismayed when he learned that he was instead getting more troops to counter the American offensive – more troops which he couldn’t feed or re-supply.
At thousands of islands and villages across the western Pacific where the IJA had garrisons, any hopes of civilian cooperation were dashed by Japanese making raids on villager’s meagre food supplies, killing any who objected and leaving the civilians to starve.
@Roger: You are on fire today, my friend. Especially @12.
I’ll have to read @ 12 when I’m not distracted by work and other day stuff. I agreed with RR’s first two sentences. That can’t be right.
@2
Yakima County: 88.6% white
King County: 71.9% white
Washington State: 82% white
http://quickfacts.census.gov/q.....53077.html
http://quickfacts.census.gov/q.....53033.html
@14
The problem isn’t people in need. The problem is politico’s who have their hand out while bashing the very people that are paying for their stuff.
There is a very good logical reason for Curtis King (R-Jackass)’s bleating, not that I’m accusing Senator King (R-Jerk) of using logic.
If by hook or by crook Senator King (R-Goat Fucker) can convince his colleagues that Seattle should pay more that leaves more in the pot for him to funnel in disproportional amounts back to his constituents.
That letter “R” should inform anybody that honest and ethical arguments are not going to be used to achieve a desired end state.
They should be. We subsidize them.
@ 19
Persons of Hispanic or Latino Origin, percent, 2011 (b) 45.8%
White persons not Hispanic, percent, 2011 46.9%
This is my opportunity to learn a lot about stuff like this. One-seventh of the population of that county lives on the reservation although only about 4-5% are American Indian. Who are the others?
Is Hispanic a subset of ‘white’ according to census classification?
Is Hispanic a subset of ‘white’ according to census classification?
No, they are completely independent. The US census allows a person to identify as “Hispanic” AND any other ethnicity. That’s why the census figures seem not to agree.
The Republicans in the state Senate must be having fun: the voters rejected their request for control, so they are going to spend these sessions gleefully flipping the bird to those same voters.. Plus they get to bitch, whine, piss, and moan about said voters, and projects which benefit said voters, without having to do anything constructive. It’s like they never outgrew their sophomoric adolescent stage. Screw them all.
@14 So you’re saying we’re not supposed to mention that those eastern Washington ingrates are ungrateful for our subsidy money? We’re supposed to let them whine and bleat away, and say nothing in response? Fuck that. If they can whine, so can we! I don’t see why Republicans should have a monopoly on whining. Instead of keeping everything to themselves, they should learn to share.
@15 You’re welcome. =:-D<
@21 People like him bash Seattle because they enjoy it. No other reason is needed. Although it does play well to all the similar kneejerks over there, so it doesn’t hurt at the ballot box.
@23 If you’re curious about who a Native American is, under federal law that’s for tribes to determine, and under tribal law it’s whoever the tribe says is. So if somebody is 1/16th Native American and 3/8ths Czech and 9/16ths Polish, if that’s good enough for the Yakama tribal authorities it’s also good enough for you; and nobody has given you authority to second-guess their determination. In fact, federal law gives them legal protection from your second-guessing. You can, of course, bloviate all you want to; under the First Amendment, that’s allowed.
@24 Nothing the Republican Senate fake majority passes is going anywhere, and everyone knows that. No problem. Their idea of a good time is making sure government can’t function, so they’ll quite happily settle for Democrats not being able to pass anything either.
@1 through 29….just hold up a moment fellas. we dry siders provide all the money so you liberal wet-siders can hand out cash and food stamps and gifts and such to the 47%…more like 97% in Seattle. We also are the only ones in the state protecting your right to have AR-15s with 30 and 100 round magazines. We work day and night to make sure that the black helicopters and UN troops [currently hidden just across the border in Canadia] are kept out. We were sadly unable to protect you from marriage between men and donkeys but we’ll try again. We also give you plenty of water, cheap power, tasty potatoes and onions and, best of all, hops. Over here we have no welfare, all our people work hard and are independent and rugged and such…like John Wayne. Oh, and we have no racism over here, treating our Indians and Metsicans just right.
@10, I don’t know if you’re having a reading comprehension problem, if you just read the title and some of the rant bits, or if you’re just typing in bad faith. I’m going to assume the first. No, I was turning Senator King’s argument against Seattle onto his district to highlight the absurdity of any region bashing any other region or saying state money is better spent in one part of the state versus another. I thought the we’re happy-to-pays and the there-are-people-of-good-faith-everywheres throughout the post would be enough to highlight that.
Second, no, it’s not rich Seattle that pay a disproportionate share of the taxes. It’s poor and middle class Seattle. We have an over-reliance on sales taxes in this state and the regressive nature of our tax system doesn’t stop at the Cascades.
“It makes them look like goat fuckers.
All that said, I recognize that there are plenty of people of good will in Senator King (R-Goat Fucker)’s district”
This blog is disgusting. That’s why I’m here.
@32 This wouldn’t be much of a blog without our disgusting trolls, would it? We’d be finished if we ever got decent trolls here. Fortunately, that’s unlikely.
Having lived in Yakima for 6 years, until 2005, I’m sure that the number of Hispanics counted in the census is much lower than the amount actually living in the county.
Do Pierce, Snohomish, Thurston, Whatcom, and the other Western Washington counties matter to all of you Seattle and King County elitist buttholes?
If the wetside did not cough up money to build roads on the dryside, none of that yummy wine, fruit, wheat, or veggies would be able to make to your local Whole Foods and/or farmer markets.
Subsidy of drysiders helps the wetsiders get nice things.
Also, regulatory mandates put in place by wetsiders cannot be afforded by the poor dryside. So they need wetside money to pay for wetside dreams.
But you knew that already.
Grew up over there.
FYI, Consumer Reports had a nice write up a while back. Here is a link to a story on it.
Could it be there are so many poor people in Yakima because the rich farmers do not pay living wages? Nahhh. Couldn’t be.
Talks like a real expert, don’t he?
As I’ve said before. I grew up over there.
The ones who bitch the loudest are the rich. They think tax money is flowing only one direction: from them to us over here. That what the so called press over there touts all the time. That is what the radio spews. That is what they repeat back and forth to themselves.
The poor don’t take a part in these political discussions. They have enough to do trying to live on the starvation wages those same rich people pay their farm laborers. So yeah, our tax money goes over there. And it does make the difference for those poor to survive.
And the rich? They live quite well. As they should. We subsidize their costs.
Elitist buttholes?
Not me. I work for a living.
1) Snohomish, like King, pays its own way.
2) We in King County pay into the state coffers about 2.5 billion a year more than we get back.
3) It is the Rethug counties that suck on the state’s money teat and drain that money back out of the state coffers.
4) It is the Rethug counties that then bitch about how they pay too much in taxes to the state.
This is typical Rethug thinking. Calling us “elitist buttholes” even though we pay their bills.
@35,
Sorry, Tim Sheldon is complaining about “Seattle and Tacoma” legislators and too much power in Puget Sound. The GOP are the ones who elevated him to power, so by your genius logic, they’re the elitists.
@43 To put Tim Sheldon in context, he’s complaining that little counties don’t get to tell big counties what to do; he’s complaining that we don’t have minority rule; he’s complaining that a few people in Shelton don’t get to dictate to a lot of people in Seattle how the latter must live.
Put together the East Side and West Side make a pretty damn nice state. Unlike a lot of the sunbelt we actually make stuff people want and have a big positive balance of trade. I spent fifteen years on the dry side and have heard all the gripes about Seattle pushing the little communities around. I don’t think when Olympia made comprehensive land use planning mandatory everywhere in the State the amount of resentment that would cause over there. What made a lot of sense around the Sound didn’t make much in the hills, orchards and towns on the East Side. There are other examples of overreach that burned exposed nerve ends over there without much return in quality of life in rural Washington. Despicable Rethuglican politicos like Rep. King (R cow pie) have taken resentment and mixed in provocative lies to create this unnecessary strife. Tim Sheldon (D trenchfoot) has found this formula works for him on this side of the state. It would be nice if us Sound area residents got a little more recognition for our contribution, but I’m not going to worry about it unless our rustic cousins start throwing sticks in the spokes of our lifestyles and economy.