HorsesAss.Org

Yesterday I posted a couple graphs showing how Washington state has chosen to devote an increasingly larger portion of our economy toward imprisoning our citizens, at the same time we’re devoting an ever smaller portion toward educating them. I leave it to you to judge the wisdom of such spending priorities.

Today’s graph is also about priorities, in that it shows that when push comes to shove over the past fifteen years, our lawmakers have consistently chosen to keep taxes low. Indeed, between 1994 and 2001 WA’s rank in state and local taxes as a percentage of personal income dropped from 11th nationwide to 32nd. And WA has remained below the national average since 2000; it stood at 30th in 2008.

It is true that revenues briefly rebounded between 2003 and 2007, but this was not due to legislative action. Rather, easy consumer credit and a booming housing market spurred consumer spending, resulting in a surge in taxes relative to personal income in this heavily sales tax dependent state. But even this bump in revenue—and subsequent bump in spending, largely to fund the class size and teachers pay initiatives—left both spending and revenue near the bottom end of the fifteen year average.

Republicans and their surrogates on the editorial boards insist that our current budget crisis is the result of profligate government spending, but this simply isn’t true. With consumer spending having collapsed in advance of incomes, and recovering at a much slower pace, combined state and local government in the next biennium will consume a smaller portion of our state economy than at any time in the past three decades, and a substantially smaller portion than it did just fifteen years ago.

So as the Governor and the Legislature prepare to make all those tough budget choices—largely consisting of slashing spending on education and health care—remember… this is their choice. There are two sides to a budget, revenue and spending, and how we balance the two depends on our priorities.

Washington has chosen to become and remain a low tax state, come hell or high water, and with all the negative impact this lack of public investment will bring on future economic growth… not to mention the inevitable immediate suffering of the poor, the sick and the young.

So, what do Lee and the Rev. Pat Robertson have in common? They both oppose the criminalization of marijuana:

“I’m not exactly for the use of drugs, don’t get me wrong, but I just believe that criminalizing marijuana, criminalizing the possession of a few ounces of pot, that kinda thing it’s just, it’s costing us a fortune and it’s ruining young people. Young people go into prisons, they go in as youths and come out as hardened criminals. That’s not a good thing.”

I don’t know if Robertson’s support helps or hurts the cause with rational people, but rational people aren’t generally writing these laws, so I’d call this development a net plus.

One of the most moving moments of last summer’s Netroot’s Nation, was when our very own Joan McCarter gave Lt. Dan Choi’s West Point ring to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, insisting that he not give it back until Don’t Ask Don’t Tell was repealed. Today, Sen. Reid gave Lt. Choi his ring back.

I dunno… sure does sound like a definitive statement of fact to me:

The Legislature cannot raise taxes.

But of course, that’s not true. The Legislature can raise taxes. It would require a remarkable display of bipartisan support—exactly the kinda bipartisanship the Seattle Times editorial board so often breathlessly pines for—but it can be done, even under the unconstitutional two-thirds strictures of I-1053.

For example, let’s say there was some kind of devastating natural disaster, a tsunami or an earthquake that required hundreds of millions of dollars in immediate emergency spending for relief and reconstruction… could (and should) the Legislature raise taxes to meet these needs, despite statewide voters “emphatic votes on three separate ballot measures” this past November?

I’d like to think so. So isn’t this really just a question of priorities? And isn’t that what politics is always about: priorities?

So no, neither the Legislature, nor the governor, nor the voters, nor the Times gets off that easily. We can raise taxes, if we want to. And if we don’t raise taxes to help offset the proposed devastating cuts to education and social services, then the human suffering and long term costs these cuts create is on our heads.

Please join us tonight for another evening of politics under the influence at the Seattle chapter of Drinking Liberally. We meet at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. beginning at 8:00 pm. Some of us will be there even earlier for a quiet dinner.

Not in Seattle? There is a good chance you live near one of the 235 other chapters of Drinking Liberally.

– Larry David thanks Congress for the tax cuts.

– Tyler Cowen discusses income inequality.

– Senator Al Franken discusses why net neutrality matters. So does Steve Wozniak.

– Ballard resident Tom Nissley is kicking ass on Jeopardy.

– Here’s the video of the shooting of John T. Williams. After watching that, I have trouble seeing how that could’ve been a justified use of force.

I know I’m a couple of days late on this, but anyone else notice that there were absolutely zero column inches in the Sunday Seattle Times on the failure of the DREAM Act in the US Senate? I mean zilch, bubkes, nada. Not a word.

I’d provide a link, but there’s nothing to link to.

A couple folks have asked me recently if I’ve heard anything about Rep. Dave Reichert stepping down. A couple other folks have asked me if I’ve heard anything about Reichert challenging Sen. Maria Cantwell in 2012. Unless Reichert’s head injury is giving him more trouble than he admits, the latter seems more likely, but it has me thinking that perhaps the two rumors might be conflated.

What does seem clear is that WA-08 will very likely become a bit bluer in 2012, losing a chunk of its Republican-leaning southern part of the district, as WA-10 inevitably squeezes its northern neighbors from the south. So it might not be a bad time for Reichert to make an honorable exit.

The U.S. Census Bureau released its latest numbers this morning, confirming that Washington state is in line to gain a tenth congressional district, starting in 2012.

That’ll be fun. Not only will this create a brand new open seat, likely in a swingy district carved out of Southwest Washington, it will also squeeze the boundaries of the other seven western districts, possibly shifting the red-blue balance here and there.

Unlike most other states, Washington’s got a relatively reasonable redistricting process, led by a bipartisan commission and a fairly strict set of guidelines, so we won’t get the sort of blatantly partisan gerrymandering we’ll surely see elsewhere. That said, it was heartening to see the Senate Dems recently select former Mayor Nickels henchman Tim Ceis as their representative on the commission. Whatever you think about Ceis, he’s about as Machiavellian as they come around these parts, so it’s good to see him part of the mix.

Oh, and in case you’re wondering, Washington’s population grew 14.1 percent over the past decade, to 6,724,540… well off the blistering 21 percent growth rate between 1990 and 2000.

I know you have a busy schedule of trying to figure out ways to kill Washingtonians for want of basic social services. Still, I can’t believe that you aren’t speaking to the Mayor of the largest city in the state? Really? Because he said the untrustworthy things you did made it tough to trust you?

I mean, the man has said he’s willing to meet you much more than half way on the Viaduct replacement. He has said OK to a deep bore tunnel that he hates. He’s said OK to the loss of downtown exits. He’s said OK to figuring out how to pay for the city’s portion of the costs. He’s said OK to everything except the cost overruns on the state portion of the project. The fact that you can’t meet him there, and refuse to talk to him at all strike a terrible cord.

And look, I understand your disagreements. I certainly didn’t like his opposition to Roads and Transit. Yes, it worked out in the end, but I agreed with you: the risks were too high. But he said he’d be back with a transit only proposal, and by God he was. And that’s the rare thing that I think a lot of people miss about McGinn, he’s shockingly honest. He’s put out what he’d want and what he’s willing to compromise to, and it’s pretty far. He’s told you exactly how you can get this tunnel that you want done, and there’s no reason to believe that if you go along with him on the cost overruns and find ways that it doesn’t clog up city streets, that he’d be right there with you like he says.

And I know you feel like you’ve compromised too. Your favorite position was to replace the Viaduct with another, much larger, viaduct. So you feel that this tunnel and the money you’ve already appropriated to Seattle is enough. But you punted on replacement, called a vote, and lost. So now you’re stuck with a backup that I know you moved to, but it’s not the best way to move people around Seattle.

Maybe I and people like me are a bit to blame here too. After the quake, my main concern was to do something, almost anything, because I don’t want to die in an earthquake. Like McGinn, I preferred a surface/transit/I-5 option, but unlike him, I thought I would have been fine with whatever emerged. It turns out that despite my assumption that y’all in Olympia are out to get Seattle, I didn’t think you would go with whatever Bruce Chapman pulled out of his ass and then demand that we pay for any cost overruns, no matter if they were the state’s fault.

And this plan was so bad for Seattle that the city voters dumped our mayor in the primary and ultimately supported the person who was skeptical of it. There were other reasons Nickels lost, of course: It snowed a lot the year before the election. People didn’t like his support of light rail or opposition to the monorail. But his championing of an unpopular tunnel and saying trust Olympia that it would all work out gave a lot of people a reason to give him the boot. Seattle doesn’t trust the state.

We don’t trust Olympia when you take more money from Seattle than we put into state coffers and then tell us how generous you are. We don’t trust Olympia when you pander to people who hate Seattle by putting in a bullshit cost overrun provision. We don’t trust you when you take away all downtown exits, and tell us how the project is for Seattle drivers. We don’t trust Olympia when you go out of your way to pander to a car culture when many of us take the bus or take light rail or bike.

Perhaps you can earn back Seattle’s trust. I guess the next session is a good place to start. Fix the problems with the tunnel, talk to the mayor who respects the city and its citizens; don’t pretend that Richard Conlin is a reasonable substitute. I’m proud to have voted for you twice, but please stop bashing my city.

Love,

Carl Ballard

Having digested the remains of the Seattle P-I’s print audience, the Seattle Times is bleeding readership again, its paid circulation dropping 4.51 percent over the previous six month period, pretty much in line with the industry average. If worse for the industry is the decline in advertising revenue, down another 8.7 percent to $16.3 billion… less than half the industry total only two years ago.

Personally, I have serious doubts as to whether print remains a viable medium for delivering daily news in all but the largest markets. But I guess time will tell.

I’m a bit preoccupied this morning reading the sweet, sweet anguish of the New York media over my Philadelphia Eagles stunning, come-from-behind, 38-31 victory over the hated New York Giants. Michael Vick’s fourth-quarter performance was so amazing, even my dog is becoming a reluctant fan.

Trailing 31-10, and having been manhandled by the Giant’s aggressive defense all day, Vick simply took over the game, throwing two touchdowns and running for ninety-some yards and another touchdown, all in a seven minute span, just before DeSean Jackson scored the final tally with a 65-yard punt return TD with no time remaining. And while I’m sure Seattle fans would have been thrilled by a similar Seahawks performance, I’m not sure if folks here can quite grok the sense of absolute joy that swept through Philadelphia as Jackson (eventually) crossed the goal line. Yeah sure, we’d just witnessed one of the greatest comebacks in NFL history, but more importantly, we’d come back against the hated Giants, not just crushing the hearts of their fans, but grinding the bloody pulp into the sidewalk.

Is there a sports rivalry in Seattle that comes anywhere close to rivaling the palpable animosity between the teams and fans of the NFC East? I don’t think so.

Which means you underprivileged Seahawks fans just can’t possibly enjoy football as much as we Iggles fans do. Or… suffer from it.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the death of Jeff Roetter, a medical marijuana patient who died of an epileptic seizure the night of June 18, 2010. His death came as Snoqualmie Police were putting pressure on him to assist in their efforts to prosecute Bryan Gabriel, the man who insists he was Roetter’s medical marijuana provider. Even after chatting with a couple of Jeff’s friends and acquaintances, as well as Gabriel, his attorney, and one of the Snoqualmie officers, there’s a lot still unknown about what really happened. Adding to that, several people were simply afraid to talk to me, for fear of retribution from the police. Trying to pin down exactly what happened has been a challenge, and my post ended up not drawing a lot of solid conclusions.

In an attempt to get to the bottom of this, I put in a public records request for the police reports on both arrests. This week, I obtained 22 pages of police records from the November 2009 arrests of both Roetter and Gabriel and some additional reports from the week in June when King County Judge Sharon Armstrong ordered that the marijuana taken during the initial arrest should be returned. It was during that week when Roetter died.

Even with this extra documentation, much of the disputed points of the story remain a he said/she said situation between Gabriel and the Snoqualmie Police. In my initial post, I left a number of these conflicts out or only briefly addressed them, partially because I felt I’d be able to get better information later with some additional documentation. Now that I’ve read through the more complete police records (as Sgt. Sylvain of Snoqualmie Police encouraged me to do), I want to elaborate on some of the points of contention.

[Read more…]

Last week’s contest was won by waguy. It was Carlo’s Bakery in Hoboken, NJ, where the show Cake Boss takes place.

This week’s contest is a random location in Washington state. Good luck!