I keep hearing about a hush-hush poll that’s been conducted, that bodes very well for a Sound Transit Phase 2 package, should one appear on the fall ballot. Hmm… I wonder if the popular support for transit has anything to do with this?
I’m not sure who conducted the poll, or what size the sample, but I’ve been assured by those who have seen it that it wasn’t a puff piece, and that it strongly tested the proposal’s negatives. (And by “negatives” I’m assuming they mean the price and the taxes.) This leads me to believe that it was probably conducted on behalf of folks weighing the risks of getting behind an ’08 ballot measure.
Raising the price will do wonders!
Now if we could only ‘splain that a tax would have an even better effect.
I like the idea of a tax that maintains a price level high enough to assure low consumption.
Say that we set the price at greater than $4.50. The difference between $4.50 and the wholesale cost would be a tax plus some profit for the station. This would have the effect of driving consumption down and thus discouraging speculation on consumption. Oddly, a tax like this should decrease the cost of gasoline because iit removes the part of the price (I am told as much as 40%) that goes to speculators.
Since McCain wants to be th unBush and since Bush got us into this shit, maybe the tax could be called the WIT … win in Iraq Tax.
Polling has always boded well for ST, that’s why they tried to hog-tie RTID to it last time around.
Give me a break. Sound Transit’s history of conducting polls and interpreting polling results is terrible. It always conducts polls seven months before an election, so that it can tell potential campaign contributors that the public really supports whatever it is that will go on the ballot. It is the oldest trick in the book.
ST did exactly the same thing last year. Here is ST describing polling results at a PSRC meeting last April. ST said then its polling showed the public was wild about Prop. 1, that the public would vote for the new sales taxes, etc.:
“He [Ilgenfritz] also noted that in two consecutive polls, they found that ‘roads and transit together polls considerably better than either polls individually. The public really wants to see that coordinated approach to putting an investment strategy together.’ Chair Patterson, noting the reference to ‘strong support,’ asked for numbers. Mr. Ilgenfritz responded, ‘We did a test of a likely ballot title that basically says, ‘Would you support raising the following taxes,’ specifying the sales tax and motor vehicle excise tax, ‘in order to fund an investment package of $16.5 billion in order to improve roads and transit infrastructure in the three-county region,’ and the support came back at 61 percent to 32 percent opposed.’”
http://www.psrc.org/boards/tpb.....041207.pdf
THAT worked out just like ST thought it would, huh?
When ST says “poll,” immediately think bullshit.
ST needs to give it a rest for a couple of years. Nobody trusts ST, and it’ll piss people off if ST goes forward with a new measure after being handed its hat six months ago.
ST doesn’t even have a draft ballot measure out yet – they’re still “checking the temperature of the public” with some new survey questionnaire.
There just are not enough young, dumb voters around here to overcome the mass opposition that we know is out there after Prop. 1 went down. Fully 25% more no votes were cast than yes votes, and plenty of those yes votes were SR 520 bridge commuters who knew the tolls would be lower if RTID money was going to be thrown at the bridge costs.
Hate to say it, but ST’s being run by not-ready-for-prime-time-players at this point. It’ll have a better chance once light rail gets running.
Mr. Id provides the mandatory idiot post.
ST can’t do political polling because they are a public agency. Neither could the state, which funded RTID. Those surveys they do don’t test negatives, or really require the respondant to make a “yes” or “no” choice. The poll Goldy refers to apparently did.
If anti-rail axe-grinders like Mr. Id really felt ST had no chance, wouldn’t he be ENCOURAGING them to go to the ballot this year? Helllo?
“There just are not enough young, dumb voters around here to overcome the mass opposition that we know is out there after Prop. 1 went down. Fully 25% more no votes were cast than yes votes”
Young and dumb transit supporters, eh? Is that who will ruin the world for the old tyme anti-rail cranks? (We know how well the last generation did in the realm of sustainable multi-generation transportation investments.)
The math isn’t too tough. Even for the Mr. Id clown. Off-year elections always feature anti-tax voters (who demand services…so long as somebody else pays for them).
This November, TWICE as many voters will actually vote.
And their average age won’t be 68.
And they won’t be driven by dinosaur era transportation ideologies.
And they actually do care about how the next generation will get around…because they are the next generation.
More importantly, this year’s voting bloc won’t be focused on “the good old days, before all these outsiders moved here and messed up the freeways.”
Sound Transit would be stupid not to go to the ballot this year, unhindered by the legislature’s ever-changing whims.
Mr. Id always relies on frivolous and inconsequential nitpicking to make his case.
Which is WHAT, again, exactly?
Blazin’ –
Maybe you could settle a barstool bet.
Sound Transit has 2 kinds of taxes. What is the total amount of tax the average household paid to ST in 2007?
My buddy said it was about $100. I think it must be twice that.
You seem so up on this stuff – how would you go about showing which of us is closer to the mark?
gee, there’s a “hush-hush poll” but it bodes well — so why is it hush hush?
We don’t know:
who did it
what it asked
the size of the sample
but Goldy was told by unnamed sources who claim to have seen it that it tested the negatives which he assumes is price
but the didn’t say those who claim to have seen it said it tested price
So then he says he assumes it was “conducted on behalf of folks weighing the risks of getting behind an ‘08 ballot measure” meaning — huh? Who?
local politicians, you mean, like they all kicked in 5-10 large to decide whether to get behind it?
All at a time when there is no decision yet on what proposal to put forth?
No total cost including finance, operations, overruns, etc.
Here’s an idea. Gop run this kind of gargabe over at the Drudge report. This isn’t news, it isn’t opinion, it’s just speculative rumor spreading. It’s a rumor of good news. That’s all.
Hm if they really had the good news and the copies of the poll and the questions and the sample size……why aren’t we reading all that right here?