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It’s not that Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat is wrong when he points out that our progressive city and county agenda of preserving Metro bus service, providing a stable funding source for city parks, and expanding high-quality preschool comes at a high cost. It certainly does. But if he’s going to describe the price tag as “steep,” then we need to have a little more context. For steepness is a measure of the relative elevation from Point A to Point B—and while Point B is not in dispute, the location of Point A is a bone of contention.

Yes, the county is asking voters for $130 million a year in car tab and sales tax revenue to stave off a 17 percent cut in Metro bus service. And yes, Mayor Ed Murray wants to go to the ballot with a $56 million a year parks district. And yes, the universal preschool measure the council is currently developing could ultimately cost Seattle taxpayers another $30 million to $70 million annually. Westneat isn’t exaggerating the numbers. That’s a lot of new taxes.

But “new” based on what? Our current diminished tax based? Or the city and county tax base we enjoyed before a series of tax-limiting statewide initiatives were passed against the will of Seattle and King County voters?

Take Metro, for example. Prior to the passage of Tim Eyman’s $30 car tab fee Initiative 695 in 1999, Metro relied on a relatively stable Motor Vehicle Excise Tax (MVET)—a tax on the value of your car—for about one-third of its operating revenue. King County voters rejected I-695, but it passed statewide, so the legislature granted Metro some additional sales tax authority to make up the difference. Unfortunately, sales tax revenue is much less stable than MVET, and when the economy collapsed in 2008, so did Metro’s funding. From 2009 through 2015 Metro will collect $1.2 billion less in sales tax revenue than previously projected.

That averages to $200 million a year in reduced tax revenue, far more than the $130 million a year Proposition 1 would raise.

Seattle tax revenues have been similarly slashed thanks to an Eyman initiative: I-747, which again, was rejected by Seattle and King County voters, but was approved statewide in 2001. I-747 limits growth in regular levy property tax revenues from existing construction to an absurd 1 percent a year—far below inflation. A 2012 report from the Seattle Parks Foundation concludes:

As a result of Initiative 747 alone, the City of Seattle’s property tax collections in 2010 are at least $60 million less than if the measure had not passed. The impact of the loss is compounded each year the limits remain in place, so annual losses increase by approximately $15 million per year, meaning that the estimated loss for 2011 will be at least $75 million. This estimate assumes the City Council would have limited the tax increase to the rate of inflation in the City’s labor costs (3.5 percent to 4.5 percent annually, which includes the cost of health care). If one assumes the City Council would have increased property tax to the statutory limit of 6 percent per year, the 2011 loss would be $126 million.

Taking into account compounding, and using Eyman’s own framing, I-747 will save Seattle taxpayers between $135 million and $186 million in 2015 alone, the first year any of the new taxes Westneat mentions would take effect. That’s far more than the combined annual cost of a parks district and universal preschool!

Such a bargain!

Yes, in both cases we’re talking about substantial tax hikes above what taxpayers are currently paying. But they amount to substantial tax cuts from what taxpayers would have been paying today had not I-695 and I-747 been forced on us by statewide voters. Indeed, the only reason we are going to voters with tax hikes to fund bus service and parks is that I-695 and I-747 left the county and the city without sufficient revenues to sustain these crucial services!

So are the costs high? Sure. It’s expensive to maintain the high-quality public infrastructure we want and need. But are these tax hikes “steep”…? Not if your starting point is the more rational local tax structure we enjoyed just a decade and a half ago, before that two-bit fraternity-watch salesman started fucking with our tax base for fun and profit.

– Buffer zones for abortion clinics are necessary.

– When the Washington State Legislature adjourned without getting much done, at least it didn’t get the bad stuff done.

– A while ago in an open thread, I’d mentioned that Rodney Tom has an opponent, Former Kirkland Mayor Joan McBride. If you’re interested, here’s her website. [h/t]

– The first is a new rule vigorously enforced: Pay to play. It now costs money to get a close up look at America’s political leaders, or ask them a question.

– Given my grammar, punctuation, and poor word choice, far be it from me to make fun of a typo by the Discovery Institute. But not far be it from me to link to someone else making fun of a typo from them.

– I don’t know that any rules or laws will ever be adequate to that task. Social norms are actually probably more important in something like this (which is why it’s so depressing to see so many people defending this stuff and condemning those who object.)

There goes that crazy Socialist Kshama Sawant being soooo divisive by bringing class into it again:

[I]t’s hard to escape the suspicion that class interests are playing a role. A fair number of commentators seem oddly upset by the notion of workers getting raises, especially while returns to bondholders remain low. It’s almost as if they identify with the investor class, and feel uncomfortable with anything that brings us close to full employment, and thereby gives workers more bargaining power.

Oh. Wait. That quote wasn’t from Sawant. It was from Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman. My bad.

Look, people. The Senate GOP worked really hard on making a transit package this legislative session. Just because there wasn’t a transit package, you can’t get mad at them for not passing a transit package.

King says failure to pass transportation package not due to lack of effort

See. If the person who brought us not having a transit package in the state Senate can be blamed for our not having a transit package, then what? Also, I thought the GOP philosophy on hard work was that you could tell the amount of effort based on the result. So if people are on food stamps, even if they are working full time, the GOP prescription is for them to work hard. The GOP can tell they didn’t work hard because they’re on food stamps. So I think we can tell the GOP weren’t working hard on a transit package because the legislature adjourned without a transit package.

At a news conference today – one day before the scheduled end of the 2014 legislative session – Sen. Curtis King, R-Yakima, and co-chair of the Senate Transportation Committee, lamented the fact that lawmakers did not pass an agreed-upon transportation revenue and reform package before adjourning. King added that the Majority Coalition Caucus, which leads the state Senate, repeatedly made compromises sought by the Senate minority, but to no avail.

Majorities, how the fuck do they work?

Seriously, this is what happens when you hand out things — like a majority — to people who haven’t earned it. Sure, they say they’ll work hard, but the results are the results.

“During the 2013 transportation feedback forum tour, we visited ten cities across Washington in five weeks. The vast majority of citizens made it clear that they wanted reforms before they’d accept any gas-tax increase, and we listened to the people.”

Those lazy roustabouts will lash out and make excuses. But in the end, if they wanted to pass a transit package, they could buckle down, work hard, and pass something.

“From the very beginning, the MCC has prioritized reforms, and additional revenue was never off the table. But in the end, the Senate’s minority Democrats weren’t serious about making the tough reforms. They were more interested in tax increases and sound bites, despite knowing as well as I do that the state can’t win public support for a multibillion-dollar transportation package without first establishing that we are serious about fixing the waste, mismanagement and abuse that exists within the system.”

These reforms are so popular and good that the GOP isn’t even going to mention even one specific reform in their press release.

“Add to that the governor’s signing of a climate-change compact with Oregon, California and British Columbia. Of those governments, the only state that has not yet implemented low-carbon emission standards is Washington. California is expected to see an immediate 12-cent hike in gas taxes with a possible increase of up to 40 cents in the next year because of these types of standards, and Governor Inslee’s refusal to acknowledge his plans to unilaterally impose low-carbon emission standards was an obstacle to finalizing a transportation package.”

An unrelated thing that Governor Inslee did is responsible! Look, GOP, just stop making excuses.

“The MCC offered a new compromise proposal February 13 and revised the offer on February 21, again moving significantly toward the Democrats’ position. However, it became obvious to us over the last month that Democrat leadership in the House and Senate is not interested in seeing a transportation package move forward this session, and their response to our most recent proposal told us – in no uncertain terms – that they are not interested in reaching agreement and moving forward.”

The House passed a package a year ago. It’s plenty problematic, but they got the job done. If the Senate wanted to pass a transit package, they could have passed a transit package. Don’t lash out at other people who are doing better than you. It’s not the House’s fault.

“The MCC remains committed to addressing Washington’s transportation needs, and will continue to work toward that goal even after the 2014 legislative session adjourns.”

Yeah, we’ve seen promises before. But they never seem to materialize, do they?

– Washington lawmakers are allowed to accept free meals on an infrequent basis — but that’s never been defined. A Senate bill to have the Legislative Ethics Board decide what infrequent means also died. It never got a hearing despite having a dozen sponsors.

– “Six different pods are participating in the hunger strike, and apparently there’s about 150 people per pod,” she said. “The number 130 strikes me as very low.” (TNT link)

– I sometimes, and inexplicably since I’ve never lived in Oregon and have a WA phone number, get random GOTV from the Oregon GOP. Recently they polled me about Greg Walden. I told them that I hoped someone primaries him and that I was born in 1956. Anyway, I’m glad he’s going to have a serious opponent.

– Obviously, the CIA shouldn’t spy on Senators, but it’s too bad that that’s what it took to get Senators to notice problems with the CIA.

– Honor codes at evangelical universities have some really shitty outcomes (the link has some descriptions of sexual violence).

– I hadn’t heard of Portolan Charts, but now I’m fascinated.

There. I said it. By any reasonable reading of the municipal code, Lyft, Sidecar, and uberX drivers are operating illegally in the City of Seattle. They are are unlawful. They are illegal. They are against the law. And this basic statement of fact is absolutely crucial to understanding that, rather than crushing innovation in the service of protecting the status quo, what the city council is really in the process of doing is legalizing an industry that has thus far operated in brazen violation of the law.

Whooh. I can’t tell you what a relief it is to get that off my chest.*

There is likely no issue on which I more broadly pissed off Stranger readers, than my coverage of the proposed taxi and “ride-share” regulations. Capitol Hill hipsters apparently love booking rides on their smartphones almost as much as they love to hate on traditional taxis, and so the coverage they wanted and expected was one that would unflinchingly embrace this disruptive new technology, while telling the decrepit old regulated taxi industry to go fuck itself. And I totally agree, based on my own anecdotal experience, that these new “transportation network companies” or “TNCs” (as they are referred to in the proposed ordinance) generally provide a far superior user experience than Yellow Cab and its cohorts.

But having plunged into this issue with no predispositions, and having ultimately wrapped my mind around an exceedingly complex policy debate, that is not the coverage I could provide. More nuanced critics accused me of being “anti-urbanist;” the less nuanced attempted to dismiss me as being in the pocket of the taxi industry (as if there’s any money in that). But the truth is that the taxi industry provides essential transportation services to a customer base that the TNCs cannot or will not serve. And the truth is—and this at the heart of the issue the council is addressing—the TNCs are operating illegally.

“No matter how sexy these services are,” council member Bruce Harrell proclaimed before voting to cap the number of TNC drivers, “they are unlawful in the City of Seattle.” And Harrell, an attorney, did not choose his words carelessly. It is a criminal offense in the City of Seattle to pick up paying passengers without a for-hire license, punishable by up to 90 days in jail and a $1,000 fine. The Seattle City Attorney’s Office determined last year that TNCs “are subject to for-hire vehicle licensing and regulation requirements.” While the city has yet to enforce these regulations on TNC drivers, it might not take more than a handful of prosecutions to chill the industry.

So whatever limitations the council might impose on the TNCs in the ordinance it is expected to pass next week, above all what the council is doing is legalizing an industry that has heretofore operated without licensing, without inspection, without training, without guarantees of adequate insurance, and in blatant violation of the rule of law. So it’s not like the TNCs aren’t getting anything in return.

The TNCs angrily denounce proposed caps, accusing the council of limiting competition in order to protect the taxi industry. And they are right. That has always been part of the challenge facing the council: how to legitimize the popular TNC services without undermining the still indispensable taxi industry. Not everybody has a smartphone and a credit card. A recent study found that taxis, which accept cash and scrip, serve a disproportionately older and poorer customer base, as well as our crucial tourism industry. Taxis operate accessible vehicles, and provide discounted fares through Hopelink and other social service contracts. They also provide a livelihood to their traditionally immigrant drivers and owners.

However superior uberX might be at getting you home after a night of heavy drinking, it is in the public interest to maintain a healthy taxi industry as well.

How do we sustain the taxi industry in the face of all this new competition? Seattle disastrously experimented with taxi deregulation in the 1980s, removing all caps and price controls only to see prices rise, service deteriorate, and incomes fall in the face of a Malthusian collapse—so there is understandably little support on the council to repeat that experiment in the interest of accommodating the TNCs. And “if we are regulating one half of the market,” argues council member Nick Licata, “we can’t ignore the open-source half” without creating an unlevel playing field.

That is the delicate balance the council is attempting to strike: a regulatory structure that allows the TNCs to legally enter the market while giving the taxi industry the breathing space necessary to adapt to a new reality. Apps like TaxiMagic and particularly Flywheel are already close to providing the same slick user experience TNC customers have come to expect; Yellow Cab, by far the city’s largest taxi association, is in the process of upgrading its dispatch system with plans to release its own competitive app later this year. There’s no question that the innovative TNCs are forcing the the taxi industry to improve its service. There’s also no question that the council will need to revisit taxi and TNC regulations in the years to come.

Maybe the proposed TNC cap is too low. Maybe it is too high. Maybe, ultimately, caps will prove unnecessary at all. But the goal is to transition into a market where both the TNCs and the taxis can peacefully and profitably coexist. And the first step is legalizing the TNCs currently unlawful operations.

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Last Friday, I and much of the Washington lefty establishment, noted that State Sen. Jan Angel at the behest of Rodney Tom killed funding for state homeless programs. Anyway, finally Senator Angel has decided to address the problem head on. By demanding that Governor Inslee study the issue to death.

Sen. Jan Angel today sent a letter to the governor requesting his leadership in establishing a task force to evaluate funding sources for local homeless housing and assistance.

Her decision to hold House Bill 2368, a measure that would extend a temporary surcharge tax to support homelessness, in the financial institutions, housing and insurance committee has caused a flurry of controversy and inaccurate accusations, despite her good intentions.

“I was half an inch away from being homeless myself, so this issue is extremely important to me, despite what others are so quick to assume,” said Angel, R-Port Orchard. “People need to understand all of the facts surrounding an issue before they point fingers.”

Yeah, just because she withheld funds, how dare you ignore her personal story? Don’t you understand individual, unverified, claims are more important than the actual policy she pushes? Stop holding her to account for her actions, you meanies.

Angel said her main concerns about HB 2368 have to do with a lack of supporting data and reporting from the state Department of Commerce, strong discord among involved stakeholders, and the fact that the surcharge tax falls on the backs of one small and unpredictable sector.

That’s why she didn’t go through the normal committee process and instead killed it in a surprise legislative move. A move that caught even most of her GOP colleagues off guard. If she had wanted more reporting or more information, well, she’s the chair of the relevant committee. She could have made that happen without killing funding. For God’s Sake.

“This isn’t a matter of being for or against homeless people. This is about finding a sustainable solution that is agreed upon by all affected stakeholders – things that the measure did not do.

Look, it isn’t a matter of being against homeless people; It’s a matter of taking action against homeless people. And then waiting a week to find a way to deflect the actual reasons that you did it.

“That’s why I have called on the governor for his leadership. I am sure that he would agree that Washingtonians living in cars should be at the top of our priority list.

Jan Angel has called on the governor to lead, because we can be assured of one thing: Jan Angel will not lead on her own. No, what we need most of all in these troubled times is a commission or something. And, in the mean time, if people are hungry or cold we can just tell them, “there’s a taskforce in some office in Olympia leadershipping.”

“When you are put in a leadership position, you have to be willing to make the tough calls for the betterment of people. As co-chair of the committee, I decided to hold the measure because I know we can do better.”

But even after a week, I have no idea what better is. Leadership, as you know, is having no ideas and asking for someone else to rescue you from you own actions.

Angel said the current surcharge tax is at the mercy of virtually one industry that experiences severe peaks and dips depending on the economy. Instead of putting this kind of responsibility on the backs of one small sector, she is looking to the governor to help pull everyone together to evaluate more stable and permanent funding options that would truly meet the needs of the homeless.

Of course, the governor would have had more time to figure that out if she hadn’t killed the funding in a surprise last minute maneuver.

– Mark Driscoll should probably consider just stopping for a while until he can get past the plagiarism stuff. Don’t worry, buddy. The asshole church you built will still be there when you get back.

– This is a lovely story from when Multnomah County issued marriage licenses to gay couples.

– Some of the writing from the Times makes me wonder if the newsprint ink they’re using is actually liquified privilege. But let’s check out the latest…

– It’s sort of dizzying to look at the map of bikes that have been stolen in Seattle.

– At least the Renaissance popes commissioned grand architecture and art. These kids mostly just cash checks.

– In a previous Open Thread, I said that I was sorry for the people who lost money on Bitcoin. That’s still mostly true, but there are exceptions.

Well, this is good news.

A new policy for the Seattle Police Department aims to change how officers handle crisis situations with people who are mentally ill or under the influence. The crisis intervention policy, which takes effect Monday, is part of the city’s federally-mandated police reforms.

A key component calls for officers to de-escalate a situation whenever feasible, in line with standard law enforcement practices.

I hope this has a real change in the interactions with people with mental illness, not just some window dressing for the Feds and the public. The department has been resistant to change, and a new policy alone isn’t going to be enough. The actions of the police will be the final measure.

Still, this new policy will include gathering measurable data, so even with the need to temper it above, I’m also hopeful.

I don’t know what’s going on with Mayor Murray. He really has to figure out how to get a handle on the police department. He inherited a mess, but his actions for the past week have not been at all helpful. And it’s still the gang that couldn’t shoot straight (emphasis mine).

(1) The mayor has placed an “indefinite hold” on his police chief signing any further settlements in officer-misconduct cases until further review, Deputy Mayor Hyeok Kim told the council’s public safety committee; (2) the mayor’s office has also decided to reopen those six cases in which the chief decided to downgrade the punishment to “see if appropriate determinations were made,” according to the bureaucratic parlance of mayoral public safety adviser Tina Podlodowski; and (3) Deputy Mayor Kim told the council that city officials cannot find any paperwork confirming that former interim chief Jim Pugel tentatively downgraded discipline in those six cases, as claimed repeatedly in the last week by Chief Bailey and Mayor Murray.

Shit’s important and he’s got to do better. I was worried when the Guild endorsed him that it was because they though he wouldn’t, or wouldn’t be able to, reign them in and so far he hasn’t. The police ought to know what the consequences of their actions will be and they ought to do a better job protecting and serving the city.

And it has really just been amateur hour at City Hall. It was the way he got rid of James Keblas at the office of Film and Music. And now, while I don’t really care about it, the type of thing the press and insiders looooove.

A statement from Mayor Ed Murray on Thursday afternoon mourned the death of Jim Diers, popular former director of Seattle’s Department of Neighborhoods until then-Mayor Greg Nickels took office and fired him.

“My thoughts go out to the Diers family,” said the Mayor. “He will be missed.”

A few minutes later, a second urgent missive from City Hall regarding Diers: “He is alive and well.”

The Mayor had confused Diers with Joe Dear, a former chief of staff to Gov. Gary Locke and director of the Washington State Investment Board, who died of cancer at the age of 62. Dear was equally popular and warmly eulogized by his longtime friend U.S. Rep. Denny Heck, D-Wash.

Again, I mostly don’t care: Some staffer made a mistake, and it was corrected as soon as they realized it. It’s hardly his finest hour, but it happens. Still, when you run a put-the-adults-back-in-charge campaign, there’s less room for this sort of thing.

And to be clear, I don’t want him damaged. He needs to be able to fight for a strong minimum wage, and for decent universal pre-kindergarden in town. And I suspect that too many more weeks like he’s been having and some of the people who supported him are going to start looking elsewhere. Maybe start looking at the next election, maybe going to the City Council to thwart his plans. Still, it has only been a bad couple weeks, and I think he can turn things around if he gets his head in the game.

This story has been bouncing around the feminist blogs for a little while now, but I didn’t realize it was in Washington State. It’s pretty grim. I’m not quoting the most explicit parts of the story, but The Longview Daily News has more details. What’s pertinent is:

In October 2012, a woman was held against her will, taped naked to a chair and sexually assaulted. This week, Cowlitz County prosecutors had the same woman arrested to help prove the case against her alleged captors.

The 43-year-old woman — the victim and prime witness in the case — has not been charged with any crime. She just wasn’t showing up for pre-trial meetings with prosecutors, despite promising to do so several times.

So earlier this month they obtained a judge’s order for a material witness warrant.

It’s a little-used procedure under state law that allows police to arrest a witness of a crime to ensure they show up for court. Chief Criminal Deputy James Smith said such warrants are rare and requested only “as a last resort.”

In this case, it had the added irony of using a warrant to hold the woman against her will so she can help convict someone else of holding her against her will.

Prosecutors said they can’t comment directly on an on-going case. Generally, though, Smith said the severity of the charges is always a factor in taking such a serious step.

Like the people I linked to above, I’m horrified that this happened.* The counties should certainly take up prosecutions of this sort, but detaining a rape victim — one who was for the most part cooperating, but had missed a court date — can’t possibly be the best way to go about it.

It certainly feels like an abuse of the material witness statute. I hope the legislature will take up both better ways to help witnesses who might be transient get to court and to reign in this type of use of the statute. And I hope prosecutors who might be in a position to do this will reconsider.

I mean, we certainly want to prosecute rapists to the extent possible. But surely not by locking up victims, and potentially re-victimizing them. Maybe some of the lawyers in the comments section can think of positive changes to the law.

If you want to contact the Cowlitz County Prosecuting Attorney’s office and ask them to do better next time, you can do so here.

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– If you’re going to have an ACA horror story, it would be nice if that story was based in fact. But that’s probably too much to ask.

– It’s also important to emphasize going forward that the pre-clearance requirement in Section 5 was far from obsolete. Because of the nature of elections, before-the-fact challenges to vote suppression are far more effective than after-the-fact ones. Once a state has conducted an election, it becomes much more difficult for the courts to order remedies. A pre-clearance requirement is not sufficient, but it’s a crucial part of voting rights protection, and Congress should not concede this issue to the Supreme Court going forward.

– The King County Council officially put the measure to save Metro on the ballot.

– Transportation Advocacy Day is coming up. I still haven’t got my Transportation Advocacy Day tree, or done most of my Transportation Advocacy Day shopping.

– Several years ago Washington legislators arrived at a sensible compromise, requiring districts to include measures of student growth in their evaluations of teachers – but leaving it to the districts to decide what that actually meant. It’s a good system that should be given time to be properly implemented. But Duncan insists that teacher evaluations be directly linked to specific test scores, even where states have chosen not to do so.

– I still don’t understand Bitcoin, and I’m genuinely sorry for the people who lost money here, but, you know, there are reasons for regulations on actual money.

– Did you get any snow? Here are school closures/delays in Washington.

– Despite how amazingly think-about-what-you-did that assignment is, i’s total bullshit that his record remains clean, and ideally his punishment would remain in place and he’d have to make his being-a-decent-human presentation and have to write “don’t be a dick” on the blackboard fifty times.

– Here’s another view of the brand new ship Macaw Arrow, docking at Port of Olympia on it’s first ever journey, to deliver “frack sand” proppants for fracking North Dakota oil shale.

– I’m not really in the habit of linking to sermons here, or listening to them online, really, but this one really got to me.

– The anti-choice movement is up in arms over my play, MOM BABY GOD, and I have a simple message for them: Bring it on. We’re not backing down.

– I’m afraid Goldy was perhaps too irenic to Boeing management here.

Well this certainly bodes poorly for police reform. As well as being pretty crappy in its own right.

I just got a call from Seattle Times reporter Steve Miletich confirming a rumor I’d heard recently: Seattle police chief Harry Bailey has overturned the one-day suspension of Officer John Marion, the cop who threatened to harass me at work in retaliation for reporting on police misconduct. Chief Bailey wants to provide more training instead, and as Miletich explains, Bailey doesn’t seem to understand that he’s also apparently overturned the misconduct ruling itself

The police in this city are problematic on a level enough for the DOJ to get involved. They have a pattern stretching back over a decade. The last mayor half assed reform only when the Feds got involved, and previous mayors didn’t even do that much. It’s disheartening to see Ed Murray’s team not even be able to match the halfassedness of his predecessor.

But maybe I’m making too much of one thing. Oh (Seattle Times link).

Bailey, who was appointed interim chief last month by Mayor Ed Murray, said he took the action as part of a sweeping review of more than 25 pending grievances stemming from backlogged disciplinary actions imposed by former interim Chief Jim Pugel and former Police Chief John Diaz.

He said he wants to “get all of these things cleaned up before the new chief comes,” a reference to Murray’s goal to find a permanent chief by the end of April.

Bailey said he was working with the City Attorney’s Office and the Seattle Police Officers’ Guild (SPOG) to resolve some of the cases.

We let police officers carry guns and arrest people on the public dime. We ought to expect there will be some accountability when the fuck up, but it’s looking like even that is too much to ask.