Goldy notes the irony of suburban screw Seattle people who support sub area equity getting screwed by it (while getting a deserved jab at Rob McKenna).
Of course, that’s not how “sub-area equity” was originally billed. No, McKenna and other backers pushed it as a way to protect the rest of the Sound Transit taxing district from evil/greedy Seattle, which otherwise would have presumably sucked in all their tax dollars to build transit here. How’s that working out for you, Federal Way? Be sure to appropriately thank Mr. McKenna for his head-up-ass transit balkanization policy when he runs for governor in 2012.
Of course that’s true enough. But I was actually a bit surprised. Typically, cities do better than suburban and exurban areas in public transit funding. King County pays Seattle more for Metro than it gets back, for example. Schemes like 40-40-20 and sub area equity tend to hurt Seattle, but typically the more dense an area is, the better suited for public transit. The better suited for public transit, the more public transit there is.
If the cities were a drain on the rest of the state or county, schemes like sub area equity would make a bit of sense. But we only seem to get them on things like transit funding that benefit urban areas. Somehow, we never hear about the need for sub areas to pay for themselves on a whole host of state and county things that Seattle pays the bulk of.
If going back a few decades, the state had sub area equity for road building, we could afford to have that gold plated tunnel I keep hearing about. If we had sub area equity in education, Seattle and other King County school districts wouldn’t have to pass so many bonds. If we had sub area equity in social services, Seattle could move toward ending homelessness for real rather than just talk about it, sometimes. If King county had sub area equity for road building, I doubt very much that we’d have had to close the South Park bridge. If we had sub area equity for police, directing them to trouble spots like Belltown wouldn’t be so difficult a choice for McGinn. If we had sub area equity for sewers, well maybe when I say I’m going to the throne, it wouldn’t be a metaphor.
Of course, there are good reasons not to have sub area equity in those things. Rural King County needs those cops too; I’ve been very grateful for rural King County cops on a number of occasions. The entire state benefits from educating children in areas that don’t pay as much in taxes. I just wish we could see the benefits in the areas where Seattle and other urban areas don’t pay as much as they get back.
Talk about getting screwed, I hope you are not a college student, after Gregoire decided to allow them to set the tuition rates by themselves.
I’m glad I bought the get program, raise the tuition all you want, the legislature will then deal with how the H the GET program will have ample funding tor her skyrocketing tuition rates.
1 – Why would a right wing block head like you want to send their kids to a WA school? Aren’t those schools overrun by “libruls” like HA’s own Darryl?
Send them to Texas – they’ve got 27 billion to cut, brain damage (like here) when it comes to raising revenues and they’re giving tax breaks to yacht buyers.
@2
Better yet, send them to Florida where employees of the Kotch Brothers get to pick the profs.
Carl, the only thing stopping Seattle from solving its homeless problem, building better public schools, and so on is Seattle. Please stop blaming the rest of the state for the failures of Seattle’s elected and unelected (non)leadership.
Nope we’re limited on much we can tax ourselves.
Geez, my oldest kid is now going to a brand spanking newly remodeled high school. The teachers are great. There’s all kinds of opportunity at the high school. Our little family has no complaints at the moment.
The middle school our youngest attends did suffer in the recent cutbacks and the staff is hard pressed to hold up the quality of education they were accustomed to delivering in the past.
That sucks and I blame our brain dead politicians for not reforming taxes.
Kinda supports what I was saying @4.
Building better schools has a lot more too it than just taxes.
Seattle’s failures are Seattle’s and I’m tired of hearing them passed off on the rest of the state.
@ 2
They need to cut Teachers from the rolls so they can build that new F1 Racetrack in Austin. Teh State is offering $25 million per year for 10 years to bring Formula 1 racing back to the U.S. That is a total of $250 million that the State of Texas is going to spend on a track that is only going to be used ONCE A YEAR. They’re excuse is that it will bring in Mexican and South American racing fans into Texas as tourists.
What they don’t mention is, the entry fee for racing is $5 million per car, the cars cost an average of $2 million each when you include ancillary costs, and the only people that can afford that in Mexico are the Drug Cartels.
I guess subsidizing a once a year auto race is more important than having a public school system that functions.
@4,
That paragraph was somewhat tongue in cheek, and I lay out in the next paragraph that it isn’t an ideal solution. But is your argument here that Seattle wouldn’t benefit from having more state and county tax money stay in it?
No, my argument is that money is only one part of the equation and that Seattle’s problems: lack of vision, lack of unity in voice and spirit, fucked up school district, traffic jams, rampant homeless drunks down town, stem in large part from Seattle’s own elected and unelected (non)leadership. The people of Ritzville might take a little of Seattle’s cash, but they didn’t cause any of these problems.
Maybe it shouldn’t have been.
2. I could send them to the Chicago school of Obama mafia. They can learn how to balance a budget by printing trillions in monopoly money. And then say they are serious about cutting the deficit…
10 – Yeah. Send them to a Chicago area school. They might learn that it’s pretty unpopular to continue the failed policies of a previous administration and that it’s the Federal Reserve that prints Federal Reserve notes and trades Treasury Bills in exchange for higher account reserves, i.e. QE – not the White House.
Carl,
You’ve got some good ideas and a good vision of what Seattle should be, you should run for something. Or take Goldy’s Kick Ass Playground Idea and run with it. The playground is a great idea and really should happen, if not at the Seattle Center, than somewhere else in the city. You really should think about it.
And just out of curiosity why the fuck isn’t a single member of Seattle’s Park Commissioners elected? That really is fucked up. If I was in Seattle and I wanted to get my hands on a campaign I’d go for direct election of park board members.
@12,
That’s very kind, but you don’t get to agitate in the way I like to if you’re considering running for office.
“that gold plated tunnel I keep hearing about”
Which one? The $4 billion waterfront tunnel, or the $2.5 billion U District-to-Northgate light rail tunnel? And let’s not overlook the $4 – $6 billion floating bridge, even though it’s not a tunnel …
No matter how much politicians promise this or that group they won’t have to pay for this stuff, it’s clear the politicians won’t pay for it themselves, which means we have to.
A billion dollars for two sports stadiums. Another quarter billion to revamp Husky Stadium. Over ten billion dollars for two tunnels and a bridge. Another quarter billion dollars for the South Park bridge. Close to thirty billion dollars for light rail.
Two comments. First of all, I get the feeling we’re being overcharged for this stuff. After all, the second Tacoma Narrows Bridge, a giant suspension bridge made mostly of steel, was built for about $850 million. So how the fucking hell can a bridge across Lake Washington made of concrete pontoons cost 5 to 7 times that much, unless some contractor is getting filty rich at our expense, and the politicians who gave him the contract are taking under-the-table payoffs? I fail to see how it’s humanly possible to spend that much money on concrete pontoons.
Secondly, all that money for local stadia and infrastructure projects has to come from somewhere, and unless we’re getting it from the Saudis or Mars, which seems doubtful, it’s coming from us. Divide the cost of these projects by King County’s population and you’ve got roughly $20,000 per person. For a family of four that’s eighty grand. That’s a hell of a lot of money for the lucky job applicant who got one of those $9-an-hour hamburger flipping jobs at McDonald’s or for granny on Social Security.
It seems to me that local public works spending is not merely out of control, it’s running amok. The waterfront tunnel is useful for only one thing — increasing waterfront property values. So let those property owners pay for it. Undergrounding 2 1/2 miles of light rail at a cost of $500 million a mile is too ridiculous for words; it would be far cheaper to buy all the homes one one side of 5th Ave. N.E. and run it above ground. As for the $4 billion floating bridge, I say fire the accountants and hire someone with better math skills. If they can’t get the cost of a bunch of concrete pontoons down to $850 million, then screw the whole floating bridge idea and build a suspension bridge across Lake Washington. Husky Stadium? We’ve already got one, don’t need another one.
Someone around here has a very unrealistic idea of how much money we proletarians have. It’s time to set those people straight. The reality is there’s no fucking way they’re gonna get $40 billion out of Roger Rabbit. Even if the stock market exceeds everyone’s wildest hopes for the next 30 years.
@1 No problem, neither you nor anyone with your DNA will ever have to worry about paying UW tuition, since you have to get accepted for admission first.
@10 That’s pretty much what the GOP did when they ran the government for 8 years, which is why it now takes $110 to buy a barrel of oil and $1,500 to buy an ounce of gold. I’m seeing food prices leap by 30%, 40%, even 60% a year and the government tells us there’s no inflation. That’s a fucking lie.
@14 Really? Republicans do it all the time, so why can’t you?
See, this is the problem with progressives. They refuse to behave like Republicans. They’ve got to.
@ 19
You mean, sell off Public assets to private companies? Like schools, prisons, roads, freeways, public parks and broadcast radio bands?
How about going to the trouble to legalize bribery and graft amongst congresspeople and court justices? Or legalize foreign corporations and governments interventions into our lawmaking processes? How about passing laws simply to give themselves something to campaign on then refusing to allow systems to be built or funds to be allocated to enforce those laws? Perhaps selling off the Presidency to the highest bidder no matter what their intentions or history?
No thanks, I’d rather live in the United States.
Carl with yet another one of his ” I hate anybody who doesnt live in Seattle” threads.
yawn….
I’m going to use Carl’s logic for a second:
Carl, I can pretty much guarentee I pay WAY more in state taxes than you do(property taxes, sales taxes, etc…), therefore I should get the use of much more public monies that you do.
sound good to you?
Oh, and since I pay so much more than you do, I also get to tell you what YOU can and cant spend your money on.
dont like it? tough shit big guy.
hmmm…I kinda like your logic.
@7
the track will be used more than once a year you fool.
@7
LMFAO…you dont have a clue about F1 racing at all……
I’m gonna paste your post at a F1 site for some real laughs.
@ 24
Actually, I followed F1 racing for years. The average team costs total about $25 million per year to operate. It is clear that Texas, one of the most deeply debt-ridden States in the Union, would rather have State subsidized sports teams for billionaires than a functioning public school system. They’re already toward the bottom in High School graduation rates.
It seems to me that the Great State of Texas should concentrate on building a school system that actually provides education rather than such a rabidly devotional attitude to sports teams that do nothing but entertain the plebes.
@25
now you really stepped your foot in it..
the average F1 team budger isnt $25 million you putz, its well over $100 million. $25 million wont even get you through the front door. Toyota’s budger a few years ago was over $700 million for one year….LMFAO $25 million. Ya, you really followed it…LOL.
None of the race teams are being subsidized by texas tax payers, because there are NO US F1 TEAMS.
and your premise that some drug dealer from mexico can show up and race if he puts in $5 million is just about the most absurd thing I have heard of.
the process for applying for entry into f1 via FOTA and FIA takes well over year, and there are no current openings for any teams right now.
my god some of the people that post here are the most clueless I have ever seen.
My point is, that I could give a rats ass about auto racing at all. The fact that Texas is willing, in fact eager to cut public school funding to build and support an extremely limited and expensive sports facility at taxpayers expense seems completely lost on you.
I could honestly give a fuck about sports, and taxpayers funds shouldn’t be used to support any form of it whatsoever.
I have no arguement with that…I dont think public funds should go towards sports either.
Problem is you support your arguement on completely idiotic “data”.
Bottom line, dont claim to be in the know about something when it is clearly obvious that you dont have any idea what you are talking about. Kinda defeats the purpose, would not you agree?
@21,
Some day you’ll learn about things like irony and exaggeration and you’ll understand what you read just like the big kids. Until then, just know when someone asks for their roadways to be made of gold and their toilets to be actual thrones, that they may not be 100% serious. Perhaps you’ll also learn about when to use apostrophes and quotation marks. Good luck in your studies!
Also, you seem to be arguing that wealthy people who pay more property taxes don’t have a disproportionate influence on politics. Interesting thesis, but I think if you do a little digging you’ll find that it isn’t totally correct.
@29
thats our Carl….keep that hate going Carly…
oh, and we get inspector punctuation too! oh goody!
You are slowly sinking down the pathetic chart to YLB and Rujax territory Carl
Whats the matter Carl? You dont think the rich should make all the rules? hey man, I am just using YOUR logic.
you got punked(for the 3rd time on your “I hate the suburbs and easter WA” threads) – now shut STFU and run along.
“Digging” for this cretin is tuning into the Monson show.
Deep into his cups it seems. There it is, the BillO/Monson impulse.
another day of YLB posting all…..day ……..long…….
way to contribute to the family income there big guy….your old lady must be so proud.
What does goldnuts pay you to keep posting here? A dollar a post? and you have how many posts now? 30,000? 40,000?.
wow….just……wow…….
33,34 – You’ve been here post for post.
What’s your poison? Bushmill’s? Maker’s Mark?
34 – I have 21,000 or so.
That’s in comparison to Puddybud’s 30,000+. He’s a fitting #2.
Roger Rabbit beats us both by a longshot.
You’re no slouch yourself. You must have 2 or 3 thousand by now.
What has that done for you? I guess it allows you to hallucinate non-existent U.S. purchases of Iranian oil or other stupidities.
Keep it up.
Carl, those words are too hard to understand for this moron.