One initiative is born. Another initiative dies. Just days after voters approve Tim Eyman’s blatantly unconstitutional and laughably unworkable I-960, the state Supreme Court throws out Timmy’s laughably unconstitutional and blatantly unworkable I-747. It’s the Tim Eyman version of the “circle of life.”
“A voter reading the text of the initiative could believe that he or she was voting to reduce the property tax limit by 1 percent instead of by 5 percent, a substantially different impact on the public coffers, as well as the perceived benefit to the individual voter’s purse,” the majority, led by Justice Bobbe Bridge, wrote.
To sum up the 5-4 decision, the majority ruled that I-747 technically violated the state Constitution, while the dissenters argued that yeah, sorta, but voters weren’t confused. Personally, I’m a big fan of the rule of law, so I side with the majority.
Eyman has passed six initiatives since achieving celebrity status in 1999, four of which have now been thrown out by the courts in whole or in part… with I-960 sure to make number five. And while it would be fun to tease Tim about his woeful inability to write laws that are, you know, legal — and I’d absolutely love to poke fun at the legal eagles who share credit for crafting I-747, state Attorney General Rob McKenna and state Supreme Court Justice Jim Johnson — I think I’d rather take this opportunity to post a more constructive commentary.
Eyman has arrogantly challenged the Legislature to respond to today’s court ruling, and I think they should do exactly that, by reimposing I-747, but at a more realistic limit factor on revenue growth of 4% or inflation, whichever is lower. This would allow local governments to continue to provide services at current levels without being forced to go to voters every couple years for special purpose lid lifts, while providing the kind of budgeting stability afforded the private sector. With energy and health care costs continuing to skyrocket, I-747’s 1% limit factor is simply unsustainable.
At the same time, Democrats in Olympia need to take the lead on providing targeted and meaningful property tax relief to those who need it most, without bankrupting the local governments that provide the bulk of our essential public services. I have long championed a revenue neutral Property Tax Homestead Exemption tied to median county home prices, that would partially reverse a decades long trend in which tax burden has gradually shifted from commercial property and the very wealthy to working and middle income homeowners. But the folks at the Washington State Budget & Policy Center have a better, if more complicated, proposal: a Property Tax Circuit Breaker.
Circuit breakers provide targeted, revenue neutral relief by providing a graduated tax credit that kicks in when property taxes exceed a certain percentage of household income, and unlike a homestead exemption, the credit can be made available to renters and homeowners alike. In a state that earns the dubious honor of having the most regressive tax structure in the nation, a well-designed circuit breaker would not only provide substantial relief to low- and middle-income households — say, a 15% reduction in property taxes — it would also restore a bit of fairness and equity. Lower income households would still pay a higher share of income in property taxes than wealthier households, but the size of the imbalance would be lower.
This is a smart and progressive proposal that lowers property taxes on the majority of voters while raising those on the wealthiest households by only about 2 percent. It is time for Democrats to seize control of this debate from demagogues like Eyman and the GOP leadership, by offering real leadership and real solutions. It is time to approve a property tax circuit breaker.
i love how mr. eyman continues to costs the state dollar upon dollar…the next intitiative should be on this cost…like a civil court suit it is time for the losers of these intitives to pay the court costs when these are overruled.
Timmie has no interest in successful initiatives. He can just play martyr by claiming that the courts are thwarting the “will of the people” and continue cranking out losers, all the while making a living that obviously suits him. His lawyers continue to make money out of the deal.
It’s about Timmie’s lifestyle, not about public policy.
This is NOT a NEW CONCEPT.
Gregoire promised to do something and suggested 4% and the legislature only talked about it……………
Goldy, you are correct about the regressive taxes and the circuit breaker would work for most of us!
Golly. Being a lefty must mean you cannot understand what the phrase “1%” means.
Kinda like those dumbasses down in Florida who cannot read or understand their ballots.
Sucks to be a liberal…
Unless you’re Bobbe Bridge. She just sucks. And crashes cars. And flees accidents. And lies about it. Oh. That’s right: She’s a democrat.
Interesting that no lefties here so far seems to understand that the court circumvented what the voters wanted.
Dino will surely jump on this one; Gregoire did a reach around into everyone’s wallets and you idiots are applauding this?
Cant wait til we get a GOP governor who takes apart all her social programs and denies this over reaching by our SC.
HA says: “It is time for Democrats to seize control of this debate from demagogues like Eyman and the GOP leadership”
wow… ‘its time’ …? what have your ‘leaders’ been doing for the past 30 years goldy? they sure havent been showing any leadership – when do finally admit your party cant do the job? how many more decades do you expect to put up with them?
Taxes tied to income…
How communist of you!
Interesting that no lefties here so far seems to understand that the court circumvented what the voters wanted.
The point of the ruling is that the initiative was so badly written it’s not clear what the voters wanted. The court was standing up for the voters.
Ann @6,
Interesting that no righties here seem to understand the rule of law.
“I hate Republicans and everything they stand for.” Howard Dean
Remember 2006? 2008 will have you all re-christening yourselves as ‘Mr. Irrelevant’.
I’m already calling you that.
I’d like to sponsor an initiative calling for the public waterboarding of Tim Eyman, because of his costing the state so much money defending all of the initiatives which were subsequently struck down. Then we can see what the will of the voters is!
re 8: “Taxes tied to income…
How communist of you!”
‘Communism’ means that everything is held in common. I don’t think Communists care much for tax schedules.
That doesn’t take into account the issue of population growth. The Puget Sound region is expected to gain a million people in the next 20 years, driving a concomitant increase in demand for government services. A 4% or lower growth rate in state revenue is not adequate to support this kind of population growth.
That’s why there are no new DMV offices anywhere in the Seattle Metro area and haven’t been for years. The state can’t afford it. What happens? Service at the DMV goes to hell, wait time goes ‘way up and people bitch about how crappy “the government” is. Well yeah, it gets that way when you don’t pay for it.
Limiting revenue growth is exactly the reverse of the way to manage state government. Watching spending, making sure it’s appropriate and not wasted (believe it or not, I agreed with Eyman’s push for performance audits)…that is the way to manage state spending.
And, friends, that is the reason Tim Eyman’s initiatives are bad for the state of Washington.
NO. We don’t need more byzantine laws to manage a stupid, regressive tax structure. Start with an income tax. Eliminate the state portion of the sales tax and the B&O tax. Lower the property tax. Quit adding more layers of cruft to the steaming pile that is our tax structure.
It’s time.
-OM
NO JOKE
Tidal wave heading for English Channel poses ‘extreme danger to life’ | the Daily Mail: “Tidal wave heading for English Channel poses ‘extreme danger to life’ Last updated at 20:19pm on 8th November 2007 Comments Comments (9) A three-metre tidal surge is predicted to surge down the English Channel in the next 12 hours posing an ‘extreme danger to life and property’, experts have warned. Coupled with storms and high tides, the wave could leave swathes of the east coast under water, according to the Environment Agency.”
Results out on a new Washington Poll match up between Gregoire and Rossi.
See it file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/Scott%20St.%20Clair/Local%20Settings/Temporary%20Internet%20Files/Content.IE5/WH0BSZCF/110807%5B1%5D.ppt#272,2,WA Governor’s Election – 2008
It has Gregoire at 46.8% and Rossi at 42.4% with a 4% MOE. This means that Rossi is within .4% (that’s POINT 4) of overtaking Charisma-less Christine, the supposedly excellent leader who’s done so much for the state.
By all rights, she should be 10 to 15 points ahead…She’s going to have to run for her life for the next 12-months in order just to break even.
As to Tim? Curious how the courts always find fault with his stuff but not with others. Still…his initiatives have their intended effect in acting as a check against a tax happy legislature.
Any politico who takes this court decision as a license to fiscally rape, pillage, and burn will be spanked by the people come election time.
And to those who whine about how Ol’ Tim stymies Olympia? He says, “Boo!” and the chickens down there cower. That’s what you get for electing chickens.
Amazing how one guy can lead those peckerwoods around by the nose while HA Happy Hooligans complain about how he engineers the debate.
Tantamount to a eunuch taking Viagara…I might understand the motive, but net, net, net…no nuts.
The Piper
Okay, I have a graduate degree, but it would take me a while to work through the “circuit breaker”. I don’t see how it helps out the renters. I also don’t think something that complicated will pass muster here – too easy for the Wingnuts to say it means something it doesn’t, and for the electorate to be too frustrated by being unable to sort out the details amid the counter-claims (which I think was a problem with Proposition 1).
But I agree that we need to make some adjustments, because most of the Wingnut victories on the tax issues have been when they jumped into the fray right when inflation was causing an unexpected increase in tax impacts. That happened in the California Prop. 13 (1978, I think), the “Reagan Revolution” (1980), and when Tim Eyman first brought his $35 car tab initiatives (right when car prices were jumping into the mid 20,000’s). In each case, inflation was causing tax rates which were originally formulated to hit only those most able to pay for it (the relatively few wealthy)to be shifted onto more of the middle-class. By jumping on the issue then, they do so before legislatures make adjustments on their own, and use it to create an immense over-reaction for the intended purpose of “starving” government until it can no longer perform its intended functions.
Right now we need to be careful that such a situation is not being created with respect to both property taxes (locally), and the Alternative Minimum Tax (nationally).
Unfortunately, it will be hard to adjust the latter (the AMT), now that the Bush administration and the previous Republican Congress have created a fiscal emergency due to their incompetent and immoral looting of the federal treasury to benefit their large corporations through no-bid contracts, deficit spending, and ballooning federal debt. To do so they will have to raise the ceiling dramatically, and at the same time repeal Bush’s tax cut for the rich, which might only turn out to be a wash.
Regardless of whether or not it is revenue-neutral, the Republicans will continue to yell about the “tax-and-spend” Democrats, (as if that is any better than the “borrow-and-spend” Republicans), even though the Democrates will be trying hard to clean up the mess left to them by the past six years of Republican partying on the taxpayer’s dime.
@13 Correct
Communist’s AREN’T for tax schedules.
They ARE for TAKING what they want.
The Washington State Budget & Policy Center proposal is simply an income tax coupled with a property tax rebate. Let’s be upfront about it. They support the income tax for WA – why not just push that and be done with it? Where is the honesty?
Gregoire should have some guts and campaign on instituting a state income tax in 2009. 2008 is going to be the bluest year since 1976 in the USA. This is the chance to get something done.
@5 I like the 1% concept. It’s just a matter of what context you apply it to. For example, let’s limit warmongers to 1% of the federal budget. This means every 20 years they can afford to fight a small “police action” in some shithole Carribean or African half-nation. That will keep them occupied while limiting the damage they do.
Caribbean
@6 Interesting that you don’t understand what a constitution is for, or what “unconstitutional” means. Which is a little strange coming from a member of America’s new permanent minority, which is always complaining about what the liberal majority allegedly does to them.
@6 It’s a “freedom” thing, honey. As in, “freedom to collect enough taxes to pay for governments services the majority of voters want.” Know what I mean? (wink-wink)
#23 is especially addressed to the faction that wants a ton of government services (especially the variety that goes “boom”) but doesn’t want to pay for any of them.
Republicans = freeloaders
@16 Overtaking? Wasn’t so long ago that you Rossi-sheep were bleating about him being 30 points ahead of Gregoire. Have you noticed which direction the momentum is going? Rossi’s best chance would be if the election was held today, but unfortunately for him, he’s still got another year to lose more ground to Gregoire. The Gregoire-Rossi rematch won’t even be close, Piper. Gregoire by 8 points.
Tim Eyman is a dinosaur.
It’s a shame that voters have such an undeserved fondness for the old “initiative 601” mentality, and that Republicans have somehow sucessfully inculcated in the public a distrust of the representatives they voted into office. I range pretty constantly from surprised to amazed at this.
The real “freedom” is the freedom to elect whom you want to enact the policies you want. The initiative process aas a check on “government” is another dinosaur from the western Progressive movment that has been co-opted by conservatives as a vehicle for lying, misleading campaigns to derail representatvie government.
@17 “Regardless of whether or not it is revenue-neutral, the Republicans will continue to yell about the ‘tax-and-spend’ Democrats …”
They’ll also continue to call themselves the “law and order” and “family values” and “fiscal responsibility” party; but now that voters have seen how they actually govern, all of their claims are ringing hollow. Only about 35% of the populace listens anymore.
@19 I agree. Sims laid the groundwork for tax reform by campaigning for an income tax in 2004. The fact he lost doesn’t mean the tax issue has died. This issue will be front and center in the 2008 campaign, and Gregoire should address it. This week’s election is culminating proof that the well is dry under the current tax system and nothing can be done to address this state’s transportation, education, and other needs until the affluent taxpayers who have enjoyed an extraordinary seven decades of tax grace pitch their fair share into the pot.
Praying For Rain
It’s eerie how all of the coincidences came together at one time and place.
Georgia is in the grip of a 100-year drought.
Georgia has its first Republican governor since Reconstruction.
Georgia has a water supply crisis.
Bush vetoed water works funding.
Wonder if there’s any connection between the last two? Ya thunk? Republicans don’t believe in paying taxes or spending public funds on things that actually help people in our own country carry on the daily business of living.
So, it’s not exactly a big fucking surprise that after 6 1/2 years of domestic parsimony under Republican rule, opening a water tap in Atlanta produces nothing except a squeaking sound.
Well, Georgia’s Republican governor has the answer! No taxes or public spending required, folks! He’s going to solve Atlanta’s water problems by PRAYING FOR RAIN.
http://news.aol.com/story/_a/g.....0000000001
I wouldn’t pray for peace in George, though. If you do, Governor Sonny might call you a “commie” and hold you in the county jail as a subversive until the CIA can “render” you to Afghanistan for interrogation.
Piper are you even in our universe. You are crowing about your “victory” on Tuesday. You are seriously (laughably) holding up Tim Eyman as some sort of a hero (anti-Christ) and you expect people to take you seriously? I thought for a time that you might be slightly more intelligent than the average wingnut, I apologize, I was wrong. You are actually dumber. As in Dumb and Dumber.
Republicans and their causes are fast losing their grip and their ground. You lost Governorships and state houses this past Tuesday. Yet you choose to cackle on about some less than trend setting, policy making initiatives. Bully for you, Piper, ignore the facts and paint a rosy picture that only you can see.
For the rest of us, we know the trend. We know the truth. We know America is a middle of the road county, contrary to what your Grand Poobah Limbaugh is preaching. Extremism will work short term, long term…..not so much.
The liberal left, middle of the road voters have seen the tired act and we are taking our damn country back.
So sit back, relax. The adults are in charge now.
By the way, Rossi is going to get his clock cleaned next year. This is when the big blue wave hits. You can’t stop it. Your president’s ego has insured that. He destroyed your party for the next two decades. Your party is not even thinking about gaining seats, it is trying to stop the bleeding and minimize the losses. Good luck.
For the most part I have been very polite with you but I have grown weary of your act and really do wish you would take your propensity to shit over to unsoundpolitics and stink that place up. They could use the business and you would be a hero, not a zero. Although watching you self-fornicate is entertaining.
Click here for photo of Republican-funded water project. http://www.rocktownweekly.com/.....321515.jpg
Well, isn’t this special … “Governor” Gregoire has signed on as an Eyman groupie. She’s told the legislature to bypass the liberally drunk BobbeBridge 5/4 Court and to enact 747. What’s next?
[] Gregoire endorses Rossi for governor, 2008
[] Goldstein endorses Gregoire’s endorsement of Rossi
[] Gregoire and Goldstein endorse Eyman for governor, 2004, no recount or magical mystery ballots required
Liberals are so damn cute when they’re insane, which is pretty much all the time.
@30
It’s the sound of desperation. If you can’t find anything su7bstantive to say, make something up.
Su7bstantive = Republican term for successful….
@#@
So are sockpuppet trolls. We need more humour in here.
The reps you voted into office dropped the ball last year. The Dems were given an easy out, the opportunity to anticipate and to pre-empt another dumb move by a divided and liberally drunk Court. To forestall the suicide pact that BobbeBridge handed today to Gregoire et al., Chopp’s chumps could have already done what a hysterical ‘governor’ now wants them to do pronto: vindicate and validate Eyman’s 747.
You think these dumb Dems are adults? You think they’re in charge? I think you and they need to up your meds.
It’s clear chadt’s groveling in the gutter with his 40, about the 40th today, so let’s let him get down to serious drinkin’ with Bobbe while we go straight to Goldy: Scott Noble today, on your station, said the Court’s stupid decision is stupid, a “disaster.” He said his phone started ringing off the hook from the very first morning moment when the Will of the People was stuffed and snuffed by Bobbe’s Court.
Who was calling? Taxing districts and authorities, all demanding an immediate retroactive (to 2001) 20% jump in your progressive prop taxes. Hope they tax you right out on the street with chadt and Bobbe, Goldstein, so maybe you can crawl back to PA (the state and the papa, the source of your trust-fund-red-diaper-baby trust fund) and the rest of us can get back to work trying to save the Soviet of Seattle from the commies.
“Rossi is going to get his clock cleaned next year …” Not after today, he ain’t. That’s why pristine Christine suddenly got religion and became a tax rebel.
Eyman has saved The Producers over 7 BILLION DOLLARS.
This is just another battle in a long war. We are winning and will continue to win.
Obviously, we’ve also got some work to do on the court to get rid of activist judges.
@32 Oh yes, run Eyman for governor, yes yes yes please God yes yes yes yes yes yes !!!!!!
If Richard Pope and Tim Eyman teamed up, maybe they could win something that would stand up in court.
@39 How? By passing unconstitutional initiatives? Pay your fucking gambling debt, loser!
Welcome home, Mark. Under Eyman’s “unworkable” 747, in place since 2001, every hysterical ranting rant made against 747 in 2001 has been proven hollow and baseless. His unworkable initiative worked. It broke the circuit (more Goldyspeak, more nonsense) of monomaniacal bureaucratic control of the debate and of the controls, the knobs and switches that separated producers from their income.
Bureaucrats, under 747, and least had to go through the motions of justifying their greed and their purported need for your money. Or they had to twist like pretzels to convince you that Medic 1, for example, was not a necessary function of govt to be supported from general funds, but was a function so necessary that you should pay for it anyway as a special levy.
Some bureaucrats and other ‘Crats even had to learn to do their jobs better … efficiency, effectivness, and all that.
100 years ago Big Business was seen as a greedy and unaccountable evil empire. Now it’s Big Bureaucracy. Tawdry Tim Eyman, with all his tawdry faults, is pulling liberals out of their 100-year-old previous condition of certitude about evil in the world. He’s showing them domineering evil today, and he’s showing them that they are it.
Ummm, ummmmm. The hippity hops in my He Brew 40 are makin’ me see sunshine. Life’s good. There is a God. I feel good. (signed) The Artist Formerly Known as James Brown
Love the trolls. A sure sign of continuing success.
“Medic 1, for example, was not a necessary function of govt to be supported from general funds, but was a function so necessary that you should pay for it anyway as a special levy.”
Question for PlayBoy Bunnies Gloria Steinem & Roger Rabbit: Did making Medic One off-budget (in the sense of removing it from General Fund funding) mean that more necessary functions of government, such as dump art, were assured funding that couldn’t be abridged?
And love the V-Dub Bugs. Heavy phlegm, hold the snot.
Goldy’s usual extreme jealousy of good buddy Tim passing an initiative; then a pathetic delusional “reason” he derives to justify why the people were “mislead” in his own tiny mind. Sorry Goldy, you lost. Get over yourself. Turns out you’re not as right and correct or even near as important as you think you are. :)
Welcome home, Mark. Under Eyman’s “unworkable” 747, in place since 2001, every hysterical ranting rant made against 747 in 2001 has been proven hollow and baseless.
I was around when 747 was debated. The debate wasn’t hysterical or ranting. Opponents said that 747 was stupid, because it will require local governments to continuously spend money having annual elections that could otherwise be spent on providing services, and it’ll gradually erode their ability to provide services. That’s exactly what’s happened.
South King Fire and Resuce (Federal Way and Des Moines), Maple Valley Fire, North Highline Fire, and on and on have had to have an election every year. I think that money is better spent on emergency services. I don’t understand why you don’t.
Or they had to twist like pretzels to convince you that Medic 1, for example, was not a necessary function of govt to be supported from general funds, but was a function so necessary that you should pay for it anyway as a special levy.
Do you have any idea how the taxing system in this state works? Medic 1 is funded by a property tax levy because in unincorporated areas throughout the state it’s the responsbility of fire districts to provide the service. They need a revenue source to pay for it. King County is unusual in that the tax is collected countywide. It’s not the county’s responsbility to provide the service; it’s individual districts and counties. It also provides a dedicated funding source that cannot be touched by politicians and spent on something else. I thought Eymanites believed that government didn’t spend money effectively; here’s an example where government CAN’T take the money and spend it on something else, and you bitch about it. Make up your mind.
Besides, what are you complaining about? In King County the EMS levy is .29/1000 AV. Almost everywhere else in the state it’s .50/1000 AV for a lower level of service. We’re getting higher levels service for less money, and you’re complaining about it?
I am glad you folks and your liberal courts have failed to see what the people resoundingly said in this last election. Our bank books are closed to your continual withdrawls! 50+ Billion should be enough to run a significant state government.
Massive Property tax Hikes are a Number 1 complaint to most all in our legislature. Ask Them! They are driving people out of their homes, cabins, rentals, etc in this state. Your governor and legislature promised last session and completely failed to do anything at all to curb them, and now they will get a chance to really sweat over them before the next electio, because it will be a very very hot topic now.
Your choice!
I am certain your side will fail to address this issue, because there is simply never enough want and need for more by your side.
There will be consequences of this lack of action however, as seen in the last and most probably in the next election in this state.
GS,
Tell us, what is the percentage of the average property tax bill that is made up of voter approved tax levies?
When you get the answer, get back to us. It’ll be enlightening for you. Then instead of blaming somebody else for high property tax bills, perhaps you’ll realize that the reason we pay higher property taxes is because we choose to vote for higher property taxes.
How about a progressive state tax structure? A graduated state income tax would be a good idea — something which 40 other states have, with most of them being graduated to a lesser or greater degree. Nothing bizarre or left field about that idea.
I don’t really like Tim Eyman, and stopped voting for his initiatives several elections ago. However, people in this state are fed up with regressive taxes and proposals to increase these regressive taxes. So it makes a lot of sense to most voters to support Eyman’s tax initiatives, since the voter pays a far higher percentage of their income for the taxes Eyman wants to cut, than do upper income folks.
I will rephrase that slightly. Tim Eyman can be a nice person at times, and we have exchanged a number of e-mails. I won’t say that I dislike him as a person. But I don’t really like his political positions that much.
BAX, in the last two F’n years, the County has raised my property by 50%. My taxes went up $600 last year alone, and will likely this year go up more than $600 due to the Libaral Judges tossing out the 1% and 2% VOTER approved measures, and will now go to 5% or more if the 30% banked BS doesn’t land.
How much, How the F much more will you bastards take, and what will this do to all rents in this state?
You are driving people out of their property, their homes, and their lives, by your liberal judges and your massive taxation.
I am one step from selling a very special home that a great long time friend left me because I can no longer afford the massive increases in Property tax on it.
You people have no clue what your massive taxation is doing to the people of this state.
This very country was formed because of over taxation, and this state is on the verge of that fate!
You will have a revolt over this massive continual taxation very soon! I guarantee it!
Timmy gets paid a hefty salary from his initiative machine. He uses simple demagoguery to promote initiatives he himself can’t explain. Once they pass the state has to pay to defend them from other government agencies. Finally when they’re overturned he can feign mock outrage and fundraise around them. Timmy and the lawyers get paid while the taxpayers take it on the chin.
You are driving people out of their property, their homes, and their lives, by your liberal judges and your massive taxation.
Take a look at your tax bill. I’m willing to bet that at least 30% of it, and more likely around 40% or more is voter approved tax levies. The main reason your tax bill is what it is is because the voters have decided that’s what they want. People need to quit blaming elected officials and start accepting responsibility for the consequences of their choices.
@56 “Take a look at your tax bill. I’m willing to bet that at least 30% of it, and more likely around 40% or more is voter approved tax levies.”
WRONG. The largest part of each our tax bills goes to Education. 52% of the state budget goes to Education.
WRONG. The largest part of each our tax bills goes to Education. 52% of the state budget goes to Education.
I’m talking about property tax bills, not the state budget. When you look at an itemized property tax bill, you’ll see a variety of different things: county, city (if you’re in one), fire district (if you’re in one), state school levy, hospital district, ports, and on and on. What you’ll also see are things like EMS levies, local school district levies, construction bond levies, and the like — these are all voter approved. When you look at these voter approved levies, they typically are 30-40% or more of the average property tax bill.
The reason property tax bills are as high as they are is because of the way we’ve voted. If we wanted lower taxes, we could decide to vote for lower taxes, but we don’t, because we value the services we vote for.
Eyman serves an important function: bitch-slapping government.
And that’s a good thing.