Most of Initiative 985 Money to go for Road Building

What a surprise. The bulk of the money siphoned by Initiative 985 from the Washington State General Fund will go for "increasing road capacity". It's not really about carpool lanes or traffic synchronization, except as a gimmick to convince voters to set up a special fund to "increase road capacity."

Initiative 985 is really a stealth attack to siphon money now committed to education and public safety in the state budget and spend it for building more roads - an approach that has been shown elsewhere to not reduce congestion but just increase more cars on the road.

Eyman likes to say it will not increase taxes but the reality is it will take new taxes to make up the cuts in money now allocated to other state programs like education and public safety in the budget or it will entail cutting education and public safety.

The Washington State Office of Financial Management has released their revised financial impact of Initiative 985 to be in the voter's pamphlet.

Their analysis does a breakdown of where the approximately $573.9 million dollars, mostly siphoned out of the state's general fund over 5 years, will be spent.

The bulk of this money will come from the 15% transfer of sales and use taxes on motor vehicles from the general fund to Eyman's congestion fund.

After you do an initial synchronization of traffic lights just how much money is needed each year to keep such a system operating? The state's Office of Financial Management estimates some $65 million over 5 years would be spent.

The cost of opening carpool lanes is the most expensive, some $224 million over 5 years to install and modify variable speed limit and lane use control systems.

Just how many tow trucks are needed and what does this cost? The OFM estimates some $18 million over 5 years would be spent.

Some $312.9 million is left over for "other projects."

After the initial cost of setting up this traffic gimmick proposal over 5 years, the money left over for "other projects" will continue year after year to accumulate in Eyman's Traffic Congestion Fund.

The key point is that I-985 is really a Trojan Horse Initiative. Besides the above named items, the money removed from the State's General Fund and deposited in Eyman's special account can only be spent according to I-985 on "any other purpose which reduces traffic congestion by reducing vehicle delay by expanding road capacity and general purpose use to improve traffic flow for all vehicles"

The kicker is that I-985 says that "Purposes to improve traffic flow for all vehicles do not include creating, maintaining or operating bike paths or lanes, wildlife crossings, landscaping, park and ride lots, ferries, trolleys, buses, monorail, light rail or heavy rail."

Yes this is the fine print on the back of the initiative most people never read before they signed the initiative. The ultimate result if I-985 passes will be to set up an ongoing fund committed to more road building. After the initial setup costs, the bulk of the collected money can only be spent on building more roads and not for transit or other projects that are proven to reduce congestion. Initiative 985 is an anti-transit proposal.

Increasing road capacity only puts more cars on the road, which when filled to the new capacity becomes congested. This is what other cities around the county have learned is the result of building more roads for more vehicles rather than spending the money on buses and public transit and park and ride lots.

I-985 is a failed approach to solving congestion problems. It deserves a resounding NO vote by Washington State voters.

An added note. Considering that the bulk of the money ultimately goes for road building, why did Attorney General Rob McKenna's office not write the ballot title and summary to more accurately state what the majority of the money will be spent on over time? Why did they not mention that the money can not be used for things like transit or park and ride lots?

All in all the ballot title obscures the real impact of what the initiative does and does not accurately reflect the long term impact of the initiative.

You can read the ballot title and summary below:

Ballot Title Initiative Measure No. 985 concerns transportation.This measure would open high-occupancy vehicle lanes to all traffic during specified hours, require traffic light synchronization, increase roadside assistance funding, and dedicate certain taxes, fines, tolls and other revenues to traffic-flow purposes.
Should this measure be enacted into law? Yes [ ] No [ ]

Ballot Measure Summary This measure would: open high-occupancy vehicle lanes to all vehicles Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., Monday through Thursday nights from 6:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m., and 6:00 p.m. Friday to 6:00 a.m. Monday; require traffic light synchronization, and mandate increased funding for roadside assistance. Certain existing revenues, including 15% of state sales and use taxes on vehicles, certain traffic infraction penalties, and certain tolls would be dedicated to traffic-flow purposes.

You can read the text of the Initiative 985 by going to the Secretary of State's website page on current initiatives.

Wall Street Drops like Lead Ballon as House Rejects Bailout.

Earlier this afternoon, the US House of Representatives, by a vote of 228 to 205, rejected the proposed $700 billion bailout of the financial industry. On Sunday McCain spokesman Steve Schmidt was busy on Meet the Press rewriting history by touting John McCain's bringing all the parties to the table and laying out a number of principles, including oversight and responsibility.

I imagine now McCain's campaign will be busy again rewriting history with a new explanation since some 133 Republicans voted nay on the bailout.

Wall Street, already jittery in the morning because 3 banks failed overseas and Apple stock was downgraded on consumer buying worries in the current economic downturn, saw the Market plunge precipitously by day's end.

The Dow was down 778.68 points (6.98%)
Nasdaq was down 199.61 points (9.14%)
S&P 500 was down 106.85 points (8.81%)

Democrats voted 140 aye and 95 nay on the bailout.
Republicans voted 65 aye and 133 nay.

How the Washington State Delegation voted:
aye - McDermott, Smith, Baird, Larsen, Dicks
nay - Inslee, Reichert, Hastings, McMorris-Rodgers

Turdblossom's Insider's Guide to Swinging Elections

Here's a lively thought provoking film produced by wakeupandsaveyourcountry.com called "Turdblossom's Insider's Guide to Swinging Elections". Turdblossom of course is George Bush's "affectionate" name for his long time buddy and political operative Karl Rove.

Wakeupandsaveyourcountry.com's "mission, with this funny little film is to educate, activate and EMPOWER millions of voters around this country to put their bodies and hearts on the front lines of the election to protect their vote on November 4th. Share it with everyone you know and then check our website for what you can do to stop election "swinging"!"

It may be easy to shrug off all the various reports of voting machine fraud, voting machine errors and voter suppression but we do so at the peril of our democracy. Republicans are desparate to hold onto the White House and will use every trick they can to gain advantage. I frankly have no confidence in the previous two Presidential elections based on what I have read and heard about.

Make sure you are registered to vote and you meet the deadlines. The last day to register to vote in Washington State is October 4, 2008.

You can register to vote by going to the Secretary of State's website and going to the voter registration page and checking out the information. You can check to see if you are registered to vote by going to the page entitled "My Vote"

If you have moved within the same county you can change your address at the My Vote page

If you need to register for the first time, have moved to a different county or want to become a permanent absentee ballot voter, you can register to do this at the Online Voter Registration page.

Don't assume you are still resitered to vote. The following remarks are by Democratic candidate for Secretary of State Jason Osgood and posted on Washblog. He expresses concern over the large number of voter registrations that have been cancelled in Washington State.

"The incumbent Republican Secretary of State has publicly taken credit for cancelling 400,000 voter registrations. He's being far too modest.
Between January 2006 and June 2008, the Republican has cancelled 900,000 voter registrations. For the same period, 500,000 new registrations have been added. That's a net loss of 400,000 voter registrations.
It's been very difficult to determine why all these voters have been cancelled. During our first debate, the incumbent brushes off criticism by saying these registrations were duplicates, people who've died, and felons. That accounts for 25% of the cancellations.
However, 75% of the cancellations have no explanation whatsoever. Not dead, not felons, not duplicate records.
I don't understand this. Washington State continues to grow. We're mounting record voter registration drives. And yet, we have fewer registered voters.
It seems to me the total number of voters should be going up, not down. "

Check today to see that you are still registered to vote. Go to My Vote.

Bailout 2008: $315 Billion plus $700 Billion = $1 Trillion +

So who's keeping track of the total bill in dollars that the Federal Government is committing for bailouts?

What's this talk about a $700 billion bailout? Seems like everyone has already forgotten the other 2008 bailouts the Republican and their free market economy and Wall Street have already foisted on the American taxpayers this year. Seems to me like we're talking about a Trillion Dollar Bailout Year!

Wasn't Bear Stearns a $30 billion bailout?

Wasn't Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac a $200 billion bailout?

Wasn't AIG (American International Group) an $85 billion bailout?

That adds up to $315 billion so far in 2008 and now the latest Wall Street bailout Bush is proposing is for $700 billion more.

Add it up and you're over $1 trillion dollars.

Shouldn't we be talking about a trillion dollar bailout? How quickly the other bailouts Bush has committed to seem to get forgotten. What's next?

Palin Tries to Bar Press from Photo Ops

The Republican Vice-Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin continues her Puppet Performance - being controlled by the strings of the McCain campaign. This time its photo ops with foreign dignities. What a performance - now she can claim she has met with foreign leaders.

The whole performance is insulting to the press and the public as she is lead around by McCain campaign operatives and posing for pictures with foreign leaders - this is her education in foreign policy? With Hamid Karzai the media was allowed a total of 30 seconds to take pictures.

As Sarah Kugler of the Associated Press notes, "Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, who has not held a press conference in nearly four weeks of campaigning, initially barred reporters from her first meetings with world leaders Tuesday, but reversed course after they protested."

Even then - 30 seconds and no questions?

What a mockery John McCain has made of the processing of picking a qualified person to take his place if he dies. To pick someone with so little experience and then to continue to deny the press and the public any chance to really get to know who Sarah Palin is and what she stands for is an affront to the intelligence of the American people.

Controlling and excluding access of the media and the press to Palin is obviously an attempt to control what they can write and say. This isolation and avoidance of public scrutiny is indicative of the style of government we could expect from a McCain/Palin Presidency.

Bush repeatedly scripted his public events by only allowing carefully screened Republicans to attend his campaign events. We do not need more secrecy and hiding of our elected leaders from the media and public. We need more open government, not closed or carefully screened and choreographed performances.

Just another reason not to continue the Bush/Rove/Cheney style of secretive government based on distorted facts and omissions of facts and secrecy that got us into Iraq. Haven't the American people had enough of this charade after 8 years?

Gregoire Wins First Debate with Rossi

I guess it all depends on whether or not you like to hear anecdotes and personal stories or whether or not you want to discuss problems and solutions for Washington State. Democratic Governor Chris Gregoire came to the first debate Saturday on KOMO TV to talk about issues. Republican Dino Rossi came to do his imitation of George Bush.

I know, that's a low blow and very partisan. But do you really think Rossi is not going to be partisan if he's elected Governor? The probability is that the Washington State Legislature will remain heavily Democratic. Rossi would have no choice but to work with Democrats if he wants to have any impact on legislation.

But you can expect that Olympia will probably grind to a halt on resolving many issues as Rossi tries to impose his free market, anti-environmental anti-regulation agenda on Olympia. He is certain to use his veto power to stop environmental legislation and land use legislation. Rossi will act to stop progressive change and try to maintain the status quo.

Rossi's campaign for Governor is one of vagueness and undefined messages, just like last time. The less he is specific, the more he leaves for people to fill in the blanks. It almost worked for him last time.

Like Rossi's message that he's for change - that says nothing because change can be for the better or worse. Tornados and hurricances bring change - that doesn't make them something to emulate just for the sake of change.

For Rossi change means less environmental regulation. His BIAW supporters who have spent over $2 million so far in independent expenditures want to see a gutting of land use regulations. Rossi and the Republicans are all for the free market approach and no regulation - which is what has brought us the current economic meltdown on Wall Street.

Republican's and Rossi are misrepresenting what they claim is a $3 billion dollar budget deficit. As Goldy over on Horsesass.org says, we do not have a $3 billion dollar deficit. Just as Governor Gregoire says, we have an actual surplus in this budget year - something most other states don't have.

There is a projected budget deficit for the next two year budget cycle - but there is no deficit yet because a new budget has not been prepared. Next years Legislature will prepare a new budget.

Governor Gregoire is right - the main cause of this projected deficit is the national economic downturn caused by the Party that Rossi belongs to - the Republican Party of George Bush. Governor Gregoire is pushing for change that makes sense - like promoting green power and green jobs with renewable energy like wind and solar that will keep energy dollars in Washington State.

She has a track record and all that Rossi has is a slick ad campaign that says little about what he will actually do. And what he does say is full of problems - like building more roads. That is not an answer to congestion but a prescrition for more congestion. In the debate he specifically avoided discussing public transit, partly because he has opposed it in the past. He seems to favor more road building just like Tim Eyman does.

Rossi's campaigns are very reminiscent of the campaigns George Bush ran - say as little as possible about what you will do and let folks use their imagination to fill in what he will actually do. We see what that got people who voted for Bush. We don't need to repeat that mistake in our state.

Waldo Woods Supporters Fired Up in Protest!

Waldo Woods supporters turned out last night in a protest gathering to voice their outrage over the threatened loss of trees at the old Campfire property on 15th Ave NE in Seattle. The Campfire Girls organization sold the old Waldo Hospital grounds and building to a private developer rather than offering it to the city as a possible neighborhood park. It abuts the neighboring reservoir which is to be lidded and would have made a natural addition to the proposed lid area and park existing on Roosevelt Ave NE.

The Maple Leaf Community Council went through numerous meetings and attempts to save the trees on the property. More than half will be cut down. The Community Council recently lost a decision before a Seattle Hearing Examiner that pitted them against the city and the developer. The Hearing Examiner ruled against them despite errors in the developer's application before the city and the magnitude of trees to be lost.

When trees go up against developers in Seattle, trees lose. The cards are stacked against saving trees because Seattle has a very weak tree preservation ordinance that only looks at saving exceptional trees which are few in number. The City Council has passed an ordinance urging the DPD Director to include tree groves in the category of trees to be saved.

You can read more about Waldo Woods by going to: http://www.mapleleafcommunity.org/savewaldo_5.html

Rob McKenna Needs to Appoint an Independent Prosecutor to Pursue BIAW Case!

Attorney General Rob McKenna is in a tough spot. The PDC has asked the Washington State Attorney General to consider legal action against the BIAW - the Building Industry Association of Washington. But the BIAW PACS are his friends and contibuted heavily to McKenna's election in 2004.

As reported in the Seattle Times on Wednesday:

The state Public Disclosure Commission (PDC) ruled Monday that the builders violated several campaign laws by not properly reporting more than $500,000 in contributions that passed through a BIAW subsidiary and to a political-action committee, ChangePAC, opposing Gregoire.
The PDC referred the case to McKenna's office, which will decide by Friday whether to pursue legal action.

What the article doesn't mention is that Rob McKenna has a clear conflict of interest and needs to recuse himself from this case. MajorityRules Blog wrote about this in several of its early posts in 2005. Rob McKenna benefited from donations given to BIAW's ChangePAC 2004 which shuffled the money to another of its PAC's "It's Time for a Change".

Change PAC, Change PAC 2004, and It's Time for a Change are all BIAW PAC's. The same mailing address appears for all 3 PAC's, namely PO Box 1909, Olympia, WA 98507. Elliott Swaney, the BIAW's Political Affairs Director has been the treasurer for all 3 PAC's and the phone number listed for contact information 360-352-7800 is the main phone number for the BIAW's office in Olympia.

It's Time for a Change raised some $1,058,539 in 2004. A quick look shows that ChangePAC 2004 contributed some $867,818 of that amount in cash. Because Swaney was the treasurer of both organizations one wonders if he put the check in the mail when he sent it from PO Box 1909 to PO Box 1909.

One wonders where the PDC was on all this because the BIAW never listed these PAC's as affiliated with them.

The BIAW's It's Time for a Change also deliberately obscured how it was spending over $200 thousand dollars by not clearly identifying what candidate it was making specific expenditures for or against. BIAW's "It's Time for a Change" spent a minimum of $415,580 in independent expenditures on the McKenna/Senn race for Attorney General in 2004 - supporting Rob McKenna and opposing Deborah Senn.

It appears to have spent some $421,427 opposing Chris Gregoire and supporting Dino Rossi for Governor. The only identified additional expenditure was $12,500 to support Jim Johnson for State Supreme Court.

This leaves some $208,714 that is not identified as to who it was spent supporting or oposing. If all of this money was spent for Rob McKenna, he was the beneficiary of up to $624,294 collected by the BIAW.

Rob McKenna needs to appoint an independent prosecutor to look at this case and decide what to do. He is too close to the problem. Rob McKenna personally thanked the BIAW after the election in 2004 for their "independent efforts" to help get him elected.

One has to question just how vigerously an Attorney General who benefited by the actions of the BIAW's PAC's in 2004 would go after prosecuting the current violations alleged by the PDC.

Rob McKenna has a clear conflict of interest in this case.

Seattle Tree Massacre on 5th Ave NE

Clearcut, massacre, slaughter, call it what you want, Saturday while I was driving down 5th Ave NE toward Northgate I suddenly came across the above scenes at 123rd NE and 5th Ave NE.

The pictures tell a story in one sense but it is also a part of a larger story that is re-occurring too often in Seattle. It's not one we should see in Seattle in this day and age. Yet the remaining groves of trees in Seattle are threatened and disappearing under the bulldozer and chainsaw just like in the pictures above.

The west tree grove at Ingraham High School is only on a temporary stay of execution as the Seattle School District has reapplied for its permits to build the same identical building as before in the exact same location. The open lawn area on the North side of the school, among other locations on the largest public high school campus in Seattle, could easily accommodate the new addition without any problem. But the Seattle School Board doesn't get it and doesn't care. They have forgotten that they serve at the pleasure of the voters and most voters want to save trees, especially when viable alternatives exist.

Waldo Woods in the Maple Leaf area is also facing the chain saw as proponents for saving the area recently lost their appeal before a Seattle Hearing Examiner. Faced with the only possibility being going to Superior Court, Waldo Woods supporters face the possibility of having to post a huge bond of hundreds of thousands of dollars, which even if they could raise, they would lose if they lose an appeal in Superior Court.

And now the mowing down of a greenbelt area in the Pinehurst Community. One lot cleared and 4 more to go. The 5th Ave NE lot appears to have been cut down illegally. After a Sunday press conference by Save the Trees - Seattle and checking with the City, it turns out that the owner never received approval of his building permit for a single family home or permission to log the area. A cease and desist order has been issued to the owner but the trees are gone.

As Seattle's tree canopy and green habitat continues to diminish, tree by tree and grove by grove, Seattle becomes less and less an Emerald City. So where is the city in all this. Seattle has a terribly weak ordinance pertaining to protecting trees.

It's main thrust has been trying to save "exceptional trees" but this definition is so restrictive that few trees get saved. And tree groves currently have no protection because the Seattle department of Planning and Development under Greg Nickels does not consider them as valuable habitat areas to be saved.

The Seattle City Council has directed the Director to re-intrepret the Director's Rule to follow what they say the original intent was - to save not just single trees but also groves of trees because of their habitat value.

The Seattle City Council is currently considering an ordinance to declare a moratorium on cutting down tree groves on vacant lots until a revision of Seattle's Tree Ordinance can take place. Such a revision must include a more enlightened vision of saving more of Seattle's threatened green heritage because Seattle's current tree policies are not saving tree groves.