I hope we can blog this one and the others up over the next few days, so we all can have a better idea what we will be voting on when we vote Nov. 8th. I for one will vote for this unless any of you can give me good cause to vote no. I find it very hard to except this tax increase the way Olympia foisted this new tax on us by declaring an emergency here in the state of Washington. The only emergency we have was those voters in King County can’t figure out how those Dead People voted. Other than that we seem to be headed over the cliff in spending like there will be no tomorrow just fine with the Marxist in charge in Olympia. Please put on your think caps and let’s hear some good reasons this why this should or should not pass.
I hope to post other initiatives in the next few days so we can all have a better understanding when we vote. So lets help each other and help explain why you will vote the way you will on these. I vote YES on I-912 hope you will also.
8 comments:
Thanks Ray, I'll be joining in you in voting for I-912. I have stated my reasoning before:
http://palousitics.blogspot.com/2005/06/pullman-gets-hosed.html
http://palousitics.blogspot.com/2005/07/imperial-hubris.html
http://palousitics.blogspot.com/2005/08/i-912-makes-ballot-for-november.html
http://palousitics.blogspot.com/2005/09/washington-gop-backs-i-912.html
I just don't see the justification in paying 9 1/2 cents more per gallon and receive virtually no benefit in return. The only argument you can make in Pullman against I-912 is that it is unfair to King County. Whatever.
The economics of Whitman County depend much more on the Snake and Columbia waterways and Portland than the Alaskan Way viaduct in Seattle. We need to save the Snake River dams, not the Evergreen Point floating bridge.
Olympia, as usual doesn't give a flip about our Red part of the state. More money is being spent in this gas tax package on ferries than on all of northeastern and southeastern Washington, outside of Spokane County, put together.
***YES on I-912***
They can make do with what they have, just like the rest of us.
We here in the lovely Evergreen State currently pay .288 cents a gallon for state gas tax and .244 cents a gallon for federal gas tax.
Thats .532 cents tax for every single gallon of gas you buy.
We are reasonable people. We are more than willing to pay our fair share in taxes. We know we receive more from the west side than we contribute. However, you cannot tell me west-siders do not benefit from our good roads here, because they do.
Until they can tell me where that .288 cents per gallon is being spent, I say YES on I-912.
CC thx 4 the brake down on the tax. Where the $$ go may be that will be part of that I-900 Audits. For another day... Thanks Tom for those links, I will check those out.
cc is absolutely right on both points. Yes, Whitman County receives $1.44 back in gas tax money for every $1.00 we spend. However, as he points out, west siders do benefit from our roads. For example, 18,000 kids are going to school over here, many of them from the west side. Then there are WSU football games, Dad's Weekend, Mom's Weekend, graduation, etc. I think when you remove that from the equation, we are maybe breaking even. We do need more accountability for what we are spending now, and we certainly don't need to subsidize King County at a time of record-high gas prices. Why can't they simply implement tolls over there? That's what East Coast cities have been doing for years.
The bottom line is that WSDOT is not about roads and cars. They haven't been for a while. WSDOT wants to force everybody out of their car, off the road, and into public transportation.
If you want to know where the current gas tax is being spent and how you need only read this: http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/accountability/GrayNotebook.pdf
Or you can look at the info here: http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/accountability/
There is a lot of talk about the two largest projects that would receive partial funding from the gas tax, but you cannot dismiss the hundreds of other projects throughout the state that would be funded by the gas tax, to alleviate traffic problems at key points and address very serious road and bridge safety issues.
The real fact is that over the past 20 years King County has received less in project money from gas taxes than it has put in. What this gas tax increase would do would be to level that, but still for every $1 put in, King County only receives $1.08 back. Many Eastern Washington counties will receive far more than that on the dollar.
Estimates are that there are as much as $40 billion of transportation infrastructure needs. To believe that these problems can be addressed with only the money currently being collected, or by raiding funds from other agencies is to not understand the magnitude of the need and cost.
The probably outcome of I-912 passing will likely be that each county will have to fend for itself. There are many in King County that would welcome that possibility, as they wouldn't have to worry about others killing transportation infrastructure projects they severely need to be undertaken. Meanwhile the smaller, less well off counties will suffer, having to deal with their problems without the financial support of King County.
Thanks Daniel, but those are the same kinds of arguments the English Parliament used in 1765 when the Stamp Act was passed. We all know what happened after that. All of our Whitman County legislators voted against the gas tax and it was rammed down our throat anyway.
The biggest reason I am voting for I-912 is the constant drumbeat from the big media, big businesses, and big labor against it. The lies are just incredible. 92% of our Palouse grown wheat is shipped via Columbia River ports, not through Snoqualmie Pass as The Seattle Times claims. Do you know how prohibitive it would be to truck grain over to Seattle to be shipped? Palouse wheat farmers are already suffering from high gas prices as it is. Another 9 1/2 cents is just that much more damage. Many farmers are thinking of hanging it up. Oh, but that do people in King County care if an entire industry is destroyed? Just so they get what they want.
We all know there will be another gas tax in a couple of years if this isn't rolled back. When is enough enough with Olympia?
Tom, actually Whitman county does pretty well by this gas tax. For every $1 you folks put in you get $1.41 back. (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/politics/gastax/2projects.html). A 41% return is nothing to sneeze at.
Furthermore, the gas tax rate is at 80% of where it was at in 1991. The tax has not kept up with inflation. So it buys a lot less today. The increase merely brings things back to levels of 15 years ago.
The reason the tax is needed is because the projects are needed. This isn't a conspiracy. If you don't want the projects then vote for I-912, but that, in many cases, will be playing with fire, and the safety of those that use the roads and bridges.
The fact is we've fallen behind on upkeep and structures are reaching the end of their lives. The transportation grid in Washington is our economic backbone. We neglect that and we'll all suffer the consequences.
Daniel, you should know that when the Marxists are in charge they pass all the wealth redistribution programs to make themselves "feel-better". So the things that should have been done all along; that have been put off; now need attention. So KC can go swim as far as I am concerned. They can park on the freeway and stew about would-should-could’a. I still am of the believe that it is YES on I-912
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