Statewide Prop One – Roads and Transit – Vote Yes
Prop One is one of the most important ballot measures we’ve seen in recent years. In addition to funding the expansion of mass transit, it provides funds for key infrastructure improvements.
After the disappointing and untimely demise of the Seattle Monorail, the region is getting a second chance at mass transit with light rail.
If the Seattle metropolitan area is to succeed in becoming a world-class city, we have to start building mass-transit systems.
Our current freeway system is maxed out. It can’t handle the traffic that currently exists, much less handle the anticipated growth we’re likely to experience in the coming years.
Mass transit is one of the answers.
I was in San Francisco while they were building BART in the early 70’s. The disruptions were terrible. Market Street, downtown was torn up for several years. It was a real mess. And the expense to taxpayers? Horrible. People bitched and moaned for years. It really was terrible.
But now 30 years later, on an average weekday BART has over 340,000 riders. That’s 340,00 people who did not have to take the freeway.
The Seattle area needs something like that – soon. If the Monorail wasn’t the answer, then apparently light rail is.
Mass transit is a must for this area.
The other freeway improvements are just as essential.
Here in the South Sound, a couple of the important projects include the Cross-Base freeway, and connecting Highway 167 where it dead-ends in Puyallup, and Highway 509.
The Cross-Base freeway will provide an alternate way to get to the Graham-Eatonville area, directly connecting I-5 and SR-7. Right now the only way to get there is Pacific Avenue which is a real bottleneck. The Cross-Base freeway will take the pressure off Pacific and make it easier to get out past the Roy Y.
At the same time, the city of Fife is inundated with trucks going and coming from the port. If the connection between Highway 509 and 167 is finished, it would get a lot of those trucks off Fife’s streets, relieving congestion, and speeding up deliveries from the port to local warehouses.
Finishing the connection between Highway 167 and Highway 509 is very important to the infrastructure of the Port of Tacoma.
Prop One is vital to developing the infrastructure for the Puget Sound Area – vote yes.
Referendum 67 – Triple Damages for Denial of Valid Insurance Claims – Vote Yes
The insurance industry is spending millions of dollars to convince you that R-67 would be bad for Washington, and that only the trial lawyers would profit from its passing.
The truth of the matter is that the insurance industry is scared shitless because if R-67 passes, they may finally be held accountable for their actions.
As it stands right now, Washington is one of only a few states that does not have a law like this. And as such, insurance companies can drag their feet on paying valid claims – or even deny them – without facing any penalties for their actions.
What R-67 does is hold their feet to the fire. Under R-67, if an insurance company denies a valid claim, and you sue and win – then the insurance company is liable for triple damages.
As long as they don’t deny valid claims, they have nothing to fear.
Vote yes on R-67 – let’s make insurance companies accountable for their actions.
EHJR 4204 – Simple Majority on School Levies – Vote Yes
I’m not sure what the history is behind having to have a super-majority (66% vote yes) to pass on school levies, but it’s a bad idea.
Our kid’s education is our future. If there’s anywhere we’re going to skimp and save, this is not it.
So it makes sense to me to pass levies based on a simple majority.
Initiative 960 – Two-thirds Legislative Vote to Raise Taxes – Vote No
This latest initiative, sponsored by horse’s ass, Tim Eyman, is the flip side to EHJR 4204.
Eyman keeps repackaging his anti-tax initiatives every year, solely to provide himself an income (and a right tidy one at that).
Eyman positions himself as the champion of the people; the truth is he’s an arrogant, self-aggrandizing, ignorant, blathering idiot who knows one and only one song, and who is in the initiative game solely to provide himself with an income.
Tacoma City Council – At Large Position – Julie Anderson
Incumbent Julie Anderson is facing off against perennial thorn-in-the-side-of-government, Will Baker.
Will Baker styles himself as made in the same mode as Tim Eyman; citizen activist and all.
But put simply, Baker just doesn’t have his shit together as well as Eyman.
I can’t believe he has any credibility at all, although he did made a respectable showing (for a lunatic) in his race for auditor.
Julie Anderson, on the other hand, seems to have done a good job in her first term.
She has my vote.