Throwing Metro Under the Bus

[freshwest]

King County's transit agency needs a stable funding source. Really.

Jennifer Langston on May 14, 2013

Above:

Here’s a picture of hundreds of people who crowded into a hearing room Tuesday to protest looming and massive bus cuts at King County Metro. If this looks familiar, it’s because we went through a similar exercise two years ago. This time, if the Washington State Legislature doesn’t grant the transit agency new taxing authority to backfill an immediate $75 million budget hole, Metro says it will begin eliminating 600,000 service hours next fall, or 17 percent of the transit service it currently offers.

So what does that look like? Well, for starters, they would be the largest service cuts in Metro history. About 70 percent of current riders would be negatively affected: Some people will lose bus service entirely, some people will have to walk further to get to a stop, a lot of people’s buses will run less frequently, and a lot of buses will be more crowded.

It would, in short, be a fairly epic change in the wrong direction for a growing county that prides itself on being green and economically savvy yet hasn’t sufficiently agitated for a stable funding source for the very service that efficiently delivers people to their jobs and allows them to do errands without clogging up roads and spewing carbon pollution. Seriously, just spend a minute with this interactive map that shows just how the cuts might go down...

How did we get into this mess?

In short: More than a decade ago, voters reduced the Motor Vehicle Excise Tax levied on cars and replaced that relatively stable funding source for King County Metro with a portion of sales tax, which now makes up about 60 percent of its operating funds.

http://daily.sightline.org/2013/05/14/throwing-metro-under-the-bus/

[Wounded Bear]

1. "voters reduced the Motor Vehicle Excise Tax"

Thank you Tim Eyman. Selling sugar coated turd-cicles to Washington voters for years.

[freshwest]

2. Yes the official Nordquist agent in WA. His office used to have a sign entitled:

'Starve the Beast.' He was funded to pay for paid petitioners to shift public funds to private businesses.

The rest of his motto was straight from Grover's 'Until the Government is Small Enough to Drown in a Bathtub.' I remember Boeing arguing against the Eyeman initiative, saying it would defund transportation and make their costs go up. It did and they moved some things out of state.

I've no doubt with the wackjobs now running on the right and the left, the GOP will be more of a force than they are right now. There was even doubt that WA would go for Obama in some circles.

We've got spoilers trying to peel of Democratic votes by saying they aren't doing enough. Gee, the state is half red. Sorry, no magic here.

They also ran off progressive media. Between the baggers and libertarians voting doing dirty tricks and voting for privatization of all that was working to give social mobility, well, here we go.

Just posting this to see if anyone is going to be able to make these meetings or contact people about it.

[pscot]

3. What's Eyman up to now?

He's been kind of quiet. I was hoping he'd bit himself and died.

[freshwest]

4. Bit himself and died! Don't I wish! Daily Kos wants to dedicate some infrastructure to him:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/05/24/1211495/-Tim-Eyman-Memorial-Bridge

His latest is still the same. Destruction of Washington state through Defunding. Still Starving the Beast, our little Koch lapdog.

He calls his latest the Super Bowl:

http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2013/04/tim_eyman_calls_his_latest_ant.html

Tim Eyman files new anti-tax initiative

It would require all Washington state tax hikes to expire after a year

http://www.columbian.com/news/2013/apr/24/tim-eyman-files-new-tax-initiative/

With GOP money pouring in, progressive media destroyed, privatization and the demands that no infrastructure be built unless privately owned, we are on our way down the red state toilet.

In the meantime, Democrats who are stuck working with these assholes are being knifed in the back by those who consider themselves holy. Divide and conquer, with hate media is going forward and we are losing all attempts to keep progressive programs and infrastructure. The charter schools initiative passing was a major shock for many people I know, and there is the push to end all public services.

Libertarians are preaching every man for himself, privatize everything, government is evil and the churches are gaining ground. While things are going well in my area, the votes are too damn close.

My candidates try to toe the holy line, not take anything but individual donations to not be labeled sell outs, something I hear at DU too often. But the other side has no qualms ideologically with taking the big, untraceable corporate and foreign bucks and they don't get the heat.

Our biggest danger are the baggers running as Dems, the new SoS, and the media. I'm not sure what WA will be like in years to come as the old guard passes on and the libertraians take control, but it will make my life harder and that of people I care for.



P. S. Anyone doesn't like my rants, there is an option you can use...