LISTEN UP: Due to scheduling snafus, I won’t be on talk radio tonight. Further details forthcoming.
A MONTH AND A HALF AGO, the rabid talk-radio right got Initiative 695 passed.
It’s a very cleverly fraudulant exercise in cutting rich people’s taxes while pretending to be populist, by replacing Washington state’s old graduated motor-vehicle excise taxes with a flat fee. Not only that, but it requires that all subsequent tax or revenue hikes by Washington’s state or county governments go to public votes.
Instantly, over half a billion dollars vanished from state tax projections.
But the MVET didn’t go into the state’s general fund. It was dedicated to specific areas–principally to state road-construction projects; to the state ferry system; to public transit; and to revenue-sharing with poorer, rural counties. (The latter was intended by the state to make up for the fact that MVET revenues from throughout the state were supporting urban transit funds.)
Some of these governmental entities are currently scrambling to make up the lost revenue. They’re diverting monies from other budget areas and from reserve funds.
But King County, thus far, has been adamant. Even though King voters disapproved of I-695, the county insists it will not seek to replace the lost millions. Instead, county bureaucrats promptly announced they’d slash bus service by up to one-third over the next year and a half. If it goes through, it would make America’s official third-worst commuting traffic even worse, and undercut civic planners’ “new urbanism” agenda.
However, there’s probably more to this tactic.
The Amalgamated Transit Workers Union has announced plans to sue the state, trying to completely overturn 695. King County’s not suing (other counties are, in separate actions). If King County bureaucrats had attempted to restore bus money by siphoning other budget areas, the move might be perceived as undercutting its transit employees’ legal case.
The transit workers’ suit will probably get fast-track treatment in the state courts. The union (and the other suers) have some strong arguments for their case that 695’s unconstitutional.
(For one thing, the initiative’s two-part action may violate rules that state initiatives can only encompass one topic at a time.)
Within weeks, we’ll know if the union’s, and the county’s, tactics will work. Though no matter what happens, the trials and appeals will undoubtedly go on for a year or more.
Meanwhile, the figurehead promoter of I-695 is proposing another initiative that would essentially kill public transit.
In the immortal words of Bette Davis, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.
MONDAY: Last-minute gift ideas.
ELSEWHERE:
