The so-called eCONomic "recovery" is a huge fraud. If the recession-depression really ended in June 2009, wouldn't tax revenues have returned to normal by now? Instead, the (formerly) middle-class is imploding faster than a half-century old Vegas hotel, while the super-wealthy are laughing all the way to their taxpayer bailed-out private bank.

How many of those impacted failed to vote for the increase? I'd really like to know. And how many of those who failed to vote now regret their error?

Respect the will of the people.

Austerity wins! Austerity wins! …and we all lose.

What was painful to watch as the votes were reported was how the number of people that undervoted on this proposition far exceeded the margin needed for it to pass. Did they fail to understand the issue or was it hard to find on the ballot or what?

In the end, the margin of loss was a fraction of a percent.

The poor in this state are heavily overtaxed compared to other states, while our wealthy are seriously undertaxed. And yet we keep proposing additional regressive burdens one after another.

Small wonder.

@1: I believe economists consider a recession at an end as soon as a fiscal quarter shows growth over the previous quarter, not when things get back to the levels they were previously. So, while things may be getting better ever so slowly, we're at a pretty deep nadir to work back from.

What do you expect? Pierce County has a high percentage of military, many of who are not from the area, and not staying. Why should they vote for transit?

That's what you get when you tie your fortune to the military. What will they do if the budget cuts eliminate one of the bases, or cut the number of people assigned to them?

We'd be better off in the long run if the military bases in Pierce County closed and were turned into wildlife sanctuaries (or returned to the Nisqually tribe, where appropriate.)

HEY GOLDY!

Where are you at with that whole coming up with a progressive tax structure instead of shilling for ever more regressive ones?

@10 You're right. I'm the problem.

Since I can't convince Washington to move to a more progressive tax structure, the only reasonable alternative is to dismantle government, come what may. My bad.

@11 If you're not going to help the situation, stop making it worse. If we make the government suffer bad enough through a failed regressive tax structure, soon they'll have to realize that they have to fix the regressive tax structure into a progressive tax structure. Or does that logic only work for plebeians and their driving and shopping habits?

Why did the legislature refuse to give them car tab authority? Are Pierce County's lobbyists less effective than ours?

@12 Yes, the perfect way to convince voters to vote for taxes is to give them a government that doesn't work. Smart thinking!

@13 The original bill would have given Pierce, King, and Snohomish the same $20 tab fee authority, but legislators didn't believe that Pierce and Snohomish had done enough to rein in costs.

King County's car tab authority lasts only through 2013, I believe. Good luck getting a renewal from the state Senate, and good luck getting support from King County voters next year. The average bus commuter in King County has a household income of $60K, and doesn't need a subsidy.

@14 No. Wro-ong. You don't have to convince the voters. You have to convince the legislature to put something together that a) doesn't have a sunset clause [biggest fear mongering of the Steve Ballmer campaign in 2010); b) completely restructures the tax system; c) redistributes the tax burden off the poor and back to at least even if not progressively onto the rich; and d) closes business tax loopholes that everybody has been giving since Microsoft moved their financial HQ to Arizona! And, if one of the most liberal newspapers in the most liberal city of Washington isn't going to hold anybody's feet to the fire about this, instead supporting regressive taxation structures, then who the fuck is fighting for the common people? Because it certainly isn't you, Goldy. You're just strapping the system in tighter every taxation you get.

@16, maybe you didn't notice that the Tim Eyman time bomb got passed AGAIN. Maybe you didn't notice that the Republicans control the Senate and thus the entire legislative agenda. Maybe you didn't notice that The Stranger HAS, in fact, argue forcefully in favor of a more progressive taxation over and over again.

How are you going to "hold their feet to the fire" when most of them are against you? YOU DON'T HAVE THE VOTES. It's as simple as that.

The problem is that the working and middle classes have been persuaded that taxes are bad no matter what they're for, and that the rich should continue to get a free ride forever. So we continue to turn into Mississippi.

Either that, #17, or maybe people look at things like shoveling more money at schools that just turn around and give raises, and boondoggles like Sound Transit, the billion dollar waterfront, and a new basketball arena, and conclude that there isn't a tax shortage here but only a shortage of integrity and brainpower needed to set the right spending priorities.

I've turned from an anti-Eyman, pro-levy voter into exactly the opposite. I've had it with this shit, and at least with respect to Eyman so have majorities in every single county in Washington, including King. I see no evidence whatsoever that Seattle's "progressives" will point the finger at anyone they can other than themselves.

After the repeated failures of "small government" ideology without reversal of the neoliberal tide, only the absence of an audible political alternative explains that people keep voting against their own best interests. Voting the lesser evil ad-infinitum will never provide us with the political leadership needed to present a clear republican and democratic alternative.

@19: sadly incorrect. Stupidity explains it. Look at Mister G and the other trolls. They want the same things out of government, but without paying for them. Then they vote for unfunded mandates for more state spending, and are shocked when disaster results.
People always want more for less, and that is just really not how things work.

@17 With the exception of I-1098, The Stranger has not been at all forceful with their idea of a progressive taxation. If anything, they've been practically celebratory of sin taxes, fees, car tabs, bridge tolls, plastic bag fees - as a side note, I love the ban; hated the fee - sales taxes, gas taxes, and every other way one can nitpick the money out of the wallets of the various sub-upper-middle classes in support of the sucktastic regressive taxation system we have inherited.

Even when we did have the majority (a mere week ago), we weren't exactly doing anything to promote progressive taxation. During the last lapse of Eyman's initiative, all sorts of sin taxes and regressive taxation passed. WHOO HOO. Go rich people!

@18 Easy there pardner. There is a taxing shortage...but its not coming from us working class. Nosiree bob. Well, it is because we're not getting paid like we used to. But, who is getting paid like they used to? The top tiers...who also pay the least in terms of tax rate. But, they'll milk us for all we're worth, and The Stranger (and especially Goldy) is happy to oblige by opening their wallets and say, "Please don't cut off our services, suh. We'll be good."

@15, only regressive types believe that public transit should not get subsidy. Time for you to crawl back under your rock, wingnut.

@20 - 'Stupidity' (I much prefer to call it ignorance) is nothing major that a good education in citizenry cannot remediate. Unfortunately said education won't be forthcoming as long as corporatists control public discourse.

#22, we "regressive types" just shoved I-1185 up your ass in every county in the state, and now the Republicans have the state Senate. So I'd say it's time for you to get down on your knees and pray, because we vote.

The Pubes only have the state senate because politicians are notoriously greedy and opportunistic. More care for their own careers than about the people they govern. This is especially true right now. There is something inherently wrong about jumping parties between elections and the start of the sessions, and these politicians should be ashamed.

Shame (n) - 1. the painful feeling arising from the consciousness of something dishonorable, improper, ridiculous, etc., done by oneself or another; 2. disgrace, ignominy

There is no shame in politics anymore. Or consciousness. Or conscience.

Right, #25, but if the same switch had happened but in reverse, you'd be praising those Republicans for having seen the light. In any case, I am going to be spending the next several years laughing at :"progressives" and taunting you every time you whine!

I do agree about this being somewhat unusual so soon after the election, and before Inslee was ever sworn in. Did you notice how not even Inslee's own Democrats consulted their own slack-jawed mediocrity about any of this? The guy arrives in office pre-neutered, and not even his own party coordinates with him.

You people are rank amateurs.

Did King County raise taxes (for public transit) as well as getting the car tabs funds?