Comments

1
" human service programs that save money in the long haul"

We keep hearing that but how come my taxes keep going up faster than the rate of inflation?
2
Why don't they move social services from the core budget, and dangle -those- out for "pass this tax increase or it walks the plank" theatricals? This habit of pseudo-targeted taxes/levies is SO bogus. How are all those special debt issues going for the Kingdome repair / new baseball / new football / Key Arena refurbish projects? Amazingly, the wingnuts love pro sports subsidies!
3
wait, if we DON'T raise the regressive, working-and-middle-class punishing sales tax, we get FEWER kingo sheriffs? why am i supposed to be upset?
4
2/10s of 1 percent is a big deal when sales taxes are at almost 10 percent, and when the state, county, and city keep raising sales taxes to close budget shortfalls and never, ever lower them again when the economy improves.

I'm not opposed to this specific sales tax increase per se, but I have to wonder at what point will enough be enough. When sales taxes reach 15 percent? 20? 30?
5
king CO, obs
6
@ 3) I hear you on the regressive tax structure in Washington. I want it fixed, too. But until then--and I hope it's soon--I support floating our crucial public-safety programs using the limited taxing authority that the county has.
7
@3 ftw.

Tell them to stop doing drug busts in King County and stop wasting our tax dollars on the Drug War on MJ when we can't afford to pay for the police, courts, or prisons for it.

We've had it.
8
Just asking since I don't live in the area and my local ST is a paltry 8.75%, but if Kathy Lambert and others of her ilk have such a hardon for "restructuring business models, driving efficiencies," and blah blah fucking blah, shouldn't they be doing it every damn day and not just lying in wait to spring the same tired language every time someone wants to fix a budget shortfall? If not, they're a) frauds and b) not worth whatever they are being paid themselves.
9
Is the proposal dead for an August ballot? Or just dead all together?

I though six votes were needed to get it on the August ballot, but only five were needed for a November ballot.
10
By the way, does anybody know what silly MBA text or greatest-salesman-in-the-world entrepreneuroporn these currently popular turns of phrase are from, that Lambert and Mallahan and so many others are spouting?

Anybody who's been part of a sizable organization of almost any kind has seen the coming and going of management fads like "quality circles" and "team building" and a thousand others I've blessedly managed to forget. If you glance at the business press every now and then, it's like an early-warning radar of newly minted can't-fail strategies and buzzwords that will ooze down within a couple of years from biz schools and the Fortune 500 to an enterprise near you. You learn to laugh, or you burn through a lot of Kleenex.
11
I don't see the point in going to the mat fighting to raise the sales tax just to make it through this year's budget cycle. That only delays the problem until next time when the whole thing blows up once again and we have to have a huge battle again to find a solution.

Now everyone is left fighting over the scraps in what remains of this year's budget.

If we have time to fight for anything, it should be for a state constitutional amendment to allow cities and counties to collect income tax, eliminating the root of the problem. Letting them sell bonds to cover the general fund budget in order to get through a recession is not a bad idea either.

It's called Keynesian economics and it works much better than slashing the law enforcement and social services budget and raising taxes at the worst possible time, when you have a recession and people are most in need of social services and law enforcement, and the last thing you want to do is put even more workers on unemployment.
12
Is this money really targeted specifically at public safety? In other words, if the measure fails to pass, will the county simply divert funds from other departments to cover (at least part of) the shortfall? Or is this instead just another shell game like the one that state governments play with lottery money, claiming it's strictly for "education" while quietly cutting the education portion of the general budget?
13
Dominic,

Do you realize that if the unions would simply not take their annual cost of living adjustment (COLA) the county could save about 30 million dollars next year? that's half the projected deficit. you blow off the idea of "writing contracts" as though it's peanuts. We're talking HALF. Just from removing the union's raises. the unions aren't solely to blame, because Ron and Dow gave/give them what they want, every time. that's how we've gotten into this mess, and it makes the most sense as to how to get us out. The unions refuse to look at any options, other than raising taxes. in fact, they'd rather lower end people in their union lose their jobs entirely, just so the higher ups will keep their fat salaries and yearly COLA's.

Cutting of their noses to spite their face.
14
@13 - COLA is Cost Of Living Adjustment.

As in inflation.

What you're talking about doing is called REDUCING COPS SALARIES.

Let's be clear about that.

I personally think being a cop is a hard job.
15
We aren't experiencing inflation at this time. If union members are getting a COLA now or next year, let's call it what it really is: a raise.

Still, aren't a number of government employees being put on unpaid furloughs, or is that only on the city level?
16
elenchos, sorry if it seems like pigeonholing, but I put you and Fifty-Two-Eighty in the box of cranky people I like.

Lots of smart people on here, of course--pretty much everybody except @1 (and humbly excusing myself).
17
It strikes me that the really odd thing about this—and I'm talking to you The Stranger— will be watching the conflict in those who, historically, hate more cops and love more taxes. How will that conflict be reconciled?
18
Somewhere in today's Slog blizzard was either a post or a comment dealing with the conflict between those who love more cops but hate more taxes.

To be somewhat Mudede-esque, this is the magic of the hyperbola--move the second focus out far enough along the x-axis, and it suddenly zips around the other side of infinity and re-appears, right next door.
19
Why why why why why is the Stranger so stupid in this area? Raising the sales tax is easy, sure, but it's REGRESSIVE. It's terrible for the poor people whose aid you are so proud of defending all the time. As someone who makes a lot of money and someone who owns a house, even I know that the best and fairest way to raise taxes here is income tax and property tax, and since we're talking about the county it's property tax. Please believe me when I tell you that property tax here is NOT high and we should be raising that.

It *is* in fact poor people and small businesses who suffer when the sales tax increases and FFS it's already screamingly close to 10%. It's a wonder anyone can sell anything in this state.
20
@19

Just wait until Obama gets his VAT...

Please wait...

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