art cred: Tradnor
Exactly a year ago in this space, I offered
some advice to the
then-pending 2007
state legislature [“Couples Counseling,”
Dec 6, 2006.]
I suggested decoupling light rail and roads. At the time, the $9.5
billion light-rail expansion and the $7.4 billion roads package were
wedded; both measures had to pass for either one to pass. Rather than
taking my suggestion and making them file for divorce, the legislature
moved in the opposite direction and turned light rail and roads into
one
blissful measure.
We know how that turned out. The $17 billion extravaganza was
too much,
and voters killed it; 56 percent voted no.
Two
separate post-vote polls now suggest that light rail would have passed
on its own.
Okay, since you guys like to do the opposite of what I say, here’s
some advice for 2008.
(1) Don’t do anything about property taxes. Deputizing Tim
Eyman as a de-facto legislator during last week’s special session by
extending his property-tax-cap law obviously solved the problem. Who
cares if middle- and lower-income households will still be paying twice
as much as a percentage of their incomes as the richest 20 percent of
homeowners? Don’t sweat it. Locking a law into place that wasn’t easing
the burden on those being taxed out of their homes and was
simultaneously preventing local governments from funding basic services
as inflation outpaced revenues seems smart. So, again: Don’t do
anything about property taxes—nothing crazy like pegging property
taxes
to income.
(2) Don’t do anything concrete about the environment like capping
emissions or curtailing strip mining on Maury Island. That
blue-ribbon panel Governor Gregoire put in place last year was all she
needs for her 2008 campaign. Don’t follow up with any real legislation
that might piss off the Building Industry Association of Washington and
jeopardize her reelection chances. And the 34th District didn’t really
mean it when they made Maury Island’s premier environmental activist,
Sharon Nelson, their new state house representative. Was Nelson’s
ascendance
a sign that Democrats feel burned by
last year’s
cave to strip miners Glacier “$$$$Frank Chopp$$$$” Northwest? Not a chance. Please, don’t do anything
about the
environment.
(3) Don’t use your Democratic supermajority to get the
Democratic State Party’s back and fix the loophole in campaign law that
allowed Dino Rossi to set up a fake nonprofit so he could campaign and
raise
undisclosed amounts of money from undisclosed donors.
(4) Don’t let rookie Democratic representative Roger Goodman (D-45,
Redmond), who spent his first session last year being cool and making
alliances, use his political capital this session to work on his top
priority, drug reform. After all, you might jeopardize your
supermajority and then you wouldn’t be able to reap donations from the
payday loan industry, Glacier Northwest, and the BIAW.
(5) Don’t deal with the
millions of dollars in corporate
tax breaks.
(6) Don’t let voters consider light rail on its own. After
all, 2008 would be a bad year to put a mass-transit measure on the
ballot; it’ll bring out all those anti-tax voters and they might screw
up Gregoire’s reelection chances. Oh, I know 2008 also promises big
Democratic turnout as voters line up to end the Bush era. But as we saw
in 2004 when 74,000 Kerry voters didn’t also vote for Gregoire, she’s
not so great with the base. So, you’ll want to prioritize her over
transportation and keep light rail on hold.
Those are this year’s suggestions. Do with them what you will.
