Comments

1
If Dems really want to fix a tax issue screwing over King county voters, they should visit education funding first.
2
"Every House Democrat supported the bill last year. And during the campaign in the 45th, Dhingra said she supported the House bill."

So... they're doing what they said they would do? Slow news day?
3
“Preemptive compromise” pretty much describes the Democratic Party in general, not just in this state. Cutting a deal instead of forcing the argument is what they do.
4
NOPE.

Remember Dems voted in favor of a levy swap school funding “solution” that costs Seattle taxpayers more and results in cuts funding to Seattle Schools. Maybe relatively a better party than Republicans, but not the party of ideals and solutions it pretends to be.
5
Tax and spend democrats want the money and pander the cause year after year and to what end? Dems cant blame trump for a “Blue State” that had a Democratic president for the last eight years And still come up with these numbers...
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-new…
We definitely need more public transportation, if anything so the homeless have a warm place to sleep.
6
Capital gains tax please we, poor seniors, are living on the edge and we are not alone in this vast injustice that Washington State refuses to correct the morbidly rich bozo Bezos and his other corporate welfare good ole boys club make money off of the workers and the taxes of the citizens who pay for the transit the schools, the infrastructure the illegal wars in VIETNAM, IRAQ, AFGHANISTAN NO WMDS DICK/BUSH AND MORE TAX CUTS FOR THE RICH. SO WE NEED A CAPITAL GAIN TAX. We need representation we less than living homeless workers and former workers who see Washington State biting off way more than they could chew with this humongous already over cost st3! Wisdom is the fitness of things and history will inform even numb skulls that ever gigantic "BIG DIG" BIG BERTHA AND ALL THE OTHER F UPS OH YEAH THE AMTRAK DISGUSTING TRAGEDY THAT NEVER HAD TO BE THE DUMBER THAN DIRT LEGISLATORS WHO ARE ILLITERATE TOO BUSY COLLECTING THEIR BRIBES. SO MUCH CORRUPTION, INCOMPETENCE AND EXPLOITATION. VOTE THEM OUT.
YOU CAN'T FIX STUPID THEY HAD PLENTY OF TIME AND IF THEY DIDN'T GET IT THEN THEY NEEDED TO TABLE IT!

7
Ugh.
8
They will when someone runs up and pounds a stake into Frank Chopp's heart. Don't blame 'Dems' There is only one Dem that counts, and he is an idiot.
9
@6: If you want corruption, illiteracy, bribe-collecting and incompetence, move to a red state, and don't let your RV door hit you in the butt on the way out. The folks east of the Cascades will love your nonsensical word salad spewing.
RepubliKKKan obstructionism is what has created the problems of late, especially in legislative failure to fund schools and address crumbling infrastructure. The recent flip-over to a Democratic majority in the Senate is a blessing.
10
Heidi, you want the Dems to stand up to drivers -- in 2015, there were 939 non-government light vehicles registered per 1000 humans in WA. That would be a losing strategy. I think the politicians hear their constituents better than you know.

I am a mass transit supporter and rider, so I didn't too much mind paying over 15% of my car's Blue Book value when I renewed in October. Others might not feel so gracious -- I would bet that someone other than Eyeman who could write a legitimate initiative and pay for the signatures, could easily pass a $50 cap on tab fees.
11
If State Democrats wanted to alienate transit voters and make us feel more and more alienated, this is how you do it. Hell some of us think we should elect transit boards so we can have someone with the MOXIE of Jessyn Farrell to at least when Tim Eyman was out there trying to burn down a big swath of ST3 and local Transportation Benefit Districts DOUBLE AND TRIPLE DOWN on DEFENDING Sound Transit.

Note the silence from the current "federated" Sound Transit Boardmembers NOT named Rob Johnson who at least kinda sorta spoke up on a recent Seattle Transit Blog podcast.

Imagine if we had Jessyn Farrell instead of Jenny Durkan on the Sound Transit Board. I'm not trying to relitigate the Seattle Mayoral Election, but I gotta say Mayor Durkan made it perfectly clear this Thursday she is going to hold the hands of local neighborhoods that will fight ST3 implementation. Sorry but I read Seattle Transit Blog, I "get it" we need to fight these local fiefdoms a bit more. Not to mention get in Tim Eyman's face.

Imagine if we had Joe A. Kunzler instead of THE POTTED PLANTS that WSDOT sends as the statewide rep. Believe me, that Joe guy.... he'd boot Alex Tsimerman OUT of the Ruth Fisher Boardroom, then do all he could do to get ST3 done.

Imagine if we had some people with some guts who think Karen Kitsis = Russell Wilson and want to fundamentally change mobility in this region. Like, uh, NOW.

No wonder State Democrats and their lapdogs spread so much FEAR about electing transit boards. Because some of us think independently and want to win NOW.
12
This is not a trivial issue. Voters do not seem to be able to get over their emotional issue relating to car tabs. Dem. Gov. Gray Davis was recalled in California (an extremely blue state) partly over the issue of car tab fees.

However, I am absolutely NOT saying that the voters who are angry about this are correct. If you are getting a license renewal that you can't afford, chances are very good that you are driving an expensive vehicle that you can't afford either (see, e.g., the vast numbers who are now leasing their BMWs, Acuras etc. because the payments would be too high if they bought them).

Having said that, there are some obvious hardships in the state. For example, @6 is clearly no longer able to afford punctuation.

13
@12 It's highly unlikely that a person who can afford a BMW lease---and even with the ease of getting car financing, they won't give you one if you can't afford the $500 month---can't afford the tabs on said BMW.

An increase in tab fees only hurts poor and working-class people, because it now costs too much to license their 20-year old Civic. But according to this article, fuck those guys if they have to drive to work because they have no reasonable transit options and/or their vehicle is required for their job because.
14
@13. Isn’t it great how it’s totally ok to fuck poor people over with the added hardship of excessive regulatory fees? The left knows what’s best for you. Because people don’t know what they should REALLY want. They should want to ride the bus to their minimum wage jobs...that are only available on bus routes.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_…

Personal vehicle=mobility and freedom. Your employment, grocery,and educational options are limited and more inconvenient with public transit. Upward economic mobility has been correlated to actual mobility in this country for as long as it’s been a country.
15
#11, Joe, sane people do not refer to themselves in the third person and go "rah rah" about that straw-man third person. They especially do not reveal their middle initials when they have never used that middle initial when posting as themselves.

Ooopsie!
16
#13, Um, Herpes. The tabs on a 20 year old Civic are will rise if/when the legislature passes the modified schedule. Of course, it's all political theater because a few bonds have already been sold against the ST3 revenue streams, so the courts will ensure that the old valuations remain.

The owner of that 20 year old Civic can breathe easily.
17
Maybe you should get a car?
18
@13- A 20 year old Civic is worth (maybe) $2000. The additional 0.8% tax on that is a staggering $16. The only complaining I have heard about the tax increase is from drivers of very expensive cars.
19
@18 Sure, but it's not because they can't afford the tax; it's because they don't want to pay extra taxes for anything. As for others, I'm not sure if $16 on top of whatever I'm currently paying for the car that I need to not be homeless is a big issue if I'm barely able to pay rent. If it isn't, we should probably just collect an extra $16 in taxes from everyone for the hell of it. It's no big deal, right?

For what it's worth, I'm fine with paying more on my tabs to pay for transit, but I'm not under the illusion that it's a "yeah, let's stick it to those rich car owners!" tax. It's a totally regressive "let's stick it to poor people who have to drive to work" tax that mostly impacts the lowest income people.
20
@19-you're absolutely right that the guys with the expensive cars don't want to pay taxes for anything. But a tax based on the value of a car is as progressive as anything we could do.

Not only do the wealthy almost always drive more expensive cars, but the curve is very steep. Minimum wage at $15/hour is 30,000/year. That $16 is .05% of $30k. Now imagine a person making $200,000 who drives a $50,000 car ( believe, based what I see people I know driving, that most people in that income bracket drive cars that are actually worth more than 50k). He or she pays .8% of 50k, or $400. That is .2% of their income, or five times the rate of the Civic owner.

Neither is a big amount in absolute terms. but this tax is undeniably very progressive. And it is one of the few progressive taxes that is not mandatory. If you don't want to pay the higher rate it's pretty easy to drive our hypothetical old Civic or even a semi-flashy new Hyundai instead of that Beemer.
21
Agreed. Why is the capital gains tax off the table? No or little tax cuts for the poor. Many people are living on the edge with no life raft being thrown to them.

No more excuses. Tax the rich.
22
#9 There is plenty of corruption here and the democrats are deep into it as well as the republicans. Old people on fixed incomes have a right to complain. Your comment was very classist and rude and and a sure sign of snobbery. Nobody needs to move anywhere because you insist on defending the state government and system; and refuse to look at the underbelly.
I hope you wake up.
23
@22 And your snarky retort is just as harsh and unfairly judgmental regarding my earlier comment. To me, @6 read more like a run-on trolling rant with the high use of upper case letters and exclamation marks.
Meanwhile, Miss Thang, you don't know squat about me. How do you know I represent the snooty upper class or the insanely wealthy? What do you know about my lifestyle and household budget? How old are you, and how long have you lived here? How many elections have you voted in? I am a low income U.S. veteran on disability, so I can empathize with nettiemich (@6) on living on a fixed income. I have also put my money where my mouth was and have taken strides to help make Washington State a better place for present and future generations after I die. I have volunteered, helped doorbell campaigns, canvassed, phone banked and protested in favor of saving our environment, funding schools through local levees, fixing infrastructure, and saving endangered species such as the orca since I was 6 years old. I'm 53 now and have as much of a right to speak my mind as you or anyone else does. You want presumptuous, classist, snobby, argumentative, condescending and rude, look in your own goddamn bathroom mirror.
I've seen the legislative underbelly throughout my life as a Washington State native, spoken to representatives, including Senator Kevin Ranker and Governor Jay Inslee. Have you? The majority of Republicans over the last fifty years are far worse and less fit to govern than Democrats in office. Have you ever been to the State Capitol Building in Olympia? Have you ever taken public transportation to conserve gasoline and drive on sunnier days?
I hope you learn to pick your battles better and chill out.
24
Isn’t it great how it’s totally ok to fuck poor people over with the added hardship of excessive regulatory fees?

If you’d actually done the math (e.g. @20) before spouting off, you’d have known these fees are very progressive. (But we liberals thank you for your rhetorical support of a state capital gains tax.)

Personal vehicle=mobility and freedom.

Especially on I-405 at rush hour!

Your employment, grocery,and educational options are limited and more inconvenient with public transit.

Why yes, public spending to subsidize private transit has outpaced public spending on public transit for decades now; thanks for noticing some effects of this disparity in governmental spending. (Also, Instacart and Amazon Prime say hello, as does the northern terminus of Link Light Rail.)

Upward economic mobility has been correlated to actual mobility in this country for as long as it’s been a country.

Yes, the more money you have available to spend on vehicles (or anything else), the better your life options will tend to be. But “them that has, gets,” is not exactly a ringing endorsement. Just sayin’.

25
Don't expect them to do anything about tax reform if they ever get a chance either. They're centrists, not progressives.
27
#18, Did you read the post to which I was replying (#12)? Apparently not; it wasn't I who brought up the 20 year old Civic.

Please wait...

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