Our state legislature also has an insatiable demand for bridges and trains. But they don't seek approval to sustain their appetite. They just go ahead and raise taxes to buy more transportation projects, even when we tell them not to.
The legislature just did it again, ending the session by passing transportation tax hikes the voters have previously turned down. They added "weight fees" on automobiles, an end run around voter-mandated $30 car tabs. They jacked up the gas tax by 34 percent, in spite of Christine Gregoire's campaign pledge not to up the nickel hike the legislature imposed in 2003 only months after voters rejected a gas tax referendum in 2002. Initiative kings Tim Eyman and John Carlson have already announced ballot measures to re-reject the rejection of the electorate's rejection of these taxes.
Gregoire broke her promise, er, "changed her mind," on the gas tax after a publicity-stunt inspection of the Alaskan Way Viaduct. She declared the viaduct to be on the verge of collapse and in urgent need of a higher gas tax in order to fix it and save lives.
But instead of a cost-effective repair to keep traffic moving safely, we're paying only the first installment on Greg Nickels' gold-plated scheme to tear down the viaduct and replace it with a tunnel. In order to corral enough legislators to commit the rest of the state to pay for Seattle's multibillion-dollar redecoration of its waterfront, the budget was loaded up with plenty more pork to go around. Among the giveaways are a $185 million subsidy for the risibly inefficient state ferry monopoly, and various gifts of rail extensions to private businesses.
But the bloated transportation budget may already be as dead in the water as the Kalakala ferry. The legislature arrogantly tacked an "emergency" clause on to the budget bill, preventing citizens from repealing the tax hikes with a referendum. The only way to say no to the legislature is with an initiative, requiring 250,000 signatures to get on the ballot, twice as many as needed for a referendum. KVI talk-show hosts John Carlson and Kirby Wilbur promised to move forward with an initiative to undo the gas tax, on the condition that listeners contributed $25,000 to the initiative campaign within a week of the announcement. Instead they raised $81,000 from 1,900 donors in the first four days. Carlson feels good about getting enough signatures by July 5 to qualify for the November election.
Eventually, the state's legislators, along with my three-year-old, will learn how to budget, prioritize, and ask nicely for permission to spend other people's money. In the meantime, those who pay the bills will just keep saying no until the lesson sinks in.
