Just read one post blaming passage of this mess on "Boomers". As a Boomer who no longer drives at night and relies heavily on public transit which already provides lacklustre service to my "low density" Seattle neighborhood that borders 522, I voted NO and am very disappointed with the vote. How are those who can't drive anymore supposed to get around this sprawling town? How do make do without a car when you live in a neighborhood with minimal bus service and no light rail? Just stay home, I guess. No activities downtown on the w/e since the commuter bus doesn't run on the w/e and I can't afford to use Ubers like the young people do. Thanks, short-sighted cheap fuckwits. But you know what, I've already had a nice long life with normal weather. All y'all assholes are going to drown in the rising sea levels and you fucking deserve it.

Out of curiosity, why is transit always about taxes and infrastructure and never about technology?

The best way to reduce the number of cars on the road is to reduce the number of people who need to commute, not to try to change the way they do it. The best way to do that is to encourage and incent employers whio show flexible workspace and telecommuting.

Katie, you can do your job from literally anywhere. Yet The Stranger keeps an office for you. That's not green, that's not progressive, that's not enlightened. It's hypocrisy.

I don't know what add at this point. So many of you have already nailed it.
Fuck you, Tim Eyesore, and the cheap dog that bore you.

Mellow dear, when I was just a little Catalina, visiting the big city, there was a coterie of crazy middle-aged women who hated Metro, and they would routinely launch into tirades about the corruption of the management while on-board the buses (usually the routes between The U-District and Downtown, or Capitol Hill and Downtown.)

I’m sure they’re all dead by now, but I know they’d be proud of you for carrying on their tradition.

@107

This is Seattle.

“Everyone who complains that Medicare for All isn’t pragmatic is a fucking Nazi...

It’s time to finally get rid of the 2nd amendment...

We’re gonna abolish electoral college...

Reparations now...

Oh, no! There’s no way ever that we could pass an income tax, you know that thing 41 states, the District of Columbia, and the federal government have. It’s impossible. Political organization never changes anything. No reason to lift a finger. We have to be practical about these things after all. Guess I’ll just keep not paying taxes. Sucks, but there’s nothing I can do.”

@27: The line in "Allentown" was "and I won't be GETTING up today..." not "I won't be GIVING up today...". It was about being too depressed to get out of bed because of what Reaganomics had done to the guy's town.

I guess I don't understand these silly initiatives in WA state. I mean, why stop at $30 car tabs? Why not $10? Why not 10 cents? And, while we're at it, have an initiative to reduce the sales tax to 0% and the gas tax to 0% and to eliminate all property taxes. Such a thing could probably pass because too many voters are yahoos who want government services and government infrastructure but don't want to pay for it. They fail to connect the dots, and don't realize that "things cost money".

Those gloating in the passage of 976 must now answer the question: What is YOUR solution to easing local traffic gridlock? If you want more freeways, please explain how you'll come up with the billions of dollars to confiscate homes and businesses by eminent domain . . . and where all the people using those freeways would park when they got where they are going.

In truth, I predict that ST3 will go forward as planned. They'll figure out a way. King County residents want it . . . King County residents would probably approve a property tax levy to pay for it. As for the other counties in the ST taxing district . . . well, maybe they will be content to sit in traffic for 4 hours a day, burning more gas than what they would have paid in car tabs, and never getting home on time to have dinner with their families.

As for Tim Eyman, he may have won this election, but he remains a pathetic divorced, bankrupt, middle age fat guy under indictment, with apparently no ability to earn an honest living, and given that he has now been exposed as a crook and a fraudster, he will have trouble ever again finding a wealthy benefactor to underwrite his initiatives, on which he profits on account of the kickbacks he gets from signature gathering firms.

m.sam @114

Show up at ST or KCM with a W-2/pay statement. They issue you the appropriate Orca card that you fill up every month with whatever amount for 2x rides a day per month. Easy. Sliding scale services exist in this world just fine. Do you realize Obamacare has sliding scale subsidized health care - shall we dispense with that as well?

I voted no, but this tax is a regressive tax. Money for these kind of projects should be coming from state income and corporates taxes, but those can never get taxes. I barely drive, and I barely take transit, so it's of little concern to me. However, this state has GOT to stop funding everything on sales taxes, driving taxes, and for god's sakes, property taxes. Ane there IS a tremendous waste of dollars in the city of Seattle. Some of these stupid mini parks, like the one on Westlake and Lenora, were a TOTAL waste of money, basically creating a urinal for AMZN employee dogs. Just build them a trough, not a bunch of lawns people are also supposed to sit in? YUK. Who designs this crap and gets paid six figures to do so? THat's one reason people vote these things down. That and all the stupid empty bike lanes all over downtown, but no genius saw fit to include a bike lane in the fricking replacement tunnel?

Then, of course, there's the issue, of how a shoplifter got to bring this trash up yet again. Maybe it's Bellevue and Mercer Island still don't want the light rail to be completed, because they know then they'll get to deal with all the homeless and addicts they've been carting to Seattle, and ABOUT FRICKING TIME THEY SAW REALITY.

You think I give two squats about Spokane? They still welcome Ted Nugent with open arms out there. Sorry their transit is screwed. Too bad, Enjoy the middle ages, which you've never left and may never leave.

Meanwhile, up north across the border, real civilization flourishes. This state is a joke, boith for its tax system, and its williingness to let rogue clowns legally waste millions by only temporarily blocking its progress. Eyman, his family, and everyone that funded him, should be charged in civil court for all these costs.

What people voted against is a regressive tax system, which directly benefits the elites. Unfortunately nobody seems willing to actually try and fix the mess, and all they'll do is enable Eynman and his ilk, fail to address the climate crisis and sell our children down the river.
Such is politics.

@103 -- "Our highways won't suffer if our government would take an interest in being better at managing projects and how our money is spent. I see it on a daily basis.

I have reported the misspending of millions of dollars and it just gets shoved down through management and buried in the hopes it will be forgotten. It's disgusting.

The state can choose to start being better stewards or try scare tactics like the ads they created." --Hambone

Left, right or center, that's gotta be pretty fucking Hard to argue against.

"Our highways won't suffer if our government would take an interest
in being better at managing projects and how our money is spent."

Great comment, Hambone.

@122 -- "I guess I don't understand these silly initiatives in WA state. I mean, why stop at $30 car tabs? Why not $10? Why not 10 cents?"

Brilliant.

Also, Whyt the Fuck not copy Alaska and send everyone a check from the spoils of OUR Biosphere for a measly Grand, or two? That would include all minerals and H20, and whatever else we happen pull from it.

Oh, and when we the people get a nice little cut on all that (like Alaska does for its crude), those who choose to use OUR Biosphere as their tax-free hazardous waste depository -- they're gonna hafta pay us a Dumping Fee.

@120 -- "Oh, no! There’s no way ever that we could pass an income tax, you know that thing 41 states, the District of Columbia, and the federal government have. It’s impossible.

Political organization never changes anything. No reason to lift a finger. We have to be practical about these things after all. Guess I’ll just keep not paying taxes.

Sucks, but there’s nothing I can do.”

Well put, LukeJoseph.
Thanks, for the Reminder!