Comments

2

@1: It will reemerge as a property tax levy. So your excitement is for naught.

3

"Buttload" actually is a technical term, as a "Butt" is a large wooden cask, and and "Buttload" comes out to about 6 seams, 48 bushels, or 384 gallons.

Typically used for wine though.

4

Your computer? The Stranger makes employees provide their own equipment?

Physician, heal thyself!

5

Thanks for all your work, Nathalie! Hope the rest of the day goes better!

6

@1 -- "WA's working class just received a meaningful tax break (vehicle tabs) "

Really? So when do I get my refund? Oh wait, I'm about to get my tabs, does that mean I'll pay less?

Fucking idiot. Voters passed an initiative. It will be challenged in court. In the unlikely event that it gets through the court, car tabs will be lowered. If the court rules the initiative unconstitutional, nothing will happen.

7

"(did you realize you were voting against law enforcement, you fucking idiots?)"

I imagine the same people that want their car tabs lowered, whatever happens to their actual roads as a result, are the same type of people that are celebrating a reduction in law enforcement. "Driving is cheaper and I get to drive as fast as I want?!!"

8

@1 fuck off, stupid troll.

11

I’m surprised more hasn’t been made about I-976’s job-killing impact.

State-sponsored construction spending is a massive stimulus that provides good quality, secure, stable jobs with benefits, and that money is then reinvested back into our local economies.

Did people vote for it out of desperation or just to stick it to Seattle liberals, or both? In rural communities, government-financed construction projects are a key economic driver, leaving them even more fucked if that gets shut off, not to mention accelerating the ongoing rural depopulation crisis. Seattle and its burbs are gonna be fine regardless.

13

The last time $30 tabs passed (in the 90s) it raised my tabs from $18 to $30. It was a 1988 Dodge, maybe that wasn't working class enough?

15

@12: I'd have to side with blip on this one. When you think of it, there has been great improvements in our transportation structure. Light rail for one. 520 is another example, it used to take a full hour sometimes to get to Lk. Washington westbound from Redmond.

When I get gigs downtown, it makes total sense to take the bus. These buses are jam packed to capacity and sometimes pass you by because they're too full. And there will be cutbacks in these critical routes as well.

The silver lining I guess, is that tabs might finally sync up with the Kelly Blue Book.

16

"if Slog AM is late today it’s because I am living in hell and my computer is dead" --Nathalie

Whoa -- twelve minutes late? That's not "late." Your computer is, however... Condolences.

"Congrats on the huge weed bust, NYPD!"

At hemp's three percent THC, you're gonnna hafta smoke a shit-tonne's worth to start to get a Buzz. Good luck re-selling that shit on the streets, NYPD. Maybe try selling it to the hippie hemp spinners?

"Since the Washington Post broke this story Trump has denied ever asking [his very own Personal Attorney /ag] Barr to do this [exonerate FAKE prez]."

Oooooh -- a Loyalty Test for USAG Barr?!

"You pass this one, Bill, you get a seat on the US Supreme Court. I promise!"

EXCELLENTA.

17

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGEzqWGp2WA

Use the boost to get through!

18

It's unfortunate but as long as ~50% of Americans don't have $400 in the bank to meet emergency spending, demagogues like @1 will find it easy to convince some people to shoot themselves in the foot to save a few $100.

19

"So far, the number of significant releases in the Keystone pipeline’s history totals about four. That’s significantly more than estimated." Two, four, forty, what's the dif, when you're Addicted to the shit? Go, GOP. Keep on keepin' on. And suckin' the Koch (et al) dick.

20

Maybe a lot of voters for the $30 tabs initiative were locals of the Snohomish, Pierce, and South King county areas who don't want to wait until 2035 to start seeing some of the results of the rapid transit program. Perhaps a fair share of the money spent in those areas at the same time as Seattle would have produced better results. Sound transit needs to go back to the drawing board and be a little more fair: then try another vote. You might have a nicer outcome.

As to "did you realize you were voting against law enforcement you fucking idiots?". I always thought The Stranger hated the police. Doesn't that fall against the line of the Socialist Alternative party's policies toward police?

21

@12: When I'm cycling to work every day, I'm not driving one of my cars.
Most Seattle cyclists also own cars, they just aren't using them at the moment.
In the meantime, more people driving cars keep moving to the area, so the rate of congestion increase is less than it would be without bike lanes, but still increasing.
See also: mass transit effects on congestion.

22

Oh shit, remember when we all voted to have the monorail go all around the city? Yeah, good times. About the same time we all voted to keep the Kingdome. Nobody gave a shit what the voters wanted then why is it different now?

23

@19 Four significant spills that we know about because the industry has a long record of lying about amount spilled.

Did North Dakota Regulators Hide an Oil and Gas Industry Spill Larger Than Exxon Valdez?
https://www.desmogblog.com/2019/08/19/north-dakota-regulators-oil-gas-spill-exxon-valdez

They declared a 2 gallon spill. Remediation paperwork says 11,000,000 gallons.

"Scott Skokos, Executive Director of the Dakota Resource Council, an organization that works to protect North Dakota’s natural resources and family farms, questioned whether it was legal for the state to cover up or downplay spills.

“I have seen many instances where it appears spills are being covered up, and there appears to be a pattern of downplaying spills, which makes the narrative surrounding oil and gas development look rosy and makes the industry look better politically,” says Skokos.“If this pattern is as widespread as it seems, then we have a government that is conspiring to protect the oil industry. This is not only reckless and unethical, but also potentially illegal.”

24

I'm just going to repeat this: It is Unconstitutional in the State of Washington to impair an already issued government-backed bond. That includes transit bonds.

The only possible impact is for new projects, or sometime after 2032 when they "renew" the bonds.

Just put all state and regional and county highways and road projects up for a public vote, and use that money for all parking structures and faciilites that transit projects don't need and that shouldn't be part of them. This includes utility relocation: bike lanes and bike bridges do NOT cost even 10 percent of what they are telling you they cost. I've built them.

25

20: Being critical of police departments isn't the same thing as hating police no matter how much Blue Lives Matter morons say otherwise.

26

@1 Things will not be going well in the world until all of you fuckers are deported to Belarus.

28

I'm as despondent as anyone over the passage of 976.
But I think we need to take a lesson from it.
The one statistic that has jumped out at me is that 75% of the voters in Stevens County approved it.
Now I know Stevens County, and yes it is a red county, but that 75% figure is extraordinarily high.
What that tells me is there is the perception that car tab revenue is used to subsidize these huge infrastructure projects in the Puget Sound region. That's understandable.
So what is needed is some sense of buy-in, some assurance that car-tab revenue collected in Stevens or Ferry or Okanagan County is devoted to transportation-related uses within those counties.
Now I am familiar with the counter-arguments about how those counties are net beneficiaries, but what I am talking about here is perceptions.
Let's face it- light rail, waterfront tunnels, and fancy new bridges seem a very remote benefit to citizens on the E side of the state and they are understandably stunned at the cost of these projects.
Smart politics means you show those voters a local benefit directly tied to it- more snow plows, re-paving, roundabouts, whatever.

29

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KL0-FtxqrHc

Don't let the bastards grind you down

30

@28 Correct me if I am wrong but different counties pay different amounts for car tabs. Counties were able (even under Eyewash's earlier initiative) to tack on extra fees for local projects. Our tri-county area voted to tack on fees to pay for ST3. I actually looked for this and could not find it but I think it very likely that Stevens County pays either the minimum or modestly above the minimum for their tabs (30 bucks plus some other fee that the state charges). Pretty sure you would get that vote result no matter what. The cretins who populate these regions would cut off their left testicle to spite urban liberals and also can be counted on to vote against any tax at any time if they are given the chance to vote on it.

31

@28, you know I don’t really care about Stevens or any other rural counties in which delusional bumblefucks fail to understand that their communities couldn’t exist without the tax benefits Seattle provides to the entire state. What I do care about, and am incensed by, are the jackwads in Pierce and Snohomish counties who apparently think they can bury their heads in the concrete sand, and deny the realities of how growth will continue to effect their quality of life. In another 5-10 years, those places will need transit solutions and road improvements even worse than Seattle does now.

32

@30: What you said does not negate @28's right-on points.

Cretins are all male?

33

@32 Most of them. White and male.

His point was that residents of Stevens County object to their car tab fees subsidizing projects in Seattle. They are not paying anything for projects in Seattle. The fees we pay are applicable only to residents in the tri-county area. We are however subsidizing Stevens County to a significant degree with our tax dollars.

34

@kallipugos -- Roundabouts? In E WA?
Oh, the Humanity.

Excellent post/point, however.
Gotta get a bone, every now and again....

35

@34 -- Correction -- after recollection, (most of) the drivers in Wenatchee appeared undumbfounded by the circular, right-turn-only apparatuses. Perhaps there's Hope.

36

@31/33: Your precious tax dollars going to rural counties is in your best interest every bit as much as it is in your counterparts pouting out in Hooterville and Pixley. Besides agriculture and other industries, it's basic humanity to care for our entire state - even if some do wear MAGA hats - get over it.

37

Next step: Tim Eyman accuses Governor Inslee of trying to punish the voters.

38

Way-to-late-to-ask questions, but why the hell was Sound Transit ever formed (I do remember the 1995 ballot measure that was their genesis, but was equally confused then) instead of just funding Metro to build and manage a rail system? If it was designed to function as sort of an inter-county thing, like BART, the streetcar design never made any sense.

39

@36 I didn't argue otherwise. In fact I pointed out on another thread that it is likely that to the extent we subsidize rural counties it is likely most (or at least many) of those tax dollars go to the less well off, and if they are yanked away it is the less well off who will pay for the selfishness of their malignant, considerably more well off, neighbors.

40

@1 &@12 Doofus in Shoreline: Seriously. Take off that ridiculous MAGA cap, already, before your shriveled up water balloon of a head leaves a puddle on the floor.
@11 Original Andrew: Thank you for aptly pointing that out.
@24 Will in Seattle: So Tim Eyesore's turd of an initiative can be shot down in court as unconstitutional, thus scrapped? I sure hope so. Otherwise, a lot of us are fucked.
@28 kallipugos and @31 schmacky: You both have some strong points.
@34 kristofarian: Yoiks! Why do I see mass pileups of overturned semis on I-90 all of a sudden?


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