My Fair State
It used to be back in high school and college, that when I would argue politics I could at least find agreement on the subject of roads. Sure, there were anti-"Big government" guys who didn't like taxes, but, if you pressed them, there were some things that it made sense to have a government take care of, like roads. Sometimes, a too-clever-by-half libertarian would suggest a private toll-road system. But it was reliably possible to get agreement that a minimal amount of taxes to support and maintain a road system was an acceptable social contract.
Now, however, after decades of no-tax Norquistism has filtered through the body politic, and mutated in the odd eddies and backwaters of small state politics, this appears to have changed.
Washington, a state with a tradition of penny-pinching and a history of economic struggle, has been struggling with its transportation infrastructure. As in many states, years of deferred maintenance are coming back to haunt. Growing populations and even our regulated sprawl mean there are more people and businesses trying to get around in places they didn't used to, wearing down roads, jamming highways, and making things worse and worse. Competing constituencies of rural farmers, suburban commuters, and urban mass-transit users fight tooth-and-nail for the limited funding available, and work to spite each other's gains.
Add to this the difficulties of our topography, and weird quirks like the fact that we permit studded tires for a good portion of the year, even where it almost never snows, and you can see that the building and maintaining of a functional highway network here can get complicated.
Which is why, if the Olympia legislature managed to get it together to actually pass a transportion bill, you'd think we'd all be happy to see something that promised some progress, before the bridges actually fall down and the economy collapses. But you'd be wrong.
The new bill pays for all of these needed road projects by increasing the state gasoline tax. To keep it from hitting too hard, the legislature has it phasing in over several years. In all, the increase will be much less than we've experienced in price rises during the last year. But, to the Norquistian "no tax" zealots, it's far, far too much.
There is a citizen's initiative process underway, I-912, to repeal this tax increase. It's benefiting from constant promotion by two Seattle talk-radio personalities, and a passionate campaign of distortions.
As a self-interested driver, I'm in favor of money going to replace the crumbling Seattle viaduct (with the same design as the Cypress Structure that pancaked in Oakland during the Loma Prieta quake.) I'd like the main bridge across the lake to the eastside suburbs replaced before it sinks. As a citizen of a productive society, I'd like the highways that carry all those containers moving in and out of the Port of Seattle, and the Seattle railyard, to be wide, smooth and sturdy, including all those 157 bridges that are in danger of collapse. It would suck if all those apples and wheat couldn't get shipped. I've never spent any time in Spokane, on the other end of the state (capital of Red Washington), but I'm sure that completing a north-south freeway there would be a good idea. It just blows my mind that there are people working to prevent this, out of some belief that we shouldn't spend taxes, not even a user-fee type gas tax, on our roads.
Maybe they really believe that, since they have an SUV now, they don't actually need roads? I don't know. I think it's mainly that they're so thoroughly enjoying indulging in their rage at those who persecute them by making them pay taxes that it doesn't matter if the taxes actually make sense. But their mindset is so foreign that this is mere speculation on my part.
You can read more about this issue in the blogs featured in the NW Portal links in the righthand column.
Now, however, after decades of no-tax Norquistism has filtered through the body politic, and mutated in the odd eddies and backwaters of small state politics, this appears to have changed.
Washington, a state with a tradition of penny-pinching and a history of economic struggle, has been struggling with its transportation infrastructure. As in many states, years of deferred maintenance are coming back to haunt. Growing populations and even our regulated sprawl mean there are more people and businesses trying to get around in places they didn't used to, wearing down roads, jamming highways, and making things worse and worse. Competing constituencies of rural farmers, suburban commuters, and urban mass-transit users fight tooth-and-nail for the limited funding available, and work to spite each other's gains.
Add to this the difficulties of our topography, and weird quirks like the fact that we permit studded tires for a good portion of the year, even where it almost never snows, and you can see that the building and maintaining of a functional highway network here can get complicated.
Which is why, if the Olympia legislature managed to get it together to actually pass a transportion bill, you'd think we'd all be happy to see something that promised some progress, before the bridges actually fall down and the economy collapses. But you'd be wrong.
The new bill pays for all of these needed road projects by increasing the state gasoline tax. To keep it from hitting too hard, the legislature has it phasing in over several years. In all, the increase will be much less than we've experienced in price rises during the last year. But, to the Norquistian "no tax" zealots, it's far, far too much.
There is a citizen's initiative process underway, I-912, to repeal this tax increase. It's benefiting from constant promotion by two Seattle talk-radio personalities, and a passionate campaign of distortions.
As a self-interested driver, I'm in favor of money going to replace the crumbling Seattle viaduct (with the same design as the Cypress Structure that pancaked in Oakland during the Loma Prieta quake.) I'd like the main bridge across the lake to the eastside suburbs replaced before it sinks. As a citizen of a productive society, I'd like the highways that carry all those containers moving in and out of the Port of Seattle, and the Seattle railyard, to be wide, smooth and sturdy, including all those 157 bridges that are in danger of collapse. It would suck if all those apples and wheat couldn't get shipped. I've never spent any time in Spokane, on the other end of the state (capital of Red Washington), but I'm sure that completing a north-south freeway there would be a good idea. It just blows my mind that there are people working to prevent this, out of some belief that we shouldn't spend taxes, not even a user-fee type gas tax, on our roads.
Maybe they really believe that, since they have an SUV now, they don't actually need roads? I don't know. I think it's mainly that they're so thoroughly enjoying indulging in their rage at those who persecute them by making them pay taxes that it doesn't matter if the taxes actually make sense. But their mindset is so foreign that this is mere speculation on my part.
You can read more about this issue in the blogs featured in the NW Portal links in the righthand column.
posted by Paul at 8:55 AM |
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