kingrat

The legislature passed a new gasoline tax to pay for upkeep of roads & bridges and for a few big ticket road projects (Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement among them). New initiative (I-912 ) would roll back those taxes. It looks as if the backs got about 350,000 signatures for this, when they needed only about 245,000. My guess is it will pass come November.

At first, I was a little bit irritated at it. People want good things here but never want to pay for them. And they couch it in terms of not trusting the department of transportation because they've run other boondoggle projects. Which ones, I can't tell you, cause I can't think of any seriously boondoggled projects run by the D.O.T. Sound Transit and the Monorail Authority are run separately. Frankly, I think the proponents of this initiative are a bunch of NIMBY anti-government whiners.

But I think I'm gonna vote for rolling back these taxes. Our roads will continue on their slide to Idaho quality, sure. And traffoc backups will get larger. But think of the benefits. Businesses will slowly move out of the area, taking jobs with them. It'll cut back on the tide of people moving here from California and other places. Housing prices may come down to reasonable levels. And maybe even a few of you screw-ups who moved here for the tech boom will move back to where you came from.

And then I'll get Shoreline back!

I'm probably too much of a dreamer though.

Yes, though written tongue in cheek, I am seriously thinking of voting for it for just these reasons.