Recent Stories in Politics

The news about the Native American man who was shot to death after being found wood-carving in public continues to "develop," as they say. Now it is not clear that he approached the officer threateningly or otherwise, and his family says he was deaf in one ear.

Mayor Mike McGinn

"I think Chief Diaz is the right man for the job," McGinn is quoted saying, which has overtones of "Heckuva job, Brownie," coming the same week as King County prosecutors decided that a police officer who told an innocent Latino man he was going to "beat the fucking Mexican piss" out of him was not guilty of a hate crime. The city attorney could still file charges against Detective Shandy Cobane for misdemeanor assault, further endearing himself to the SPD.

McGinn's political deafness has instigated a completely avoidable kerfluffle with MOHAI. Yesterday the Slog reported that the city was making a grab for state funds allocated for MOHAI's SR 520-prompted move from its Montlake location to the South Lake Union Armory. 

After directing the museum to negotiate on its own for state funds, estimated to be around $15 million, the city's cartoon eyes exploded from its face when MOHAI came back with $40 million. Quoth Carl Marquardt, lead attorney for the mayor’s office: "This is not a time for any one community organization to be taking all that it can get, while others go without."... (more)

Phil Talmadge

Talmadge notes first that Washington, very unusually, considers income property, and places strict limits on property tax rates. Secondly, he notes that the state constitution ensures protection against unequal taxation, which would also augur against I-1098, the "high-earners tax."

In the opposite corner is Hugh Spitzer, who argues that previous state rulings in the 1930s were based on federal rulings themselves reversed or wiped out; only two states, including Washington, still maintain income is property.

But Spitzer can't say, as Talmadge can, that he's already tried, as a legislator, to introduce an income tax, or that he authored a dissenting opinion while on the Supreme Court in 1999 that questioned the validity of the court's ruling that income was property. ("[T]hat position commanded only two other votes on the Court," Talmadge writes ruefully.)

Otherwise, supporters of I-1098 are fighting the good fight with charts and graphs that demonstrate it really is a "soak the rich" scheme. (I-1098's income tax would only kick in for any income earned over $200,000 for individuals, $400,000 for couples.)... (more)

Mayor McGinn

"As of late last year, only 28 percent of small businesses were using bank loans, the lowest rate since 1993," notes the Seattle Jobs Plan, unveiled yesterday by Mayor McGinn.

A chunk of the $50 million in business financing that the city plans to distribute within an 18-month window will go to start-ups and small- and medium-sized businesses looking for loans to help them invest in operations or expand.

Millions more in tax exempt stimulus bonds and tax credits are targeted at large businesses, with a priority given for "projects that create or retain permanent jobs, increase the availability of goods, and serve as an anchor for future economic development in low-income communities."

It's a plan that seems to include the kitchen sink--job training and preparation for college is in there ($2 million), interim parking lots near light rail stations, street food vendors, a city-owned broadband network expanded to homes and businesses, urban farming, and energy-efficient retrofitting ($26 million).

Totaling it all up, the city expects to create around 10,000 jobs in the next few years, reports Seattlepi.com, while it's not really on the hook for much of the financing: "roughly $70 million for business loans and tax credits come from new federal funds and leveraged local dollars from partnerships."... (more)

King County's unemployment rate (ESD)

"State jobless rate drops to 8.9% in July" reads the Seattle Times headline. (Et tu, TechFlash?)

We're a metrics nation (even if that whole metric thing never took off), so it's understandable that people follow numbers closely to see what news they contain. But some people seem to want numbers to deliver action-verb news monthly, even when the economy is clearly stagnating.

When Washington's Employment Security Department announces that "Washington's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell to 8.9 percent from June’s upwardly revised level of 9.0 percent," it helps to remember that June's rate was originally 8.9 percent. Comparing unrevised numbers then--apples to apples--absolutely nothing happened.

But something did happen, of course. As ESD's July report states right at the outset, "Washington state, on a seasonally adjusted basis, shed 2,300 jobs between June and July 2010." The ESD news release on July's numbers focuses instead on our anemic but actual private-sector job growth.

The private sector added 3,100 jobs in July, led by 1,000 in transportation, warehousing, and utilities. Construction and education and health services grew by 900 jobs over the month.

Almost 240,000 people were anxiously awaiting their UI checks in July, but a growing number have simply reached the end of that rope. ESD's David Wallace tells me, "Since Congress implemented Emergency Unemployment Compensation in July 2008, the State of Washington has had a total of 15,848 claimants that have exhausted benefits."... (more)

Governor Gregoire

Washington state's insurance commissioners generally do the people proud in the watchdog department, pressing for regulation until the insurance company executives cry out from their day spas in annoyance. But you can't nap for a second: "rates for some individual health plans in Washington increased by up to 40 percent until we stepped in to impose stiffer premium oversight," writes Gregoire.

To let people know about changes in premiums, Gregoire says, the state will "create a web based consumer website called 'Consumer Care' to provide information about the cost and quality of health care."

Once again, if you want up-to-the-minute coverage of Seattle City Council doings, you've got to bookmark Publicola. They're looking into the Council's proposal to create a transportation benefit district (to assess a $20 annual vehicle fee for transportation improvements that SDOT's leaky budget can't handle). So far Publicola has four or five TBD posts up to...none from anyone else.

Ironically, last year the council repealed a $25 "head tax" that raised $4.5 million each year for transportation improvements, even though SDOT was already facing a deficit. Eight months later, it's time for a new tax to fill the budget hole left by the tax they repealed.

Let's begin at the very beginning: A transportation benefit district (TBD) can be set up by a city or county, creating an independent taxing district for the sole purpose of transportation funding. It can draw revenue from property, sales, and use taxes, and from annual vehicle fees. (Up to $20, vehicle fees don't require a public vote; Lake Forest Park, Edmonds, Des Moines, Olympia, Prosser, and Shoreline have already instituted the $20 yearly fee.)

The council's transportation committee chairman, Tom Rasmussen, proposed the TBD, reports Publicola, who characterize it as an "end run" around Mayor McGinn's transportation plans. In theory, this would raise $6.8 million yearly that the council would collaborate with the Mayor on disbursing.... (more)

Firefighter G.F. Sevilles visiting classroom at Halloween, 1966: Item 75723, Seattle Fire Department Slides (Record Series 2801-09), Seattle Municipal Archives

I felt the need to respond to MvB's post about Seattle Schools because I'm no longer "outside looking in" with our school system. I'm a parent now, having endured the process of school selection and the ups and downs of kindergarten.

As an actual SPS parent...I find it amazing any kid gets taught anything at all. 

Large school systems are caught in a bind because they have to educate all kids. And educating all kids is the morally correct thing to do. But this leads to what I think are unfair comparisons.

Comparing a charter school to a regular public school is like comparing a boutique to a big box store. Of course the boutique is going to have more of what you want. But it's also going to lack a lot of things you may need because of how specialized it is. And that's been the case with charter schools--when some kid outside their specialization pops up, say a kid with undiagnosed dyslexia, they have nothing to offer for support, but you know, the school district does.

I ran into that shopping for a school last year. I went to what I thought was a fine parochial school, great test scores, diverse, solid teaching...but I mentioned my daughter is showing early signs of ADHD, and it was suddenly: "We can't help you with that; you're on your own." If you're outside of the norm, you're on your own.

Now, it's not that much better with Seattle Public Schools, an organization whose communication style can be best described as "written by unicorns, implemented by Sasquatches, and chaired by the Snuffleupagus." That is, if it exists, I haven't seen it. And I've heard stories of people going to the mat repeatedly with the district just to get help mandated under ADA and the Rehab Act. I've heard stories of parents fighting to get their kids 504 plans written and parents fighting to have the 504s removed from their kids files. On the other hand, at least they have something to fight.

And that's the worrisome part to me about these charter school reformers--they're more than willing to yank their "special snowflakes" out of the public schools, but everyone else's "special snowflakes" with any issues get drop-kicked back into a school system that's now choc-a-bloc with discipline problems, learning disabilities, and kids that cost more to educate than the per capita rate.... (more)

The Puget Sound Business Journal has a very good report on Washington state unemployment. As TSB readers know, I'm critical of unemployment "movements" on the order of a tenth of a decimal dutifully parroted as a "drop" or "spike." (Meanwhile, no headline screams "National payroll number for June revised, 221K jobs lost, not 125K.")

Not because of unemployment's valency in political horse-race season, but simply because real-world decisions on things like unemployment extensions hinge on whether politicians and their constituents believe things are getting better or worse.

For context, the last time Washington's well-massaged unemployment rate stood at 8.7 percent was 1992. The dot-com reset crested at 8.3 percent. So if things are any "better" right now, they're also the worst we've seen in eighteen years.

Greg Lamm's PSBJ post tackles another measurement, of overall "labor underutilization" (broken out in categories U-1 to U-6). Category U-6, for instance, includes people who have been out of work so long they have stopped looking or who have taken part-time work just to pay bills. "By that measure, Washington’s unemployment rate was 17.4 percent for a period that spans the third quarter of 2009 and the first two quarters of 2010," writes Lamm.... (more)

Working my way through the draft of Washington Transportation Plan 2030, I keep coming across what looks like the future arriving today. Unfortunately, it's the future in which the state is broke, but still wants to spend billions on more roads.

"It is noteworthy that approximately 64% of current transportation funding is dependent on how much fuel cars and trucks consume," goes the report, noting at the outset that "the existing 2007-2026 WTP identifies a need to invest more than $67 billion over 20 years (2005 dollars), most of which is unfunded."

With the spike in fuel prices previously and now the recession, people have been driving less, and state revenue from the gas tax has dropped to "E" when it comes to new projects.

Today a Seattle Times headline gives you Exhibit A: "520 bridge shortfall: more tolls, taxes ahead." Even with peak driving time tolls of $3.50 each way, 520 replacement monies fall short. "The forecasts errantly assumed growth in gasoline use, which instead has gone nearly flat," says Mike Lindblom.

It's long been suspected that I-90 will need to be tolled in tandem with 520, which Seattle Senator Ed Murray is in favor of. But no one is jumping on the Coalition for a Sustainable SR 520's funding bandwagon: Their idea is to institute tolls now and a) raise money in advance while b) confirming the effects of $7 daily roundtrip tolls on traffic demand.

The same strategy could be put into effect on SR 99 (aka the Viaduct), since the state plans to toll the deep-bore tunnel as well. But so far the state seems shy about raising money in ways that might affect the rationale for spending billions on new lanes.... (more)

In the end, four of Council member Mike O'Brien's five amendments to the deep-bore tunnel resolution ended up little grave markers for political transparency. The Port can non-bindingly say it's in for $300 million. The state can stand firmly behind an unfunded transit component. It's late in the game, and it would have been profoundly surprising to find anyone with a change of heart, let alone two or three votes.

"Full speed ahead," trumpets Tim Burgess on his blog, and if you view boldface, assertion, and boldface assertion as successful rhetorical techniques, you can't help but be persuaded. (Winningly, he adds, "The issue of cost overruns has also been resolved.")

The sturm und drang over the prospect of delay on the Alaskan Way Viaduct Replacement project--the bad delay, not the good delay--aside, no one really cares what the Council thinks. It's more the principle of giving the appearance of looking after Seattle's interests. Learning that two-thirds of Seattle residents really do care how much the tunnel may finally cost, the Council went back to the drawing board to look into the benefits of punting.... (more)

There's an alarming (or alarmist, depending on your perspective) story coming out of the Washington Brewers' Guild. I caught their press release over at Seattle Beer News, where friend of the site Geoff Kaiser argues forcefully that you should vote "No" on I-1100 (before caveating that he doesn't fully understand all the technicalities discussed), the measure, heavily backed by the beverage industry, to deregulate liquor sales in Washington.

"The problems resulting from Federal deregulation of telecommunication, airline, and banking industries are well known," reads part of the press release. "The affected industries now have reduced competition, less innovation, and benefit only the largest and wealthiest companies. I-1100 eliminates the level playing field that requires consistent pricing for all breweries."

The crux of the argument is essentially that Washington's heavily regulated liquor industry has benefitted the growth of craft brewing by levelling the playing field by limiting tactics big business uses in other states. Volume discounting through distributors could reduce the price of domestics dramatically compared to craft brews, who may even lose their distributors should they be unable to lower prices enough. Also, according to the brewers' association, deregulation would allow "tied houses," bars owned or controlled by a particular brewery.

Still, I find some of the arguments questionable at best. I'm particularly curious about the tied house idea. Ironically, anti-tied house laws were the target of craft brewers only a couple decades ago, because they prevented brewpubs from existing by forcibly separating production from consumer sales. Craft brewers desperately needed that option, since in the absence of large scale production of proven consumer demand distributors weren't interested in them. In other words, repealing essential components of tied house laws allowed brewers to create a successful business model by taking their products directly to the consumer. Perhaps someone more knowledgeable about current regulations can explain what I-1100 will do that, say, Elysian isn't already. Are brewpubs not legally allowed to sell just their own products?... (more)

I was thinking the other day about the poor state of the Obama Administration and how they'd managed to get so much done and yet only lose ground in the process. The problem, as I see it, is the difference between strategy and tactics when it applies to a military campaign.

Strategy is the overall scope of your battle plan. You will take that hill, then push on to the city below. Tactics are the decisions you make in battle. How will you deploy your troops? How will you send them up the hill? Should you use airpower or artillery?

Obama has a master strategy here--fix a whole bunch of problems that have needed fixing for a while, and fix them permanently. The problem is that politics is entirely about tactics, the daily ebb and flow of the battle. And they're getting outmaneuvered on all sides by the political Right, which is fewer in numbers and shoots themselves in the foot every chance they get, but has managed to keep the Obama Administration so harried they fired a USDA executive last week without stopping to consider the story's origin or veracity.

What does this have to do with Mayor McGinn though? Well, he has the same problem. He has a strategy, but he lacks the tactics to get it done, especially in the face of a City Council emboldened by having a political novice in the executive's chair. 

Think about his continual sputtering about the Viaduct. He does have a strategy, and it's not a bad one. He's pulling from the playbook of Fabius Maximus, the great Roman general who was maligned for his strategy against Hannibal. Fabius knew that Hannibal was a tactical genius: At Trasimene Lake, the Carthaginians slaughtered a far larger Roman army because Hannibal used the landscape and surprise to force the Romans out of their battle plan, rendering classical Roman tactics completely useless. Fabius knew Rome could not fight Hannibal's war.... (more)

It's hard not to take it as an omen that while I was covering the Mayor's announcement of the Seattle Nightlife Initiative at the Century Ballroom last night, someone rummaged through my bike's seat bag and walked off with a a) rag, b) patch kit, and c) front light. All in front of about 30 people standing in line for Molly Moon's ice cream. (In fairness, you don't want to lose your place in that line.) It's my second bike-related theft this summer, after nothing at all over the past five years.

Which, anecdotally, is a way of saying that the furor that produced this Nightlife Initiative--the punitive crackdowns and nightclub stings of the Nickels/Carr era--has been overtaken by recessionary events (unless you personally live next door to a problem club). There are bigger fish to fry, and there's no money to fund any major new effort.

So, nightlife is not as top-of-mind as night deaths. The first question Mayor McGinn took after his presentation was whether this initiative would address violence in Belltown. McGinn responded by saying the Public Safety Initiative was really the tool for that; the nightlife proposal was designed more to deal with neighborhood conflicts with nightspots over nuisance issues like noise complaints or boisterous closing-time crowds.

The Nightlife Initiative [pdf] at this point, he said, was a way of taking this "balanced approach" out to the community, now that the Seattle Nightlife Association has been reassured the city isn't out to get them. There's an online survey where Seattle residents can weigh in about its eight pillars elements:... (more)

The tunnel's southern approach, or, "Acres of Asphalt"

Yesterday City Council President Richard Conlin published an op-ed at Publicola, "State Overrun Language Serves Only to Alarm and Divide Seattleites." Mega dittos! said the Council's Tim Burgess. Apparently the two are unfazed by the prospect of bankruptcy of any kind, including intellectual.

At this point, the two have sailed deep into Glenn Beck territory, in terms of purely opportunistic argument. Forget what Conlin said before--it's different when you really want the shiny new toy.

The groupthink boosterism the two display is probably the most chilling thing to witness, since it's so pernicious to thoughtful assessment in general. When Conlin and Burgess try to characterize the replacement of the Alaskan Way Viaduct as a choice between a deep-bore tunnel or "bicycles," they sink to an embarrassing elementary-school level of disparagement.

Both men's thinking is so riddled with biased "evidence gathering" that it's hard to determine where to start in responding. There's little point in assembling a tedious list of corrections. In the long run, it doesn't matter what either of these men are "for," as regards the project. It's a state route, and the State is driving. It can only matter how well they look after Seattle's interests--and they seem to deaf to a good deal of the clamor around those.

As for "alarm" and "division," there has been no demonstrated majority in favor of a deep-bore tunnel; there is only the failure of the cut-and-cover tunnel option on a public ballot, which is neither here nor there unless you conclude that cost was a decisive factor in that tunnel's rejection. (An astute political leader might steal Mayor McGinn's "obstructionist" wind by reclaiming the fiscal conservative role, but it appears that, deep down, local leadership believe fiscal conservatism and the deep-bore tunnel to be antithetical.)... (more)

Mayor McGinn has handed off a Memorandum of Agreement (between Seattle and the state on the $4.2-billion Alaskan Way Viaduct and Seawall Replacement project) to the City Council. It's probably most remarkable for the fact that neither the Council nor the state seem inclined to read, let alone agree, with its "third way" option. Wrote McGinn in a letter to the Council:

Today I am sending the negotiated agreements between the City and the State, together with some new language for your consideration. This language, which we have included as paragraph 2.11 of the master SDOT agreement, proposes what I call the "third way," and it provides us with a path forward to complete the agreement.

In short, this new contract language would stipulate that Seattle’s agreement to go forward will not take effect unless and until the State amends state law to clarify that the State is responsible for all project funding including cost overruns.

This seems a pro forma move by McGinn. The Council has signaled--mightily--that it has absolutely no problem with the cost overrun provision, and has the numbers to override McGinn's paragraph 2.11. Publicola reports that McGinn didn't bother to discuss his revision with the Council before sending it over.

Council President Richard Conlin, shown laughing and talking with a lobbyist for developers like Vulcan (at an event at Vulcan's Discovery Center), told the Seattle Times an interview over the weekend: "If cost overruns take place, then we'll have to figure it out."

Seattle Police Chief John Diaz

McGinn began his remarks by saying that six months ago, Chief Diaz might not have been his first pick, but that through his experience working with Diaz, and seeing his response to the challenges the Seattle Police Department has faced, he felt sure Diaz was the best choice: "The issue here was who was best prepared to deal with the issues of public safety in the city." McGinn said another factor was the budget, and whether the new chief's policing strategy took into account doing more with less.

The press scrum at the announcement focused its questions on the department's sometimes testy relations with the NAACP and on whether Diaz represented the status quo. Diaz responded that the SPD is known nationally for its progressive policing, and that, yes, the SPD had work to do improving its image in minority communities.

In retrospect, Publicola had it right. A few days ago, McGinn and Diaz appeared together to announce a high-profile policing response to the recent spate of Belltown violence.

Asked whether Diaz's place at his side today indicated that he had made up his mind, McGinn responded, "We will have an announcement when we have an announcement."

I had thought the fussin' and feudin' over NOAA's home port move from Seattle to Newport, OR, was over when NOAA decided they were right the first time. But Senator Maria Cantwell doesn't take NOAA for an answer.

*steely gaze at readers*

Cantwell told Commerce Secretary and former Washington governor Gary Locke that NOAA's Newport home port would be a waste of taxpayer dollars, and blatantly disregards an Inspector General's finding that there are "cheaper, government-owned alternatives."

Locke argued that the IG findings said the "defects" in NOAA's siting process weren't sufficient to overturn their decision, and Cantwell came down on him like a ton of bricks: "I don’t think the Inspector General has given you a blanket go-ahead authority. If you have such a document, I’d love to see it."

The lesson here is that you do not mess with Maria Cantwell just after she's been stood up by President Obama (her presentation on the CLEAR Act this morning was canceled) over some Rolling Stone kerfluffle.

In a news release, Cantwell said the next step would be for Congress to consider halting funding of the construction. BAM!

Here's the full text of their cage match after the jump:... (more)

One striking thing about the CLEAR Act formulated by senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Susan Collins (R-ME) is its lack of heft: It's 39 pages. Another is that it would (in theory) pay a family of four an estimated $1,100 per year in dividends, to offset any extra costs in clean energy prices.

Senators can really appreciate a climate change bill that comes in under 1,000 pages (Waxman-Markey weighs in at 1,428, Kerry-Lieberman at 987), and the person-in-the-street tends to perk up at the idea of getting a check for $1,100. Who cares what it's for! (Cantwell and Collins call it a "cap-and-dividend" bill, and say it will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050, while driving the free market to seek out and implement clean energy options.)

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and the Democratic Caucus have made the CLEAR Act an object of keen interest, recently, and Cantwell has been holding audiences all over Capitol Hill (coming up, the White House).

When the Act made its debut at the end of last year, even wonks were bowled over by its simplicity; local public policy-pushers Sightline admitted that the only real problem they had was that it seemed too good to be true. Alan Durning wanted a lot more detail on how exactly this cap-and-dividend plan would work. (Durning was also divided on Waxman-Markey.) Grist said this could be the bill that puts climate change back on the table.... (more)

What? I'm just saying. If the Governor is impressed with their getting the tunnel on time and on budget, surely she must be impressed with their foresight in putting light rail in it, too? Otherwise it'd just be...tunnel-vision.

Mayor McGinn

The City of Seattle's general fund is a portrait of neediness. It's carrying about $4 million in red ink from 2009, and is looking at a $7-million shortfall in 2010, thanks to revenues coming in $2 million under projections and $5 million in "expenditure risks" (more on this later). In addition, 2011's forecast keeps coming in $56 million short.

This morning, the Mayor's budget director, Beth Goldberg, briefed the City Council on the steps necessary to balance the budget, with "the bulk coming from police, parks and libraries," sums up the Seattlepi.com. The cuts total $12.4 million (pdf), and an unspecified amount would carry over into 2011, to address that year's looming deficit.

Last week, Mayor McGinn was also looking at the Fire Department for cost savings; after this weekend's fire, which took five lives, cuts are on hold. An investigation into the equipment failure that left the first truck to arrive unable to pump water is ongoing.

Says McGinn: "The tragedy in Fremont this past weekend gave us a concrete example of the importance of protecting our public safety budget; in light of that event, I am not proposing any reductions to the Fire Department, giving us an opportunity to fully review the safety implications of any potential reductions."

That still leaves police (a $2.27 million cut), human services ($246,000), and parks ($1.67 million). The police department will have to do without 21 extra officers promised by the Neighborhood Policing Plan, and the city is "cutting" 53 full-time positions (not hiring for 44 vacancies). McGinn notes that the city is still staffing police officers at record levels.

(More peace officers doesn't necessarily bring more peace and quiet: A man who fired a shot in Belltown last weekend was released after police questioning found he had a permit to carry the weapon. The man claimed he'd fired it to frighten off two other men who'd flashed their guns at him. All in favor of taking advantage of this return to frontier justice and renaming Belltown "Tombstone," say aye.)... (more)

Coverage of the tunnel project oversight meeting, attended by Governor Gregoire, the Mayor, and the City Council, provides some real whoppers. As expected, the debate grew out of the legislature's provision that Seattle property owners pay for the deep-bore tunnel project's costs if they exceed the budgeted amount of $3.1 billion.

Governor Gregoire

"Mr. Mayor, we have a track record that's loud and clear. We have a track record of getting every project done on time and on budget," Gregoire said, specifically referring to the Tacoma Narrows Bridge and the recently finished highway ramps in Sodo.

That's right, "every project" means two projects. When the Mayor listed overruns on the Third Avenue bus tunnel, the Brightwater sewage tunnel and the Beacon Hill light-rail tunnel, the Times says Gregoire retorted, "I didn't manage those projects." She also insisted that "delay" is what causes cost overruns, a week after WSDOT announced that building an extra year into deep-bore tunnel project would actually help keep costs down.

Council member Tom Rasmussen also locked horns with the Mayor over the cost overrun provision, arguing that cost overruns are unlikely to occur because the state, planning for cost overruns, built $415 million extra into the project. Now all the cost overruns have to do is conform to projections.... (more)

What's the first thing you ask when you read this Daily Journal of Commerce story lead-in: "The Puget Sound Regional Council is expected to approve a far-reaching plan this afternoon that could lead to tolling of all major roads in the metropolitan area by 2030"?

That's right, what's the Puget Sound Regional Council? It's a consortium of central Puget Sound counties (King, Pierce, Snohomish and Kitsap), cities and towns, ports, tribes, transit agencies, and the state that plans for regional transportation, land use and economic development. Its current president is Everett mayor Ray Stephanson; vice-president, Kitsap Co. commissioner Josh Brown; and executive director, Bob Drewel.

Last year the PSRC overwhelmingly approved its Transportation 2040 document, which lays out how the area's leadership envisions meeting future demand due to growth in population, jobs, and housing.

The PSRC forecasts population growth of 42 percent over the next 30 years, to 5 million, and concomitant increases in jobs (60 percent) and housing (56 percent).

There's a graph that looks very much like the forecasters placed a ruler on the trendlines from 1960 to the mid-2000s and kept running the pencil out until they reached 2040. There, that's predictive science!

Seattleites may be interested to know that Mayor McGinn was among the three percent voting against the 2040 plan. The DJC says his office told them, "Instead of moving our region forward in improving transit, density, equal access to infrastructure and greenhouse gas reductions, the plan will preserve the status quo with only relatively modest investments in transit and biking, coupled with massive expansions of new highways."

After reading it, I have to agree with McGinn. The PSRC plan for the next 30 years is to keep building roads, and, via tolling and miles-traveled fees, charge everyone more for using them. Their overall goal is to somehow absorb the significant growth they predict while maintaining current levels of congestion. Essentially, people are being forced to fund megaprojects, and then pay more if they want to drive on them. (The downtown tunnel toll is expected to cost between $3.50 and $5 each way.) It's the Gotcha Capitalism version of transportation policy.... (more)

I just got this news release from the Mayor's office, which has got me imagining the Mayor--frustrated in his attempt to debate City Council president Richard Conlin (vacationing in Greece, loving it)--roving Seattle, buttonholing passersby, and demanding answers.

Don't get me wrong, they're good questions. But it makes for a strange news release, in that there's no actual news involved, except for perhaps, "Mayor Has Questions!"

And here they are:

• Why did the state cap its contribution to the tunnel at $2.4 billion and make Seattle taxpayers responsible to pay for cost overruns?  
• How can the City Council protect Seattle taxpayers from paying for cost overruns on the project?
• How can the city manage a state project to prevent cost overruns? 
• Given the cap in state law, how would the state legally pay more than $2.4 billion for the project?
• Why has the state shifted risk on the performance bonds away from itself and the contractor and onto Seattle?  
• What is the cause of cost overruns on other megaprojects?  Is it as proponents claim due to delay?  Are there other causes? 
• What is the state doing differently here than on other megaprojects to prevent overruns? 
• What will happen if the tunneling machine gets stuck underground?  Who will pay?  How will it be resolved?
• If Seattle has to pay for cost overruns, how would the city pay for them?  What taxes would the City Council raise, or what programs would it cut?

"On Monday," Tim Burgess reminds you, "the Council will reconsider and vote on Council Bill 116807, the aggressive solicitation measure the Council adopted 5-4 on April 19, 2010. Mayor McGinn vetoed this legislation on April 26, 2010, and returned it to the Council."

The odds are not good. By Burgess's reckoning, in the past 20 years there have been eight mayoral vetoes and only two have been overridden by the City Council, thus far. Personally, if Burgess's revamped bill stands legal scrutiny, I don't think a trial period is out of line, though the Council majority seems to have jumped at the chance to grandstand in favor of keeping a more punitive law on the books.

But this raises the question: What's such a big deal that the Council will override a mayoral veto?

One, increasing staff hourly wages and the salary of the Executive Director of the City Employees Retirement System. Two, self-cleaning public toilets. "Since the 1980s, Seattle business owners have said the lack of public restrooms was the top issue facing downtown," noted the P-I. (Now the top issue is public safety--public restrooms aren't mentioned at all in the Downtown Seattle Association's list of goals and priorities, despite no progress being made on that once all-important front.)

The Council (Jan Drago and Nick Licata leading the charge) would not take Paul Schell's veto for an answer, and in August 2001 directed "Seattle Public Utilities to enter into a contract for the lease, installation and maintenance of five automatic public restrooms."... (more)

Sensible Washington, the people behind the I-1068 marijuana legalization initiative, are dealing with some collateral damage to the democratic process. After last week's raid on a medical marijuana dispensary, Tacoma's North End Club 420, drug enforcement officers walked off with about a dozen signature-laden copies of the initiative as evidence.

Sensible Washington would like the petitions back:

We have made repeated calls to WestNet’s office, but have yet to receive any assurance that the task force’s personnel have secured the signed petitions and that they plan to promptly return them to Sensible Washington.

Subsequent to the raid, Seattle Weekly reports, detectives visited the home of the patient coordinator of North End Club 420, Christine Casey, who alleges they "handcuffed her 14-year-old son for two hours and put a gun to his head."

This puts a new spin on the debate over whether petition signatures should be public or not. In this case, it's a multi-jurisdictional federally funded narcotics task force that is in possession of about 200 names and addresses from people willing to support marijuana legalization. I think the words "chilling effect" were coined for precisely this kind of situation.... (more)