Defeat I-912

been swamped lately so haven’t caught up on all the latest transit news. i understand budget prios come out soon. i wonder to what extent transit is addressed in the priorties slated for dec 20th.

..what happens, now that the gas tax remains.

But, hey, it was nice to wipe the smile off that right-wing talk-radio guy’s face for a few seconds.

That said, to all the people who argue that a No vote was a Yes vote for more roads and traffic.

Well, road improvements don’t necessarily mean more traffic.

See, there are these road-travelling vehicles called “buses”. They also are part of this thing called “public transit”. So any attempts to obfuscate the issue by making “roads” and “public transit” mutually exclusive is rather silly.

Imagine the SR-520 bridge with bus and bike lanes, for example.

I hope to see this happen in my lifetime here.

I help defeat the tax repeal against my better judgment, and I think in the long run it will really not be worth it.

The governor got her way with the defeat of the monorail and the gas tax repeal. She made a big point about how Washington voters were so stupid that they wouldn’t be able to figure out that the monorail is funded by Seattlites, and would vote for the tax repeal as a way of defeating the monorail. So at her behest, the city council, the mayor, and the State auditor worked to kill the monorail (ably assisted by that ass Joel Horn). So the governor wins. The monorail is dead and we have billions for suburban road building projects and a down payment on a $4 billion highway across our city’s waterfront. Terrific.

What a poor excuse for a transportation plan and what a travesty of leadership. Perhaps the Mayor will now be willing to put his viaduct plan up for 5 votes and match the standards for financing he set for the monorail.

Just got the No on I-912 Campaign victory email:

Every area of trouble gives out a ray of hope; and the one unchangeable certanity is that nothing is certain or unchangeable.

- John Fitzgerald Kennedy

To many people, especially proponents, it may have seemed certain that voters would pass Initiative 912 and repeal a significant part of the 2005 transportation package. But voters are sending a different message: they’re putting their seal of approval on the 2005 transportation package.

We vowed to fight Initiative 912 and drive it into the ground. We worked hard to explain to voters the consequences of passing Initiative 912. We talked about how important public safety is. We asked voters to “put safety first”.

Finally, we held out hope. Hope that this year, people would take their eyes off their pocketbooks and look beyond into their community.

The one unchangeable certanity is that nothing is certain or unchangeable!

Last summer, when I-912 proponents turned in their truckload of signatures in record time, they boasted about how popular their initiative was. How it was going to pass overwhelmingly despite whatever opponents said or did. They made its passage seem a certainty.

They were wrong.

It’s not just voters in King County that are voting Initiative 912 down. Snohomish is voting it down too, as are voters in Kitsap, Thurston, Jefferson, San Juan, Island, Clark, and Walla Walla counties. In other counties, such as Pierce and Whatcom, it’s evenly split.

Our strategy worked – and it’s still working. We won big in our strongholds – King and San Juan counties – and won over critical swing counties like Snohomish, Thurston, and Kitsap.

And we managed to avoid staggering margins in practically all of Eastern Washington counties. I just looked at the chart, and no county was approving I-912 by over 70%. It’s all under that crit! ical threshold.

Finally, we got a few surprises…Walla Wa lla voters coming out in opposition to 912, and the even splits in counties like Clark and Whatcom.

The NO vote continues to grow larger – it’s even closer to 53% now. There are many absentees left to count, but many of them will be from counties that have obliterated Initiative 912 (such as King and Thurston).

There is little doubt at this point: we have won a huge victory. This is incredible. It’s unbelievable.

I expect to hear proponents of 912 falling back on the excuse that they were outspent. Yes, they were. But they’ve claimed in the past that being outspent doesn’t mean anything. Now, because they lost, it suddenly does?

Voters didn’t defeat Initiative 912 just because they saw an advertisement. This year, after a disaster of epic proportions on the Gulf Coast and heightened awareness of our crumbling infrastructure, a majority of voters decided they’d rather invest in the future of the state then buy an extra a latte every month.

Taxpayers voted with their hearts and minds instead of thinking about dollar signs.

This vote speaks volumes. It is a crushing, devastating defeat for those who gleefully proclaimed that Olympia was going to pay for being bold and courageous.

Now, the joke is on them.

This victory would not have been possible without the hard work and dedication of hundreds and thousands of volunteers who took it upon themselves to educate their fellow voters about the dangers of I-912.

We all worked hard to defeat I-912 because we had hope. Every area of trouble gives out a ray of hope. We turned a significant challenge into a significant victory.

Governor Christine Gregoire and state legislators are vindicated. The people have spoken, and are still speaking. They have delivered a message: Safety First.

We can now breathe a sigh of relief, smile, and celebrate. It’s good to be a Wash! ingtonian today.

THANK YOU SO MUCH for all the work you did to stop I-912!

Andrew Villeneuve
Co-Chair, Washington Defense

Here’s a fine editorial that lays out why I wish I had voted my conscious on I -912. This guy is a transit hating fan of roads, and he opposes 912 for all the reasons I hope it passes.

When I cast my ballot, I was all talk no action. I voted against the gas tax repeal. I still think we’d be better off with less highway building and more mass transit, but I just couldn’t stand the company I’d be in if I voted for it.

I was on the fence but now I’ve decided that I’m against I-912 and will vote to defeat it. This, in effect, means I’m voting to uphold the state transportation package, warts and all. My reasons:

• I fundamentally loathe anti-tax initiatives.
• I think gasoline should be taxed at a higher rate than it current is and will be once this initiative is defeated. Higher prices at the pump provide an obvious disincentive to drive. That said, I would support a constitutional amendment allowing gas tax funds to be directed toward mass transit and commercial rail projects. We need to build a transportation infrastructure that does not rely on automobiles and trucks.
• To support the current economic vitality of the city (and state) we need to continue to make sure our roads are a safe and effective means of moving goods. We can’t just burn down what we’ve got and rebuild it a different way overnight.
• Realistically speaking, it’s going to take something drastic and life-changing to move the momentum away from road building to a more sustainable solution. This initiative isn’t going to change a lot of lawmakers’ minds. It’s kind of lame, really.

And in conclusion, I’d like to state for the record that I think the state transportation plan sucks. But I-912 sucks more.

Campaign donations

The opposition campaign, Keep Washington Rolling, has raised $494,000, including more than $200,000 from asphalt paving and construction interests. The single biggest contribution, $100,000, came from the Washington Asphalt Paving Association. Other big contributors include the Washington Association of Realtors and Pemco Mutual Insurance

The I-912 campaign, Nonewgastax.com, has raised about $192,000, mostly through small contributions, campaign-finance reports say. The group has received only five contributions of at least $1,000 from individuals and groups, including the Northwest Health Care Alliance and Heath Homes.

Source: State Public Disclosure Commission, cited in today’s Times

What is the reason to support a big road building initiative? Isn’t traffic and congestion the main incentive for people to demand mass transit?

I’m truly ambivalent about pouring billions into roads and highways. Why should progressive voters, environmentalists, or urbanites care about a mostly suburban highway road building extravaganza? It seems to me that since the Washington State constitution requires gas taxes to go to highway construction, environmentalists and urbanites should try to send as little money as possible into propping up a single driver car based transportation system.

From today’s Seattle Times cover story

Seattle got $1 million from Project Impact [FEMA program that dispensed grants for seismic retrofitting] and focused on retrofitting city schools. Local officials credited the program with saving lives during the 6.8-magnitude Nisqually quake Feb. 28, 2001, which injured 410 people and caused more than $2 billion in damage.

But on the same day as the quake, the White House killed Project Impact.

Asked about the coincidence on CNN that night, Vice President Dick Cheney said: “Lots of programs that make lots of sense or that have nice titles to them nonetheless don’t work.”

The city of Seattle has continued Project Impact on its own.

We’re not getting any help from the federal government to make our state safe. We have to fund it ourselves, and I-912 will kill that funding.