Walmart has been trying to move into urban areas and close-in suburbs in the past several years. New York City made it basically impossible for Walmart to get the permits necessary to open a store. In other cities Walmart hasn’t done especially well since Target and Costco have locked up much of their customer base. Besides in a larger metro area opening a super center isn’t likely to drive the other chains or local stores out of business like it might in a small town.

Eyman has turned into a politician himself, but a new kind of one, one the public will believe over an elected official. As I said before, there are some public services that nobody wants to use, but don’t mind them being there when they have to. I remember seeing somebody sounding off on a PI article about potential overruns on fire station rebuilding, why do they need sleeping and eating areas in fire stations, they should run on 8 hours every day, the old system was outdated in the guy’s mind. Not knowing that the nature of a fire department is to be on call, not out on patrol like a police officer. The Fire Department is more organized on military lines, companies and battalions. Thankfully that morning when I needed them, Engine 2 was there pretty fast. The fire levy as I said was in 2003, and Station 2 getting renovated is happening this year. It may have been 6 years, but ambitious projects take a long time. Just like LINK took 13 years and was a little late due to unforeseen problems, Libraries for All was another measure that took awhile to come to fruition. Passed in the late 1990s, the last library was either built or rebuilt under it just recently. It was pretty much ever branch getting expanded or renovated, a new central branch, and a few new ones built. The immediate gratification society that Eyman perpetrates, as well as not wanting to pay for, seemed to think you can build everything overnight.

Now on a side note, anybody see the latest TRAINS magazine, an interesting article written by a local transportation expert, was in it. It did not mention anything about Eyman, nor should it have, nor did I expect it, but it did have the old addage among local transportation planners, if one wanted to ride Seattle’s Subway, go to Atlanta.

Face it: It takes money to have the kind of society we desire, but there are those who don’t want to pay for it.

In my opinion, these wealthy men (Eyman, Freeman, etc) are the best argument there is for why Washington should have an income tax. But anytime that is brought up, everyone screams like they were undergoing an amputation without anesthetic. The sad thing is, that would make the tax burden much more equitable, especially for the middle class.

I am just hoping, if 1033 passes, some loophole can be found in it to get it declared unconstitutional. I heard somewhere, I think it was oral arguments in ATU Local 587 et. al. vs. State of Washington before the State Supreme Court, that Utility Rates are supposed to not be below costs. Transit fares are different though, the below cost issue was being raised by not the ATU’s lawyers, but the lawyers representing another party to the suit, the PUDs, on not the car tab issue but the other issue that violated the single-subject rule. Imagine having to have an election over power rates, for power being purchased on the spot market, which at the time, was pretty high. In California they almost had tonight a reminder of the dark days of 2000-2001, caused by the wind downing a major transmission line in the Central Valley.(A news podcast from KGO was where I heard it).

I have been sick of Eyman for years, he means well, but the way he is doing it, is only making things worse, and the politicians get blamed either way. Sure he thinks his performance audits will save us money, but maybe they are asking the impossible. Metro supposedly according to one Performance Audits have too well maintained buses, and although it costs money to do that, why is that a bad thing? A SOV only has the driver in it. A full 40ft bus(every seat), a driver is responsible for 40 passenger lives, in addition to his own, and all other vehicles on the road, I want him or her to have a well maintained bus. Then again, Eyman probably never rides a bus. His initiatives affect real people, but he don’t know that.

Last month Washington State Ferries due to one accident nearly had the entire operation paralyzed, in the case of the accident that befell the Wenatchee. Thankfully she was only out of service a few days. No spare boats. Not even a spare Passenger Only Ferry so some service was maintained, had to charter from the private sector for a few days with a Passenger Only boat. I think the Snohomish this time was filling in an emergency, with it’s new owners, an operator on San Francisco Bay.

And actually the dams are largely controlled from the system control center in Seattle :-)

1033 will mean, if nothing else, much higher utility costs. It’s a real lemon of an initiative. It might also mean curtailment of the Cascades.

If Eyman was not hitting a never with the voters, I wonder how many would see through him as a young wants it all now guy, without worrying about the consequences. He may not know it, but his initiatives affect people’s lives. Just when the Klickitat and her sisters were pulled from service, it was on a Holiday weekend, and contrary to some of the stuff he said in 2000, WSF was not able to get along just fine. It was at least a week before the mothballed Snohomish was fired up and dispatched to provide something to help people get across. If it were not for most TV Stations being beamed from Seattle, I would suggest commercials for the No-Campaign based on local issues. I am beginning to see a pattern, fiscal conservatives messing ferry systems up. I think that is going on in British Columbia. The Liberals are Conservative, and they have over the past 8 years made BC Ferries more of a problem child then it was under the NDP before them. The NDP had scandals with BC Ferries, but some problems at BC Ferries came up as the Liberals began to privatize it.(Although the Provincial Government still is the sole shareholder). Although the boat that sank, was more of crew error, but with a boat that was beginning to show it’s age, only built in the 1960s. BC could use a guy like Eyman, with the controversial Harmonized Sales Tax, although the opposition has an interesting ally, a former SoCred premier who is no stranger to controversy himself.

Part of Metro’s problems is due to the 40/40/20 rule, but I am still waiting to see a crosstown route cut by Metro due to 695 to be restored, took years to get night service on the 39 restored, especially on weekends.

The real problem with I-1033 for WSF is it puts the ferry system back in the same place it was after the legislature decided to give the public $30 car tabs even though I-695 was declared unconstitutional. In other words a ever-decreasing operating subsidy and no capital budget for vessel replacement or terminal improvements.

The “Evergreen State” ferries (Evergreen State, Klahowya, Tillikum) are all over 50, the “super” ferries (Elwha, Hyak, Kaleetan, Yakima) will be 50 in 2017 as will the Hiyu. All of these vessels will need to be replaced in the next 15-20 years, the current construction only allows WSF to retire the Rhododendron and Evergreen State. If I-1033 passes it is doubtful the program to build the 144 car ferries will start any time soon. That combined with too much deferred maintenance may lead to a situation similar to what happened with the Steel Electrics where an entire vessel class had to be pulled from service.

As for SR20, if this persists, Seattle City Light will probably just charter a helo, again to keep Newhalem going. They got to keep the lights on in Seattle, and a few of it’s suburbs(not Kent, that is PSE Territory), and for the most part, they do a great job on that.

Also there was a major slide this weekend on SR-410 near Naches which filled in the Naches River.

Dealing with the Howard Hanson situation was going to be bad enough with the recession putting pressure on state and local budgets. I can just imagine what a nightmare that will be to deal with if we have someone totally unprepared for the job as county exec (IOW Susan Hutchison) and the I-1033 limits to contend with. BTW according to the USACE there is a 25% chance each year while the dam is being repaired that there will be flooding in the Green River Valley.

WSDoT just gave the yes campaign a good campaign item. They just signed the contract with Todd Pacific for 2 more ferries. They will be built in Seattle, but to those anti-Seattlelites, it may be the only time these boats see Elliot Bay. In the past 20 years, come to think of it, I rarely saw a Steel-Electric at Colman Dock. I know some were still on the Vashon run as late as the late 1980s. Most likely these new boats will be joining the first one on Whidbey Island and possibly the San Juans. The contract says they must be completed in 20 months. What if WSF can’t pay the contract because of 1033 while they are under construction. Tim Eyman won’t get sued, we will, that is all Washingtonians, whether you live in Seattle, Newport, Clarkston, South Bend, or Forks. I am sure that Todd will probably be buying the lead items soon. One thing about WSF, they can’t go overseas like BC Ferries does to get new boats, Jones Act says they get built here, political pressure says they got to be built in Washington State.(The Jones Act just says US Shipyards).
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2010056549_webferry13m.html?syndication=rss

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_12530684

Now as for emergencies, I just got a news alert from NWCN on a rockslide on SR20 near the Whatcom/Skagit County Line. Is that anywhere near Newhalem or Diablo. If that is the case, for SCL customers sake, the rockslide gets cleared quickly. Contrary to some beliefs, the Dams don’t run themselves. Would like to see WSDOT’s ability to handle emergencies on critical mountain routes(although SR20 East of Diablo should be closing soon for the winter) curtailed because of meager resources caused by those in Puget Sound and Eastern Washington were thought to be more of a priority for maintaining highways and expanding them. Although we have a major emergency hanging over us. Howard Hanson Dam’s problems could impact SR167 and many other routes in the Valley. Then there is the major Natural Disaster that is right in front of us, although Mt. Ranier has it’s own schedule.

We could have taken the easy way out — we had an extra ten cents per thousand of property tax increase available, we could have avoided cuts and held onto most of our reserves if we simply raised taxes. (And believe me, in a small town where the city council knows every member of city hall staff personally, cutting services can be a lot harder than raising taxes a little bit.)

We didn’t do that. We made prudent temporary cuts, hoping that the economy would begin to recover by next year, but knowing that if the recession dragged on our reserves would run dry and we would need to use that banked taxing authority.

If this initiative passes, we will be trapped with 2009 general fund revenues, revenues that were already inadequate in 2009.

Not only would we be unable to reverse the temporary cuts we made to get through 2009, we would be forced to slash spending even further, because we won’t have reserves left to deplete.

This story is repeated all around the state.

This initiative would not simply force governments to continue the spending cuts they’ve already made for this recession.

To whatever extent governments have been using one-time measures and drawing down reserves to weather the worst recession in 50 years, the inititative would require further cuts beyond those already in place.