The Jeff Recommends: King County Initiatives

OK, almost done. These initiatives are a little wonky, since they themselves navigate a weird menu of options as opposed to straight up-and-down votes, and you have to make sure you know what you’re voting on.

Charter Amendments 1A and 1B -These deal with the reduction of the King County Council, and consists of two separate votes, one for the reduction, and one for which type of reduction you'd prefer, if a reduction is called for, regardless of how you voted for the first question. Confused yet?

On the matter of reducing the council, Vote NO. This is a money-saving initiative only in the fact that outside influences have to influence fewer people with their, um, influence. The governed (that's us) would have less influence on the council, since it has to cover more people. Oh yeah. Like I want that.

Actually, the King County Council itself wants to reduce its numbers, and to that end has passed a wildly unpopular growth act yesterday to cheese off the hinterlands. While the temptation is to seek revenge by reducing their numbers, the simple truth of the matter is – fewer council members, less representation for your viewpoint. Pay attention.

The second question runs: so you voted against 1A and it passes anyway, do you want to do it now or later? Unfortunately, I don’t get a What part of No didn’t you understand? choice, so go for 1B which puts off the reorg into a more reasonable time frame. But I gotta tell yah, this whole thing stinks to high heaven, and when something like this shows up, the only people who lose are the voters.

King County Advisory Measure 1 – Now here’s a non-binding vote, effectively a poll, asking permission to put together a local transportation plan which would then be presented for a vote in 2005. Yes, we have so defanged our government that we have to vote to encourage them to deal with our local issues. Put together a transportation plan to vote on? This is purely about providing political cover for hard decisions. If we need it, we need it, and we need it. Vote YES.

King County Advisory Measure 2 –Here’s another Question 2 that ignores Question 1. It’s sort of like arguing with a three-year-old. So let’s say Measure 1 passes anyway - how do you want to pay for this plan?– credit, cash, or gas tax? Um, gas tax, I guess. But hey, I drive a Hybrid.

I-83 – The Monorail – Guess what! I don’t get to vote on this! It’s a Seattle Initiative. Mind you, I’m going to have to put up with the traffic jams like everyone else if this crashes and burns, but NOOOOOOOOoooOOO I don’t get a vote. Well, I say NO, which means you support the monorail, as opposed to voting YES, which means you don’t want the Monorail. The Monkey King has more on this.

OK, all this made my head hurt. I’m going to lie down.

More later,