King County Democrats

Reference: Tim Eyman Guest Columns
You'd think a watch salesman would recognize when his time has come...and gone. The watch salesman from Snohomish County, turned initiative king pin, Tim Eyman, has indicated more mayhem from Mukilteo is on the way. Following a failed initiative at the polls last November to radically expand gambling in Washington State, and a failed attempt to place a measure on the ballot that would have gutted k-12 education, the professional initiative profiteer now indicates that he will be providing us with yet another opportunity to line his own pockets.

Tim Eyman recently announced plans to eliminate funding for the replacement of the Alaskan Way Viaduct and the 520 bridge, two highways that could crash and splash in the next major earthquake or storm. He also wants to eliminate park and ride lots, bus service and expanded commuter train service in the Puget Sound region. And he proposes to let voters across the state, in places like Omak, Ritzville and Walla Walla make this decision for us through a statewide initiative that would usurp local control.

Eliminating local control is a model familiar to Eyman. In 2002, Eyman succeeded with an initiative that allowed voters across the state to eliminate funding for local roads and transit in King County. Voters in 36 other county's across Washington State that weren't paying to maintain our roads and bridges got to tell us that the dangerous bridge that needed replacing could wait and that we should just learn to tolerate the wear and tear on our vehicles caused by shoddy roads. Whether a pothole was to be fixed in Auburn was decided by a voter living in Potlatch. King County voters rejected Eyman's "pothole" initiative, but we are forced to live with the results in more expensive car repair bills, time stuck in traffic and the rising cost of road projects that remain incomplete.

Now Eyman intends to launch a preemptive strike against efforts to finally address the traffic congestion that is clogging Puget Sound highways like 167 and I-5 and harming our economy and quality of life. His latest measure would prevent our region from moving forward with plans to expand transit service and address safety projects like the Viaduct and the 520 bridge.

Regional leaders have been working to develop a plan to address the chokepoints on our highways, the gaps in our HOV system and the need for more transit in the Puget Sound region. This plan would require approval from Puget Sound voters. For years the state has used King County residents' gas tax dollars to maintain and build highways in rural parts of the state, while our own roads were being consumed with congestion. The Puget Sound economy has suffered from the under funding created by this arrangement, as businesses struggle to get their goods to market and workers spend hours and hours on congested highways.

Our state legislators recognized that we needed more local control to get a handle on our suffocating traffic congestion in the Puget Sound region and gave us the ability to develop our own plan to submit to our voters so that we could keep our tax dollars here at home. Eyman's latest effort, which is being funded by wealthy individuals from Ravensdale to Tucson, would derail this plan entirely. He would leave our congestion problem in the hands of the voter in Potlatch, who, by the way, still hasn't gotten around to fixing our potholes.

Susan C. Sheary, King County Democrats Chair

Posted on: 5/4/2005 12:47:44 PM by suzie2004@comcast.net
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A Watchmaker Whose Time Has Come and Gone

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