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Hydroelectric energy provides an advantage for all of Washington, and for that matter, the entire Pacific Northwest. And guess what? Most of the dams that provide this are located east of the Cascades.
Agriculture is huge in Washington State. Yes, it serves Western WA, but also many other countries around the world. This isn't to say there isn't ag in W. WA, but most of it occurs in E. WA. Fruit, Wheat, Potatoes, Wine. It is huge business and is a positive for the entire State.
Neither the food nor the electricity are free to Western Washington residents. They pay for it. The tax money going to 33 other counties from King County is free to them. King County gets nothing from them but the privilege of giving them billions of their tax dollars, which, if they kept they could fund ST3.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pnwguy2
Plenty of Western WA counties voted down the license tab issue.
The same applies to them. They should lose any tax money from King County, fund their own infrastructure and Pierce and Snohomish should lose their portions of ST3.
This makes no sense. If Seattle wants to tax themselves-they can readily do so by raising city taxes to fund MT. Or they could do the sensible thing (yeah, I know, that won't happen) and increase mass transit fares to the point that the system is self-supporting.
Sounds good. Let's increase mass transit fares to make the system self sustaining. Also, we will be instituting tolling on all roads to make them self sustaining based on the average vehicles per day versus cost to build that road. You will be very shocked at how un-sustainable single occupancy vehicle travel is, from the oil subsidies down to the road subsidies.
I'm not in favor of eastern Washington becoming a new state, in that it would add two more conservative U.S. Senators, but if they want to join Idaho, they're welcome to it - .........
No thanks. Idaho does not want anything to do with any part of Washington state and all of it's progressive caused problems. We especially do not want Spokane.
Sounds good. Let's increase mass transit fares to make the system self sustaining. Also, we will be instituting tolling on all roads to make them self sustaining based on the average vehicles per day versus cost to build that road. You will be very shocked at how un-sustainable single occupancy vehicle travel is, from the oil subsidies down to the road subsidies.
No thanks. Idaho does not want anything to do with any part of Washington state and all of it's progressive caused problems. We especially do not want Spokane.
2017 Poverty Rate:
14. Washington = 11.0%
25. Idaho = 12.8%
Granted eastern Washington drags us down a bit, but would probably lift you up. You'd kill it in the potato market.
Is the food free? No, it's not. They grow food for profit and everyone pays for it the same way they would pay for the food grown anywhere in the world. In fact, after all the subsidies, tariff relief and Western Washington tax contributions happen, an apple probably costs about twenty-five dollars. Western Washington could just as easily import food or grow their food locally and perhaps it would be cheaper.
Everyone does not win when Eastern Washington decides to "stick it to Seattle" by voting away Seattle's right to tax themselves to solve mass transit challenges. That article addresses the hypocrisy. People outside of King County say "we don't want to pay for Seattle" and reality is, King County funds the entire state. They give them money for roads they will never drive on. Pierce is the biggest taker and Yakima is right behind them followed by 33 other counties. King county didn't start this argument but if the other counties want to have that discussion, we should definitely have it and perhaps come to an agreement that each county pay their own bills. Take that same money going to those other counties, keep it in King County and King County's mass transit goals could be addressed.
I don’t mind if Seattle wants to tax itself to the max, but leave the rest of the East and the South ends of King County out of it... Seattle, do what you need to do, but keep it all within your city limits and don’t drag other cities, towns and other counties down with you.
With that said, do I agree with a $30 car registration? No, it needs to be realistic and IMHO, I’d be OK with paying $300 a year... Along with the high State tax on gasoline... we all need to pay taxes, but it has to be within reason.
Compromising in today’s political climate isn’t going to happen since both sides have dug in and ready for battle... That’s how and why that the $30 car tab is now law.
“I” believe that both sides really lost on this one, because nobody was willing to compromise... Yes, Seattle has the money, but the rest of the State has the votes.
I honestly don't mind having King county help out with all the other counties, a rising tide lifts all boats, and Seattle right now is booming, so it would make sense to reallocate some of that revenue. That being said what gripes me is when conservatives make the claim that Rural Washington is somehow paying for all the development in Urban parts of Washington, which doesn't make any logical sense.
Also another thing to keep in mind is that Pierce county (which is in western WA) is the one that is being propped up the most, so this isn't really a west vs east thing. Also I would also be interested to see at the raw data to get a better picture, for all we know most of those counties could be in western WA.
And another thing Pierce county should be propped up, at least for now, Tacoma should develop into an independent city with it's own strong economy so that people living in pierce don't have to commute all the way to Seattle/Bellevue for good paying jobs.
I don’t mind if Seattle wants to tax itself to the max, but leave the rest of the East and the South ends of King County out of it... Seattle, do what you need to do, but keep it all within your city limits and don’t drag other cities, towns and other counties down with you.
With that said, do I agree with a $30 car registration? No, it needs to be realistic and IMHO, I’d be OK with paying $300 a year... Along with the high State tax on gasoline... we all need to pay taxes, but it has to be within reason.
Compromising in today’s political climate isn’t going to happen since both sides have dug in and ready for battle... That’s how and why that the $30 car tab is now law.
“I” believe that both sides really lost on this one, because nobody was willing to compromise... Yes, Seattle has the money, but the rest of the State has the votes.
Seattle needs to keep the $3 billion they've been sending to 33 other counties throughout the state and they won't need to have high car registration fees. Those other counties need to learn to fund themselves including Pierce. By all means, if South and East portions of King county want to be excluded, they should be. They can wonder why it's impossible for them to commute and why their home values are so low in comparison to the rest of King County.
I honestly don't mind having King county help out with all the other counties, a rising tide lifts all boats, and Seattle right now is booming, so it would make sense to reallocate some of that revenue. That being said what gripes me is when conservatives make the claim that Rural Washington is somehow paying for all the development in Urban parts of Washington, which doesn't make any logical sense.
Also another thing to keep in mind is that Pierce county (which is in western WA) is the one that is being propped up the most, so this isn't really a west vs east thing. Also I would also be interested to see at the raw data to get a better picture, for all we know most of those counties could be in western WA.
And another thing Pierce county should be propped up, at least for now, Tacoma should develop into an independent city with it's own strong economy so that people living in pierce don't have to commute all the way to Seattle/Bellevue for good paying jobs.
I agree with you on this and Tacoma has already started the changes, which will take years of staying the course. My daughter owns a business in both downtown Seattle and in Tacoma... Tacoma being the newest location and she’s doing pretty good there. I really don’t believe this since it would be too good to be true, but the other day, I was talking to some of my co-workers and one mentioned that Amazon was looking at more property to buy/lease in the Kent/Auburn area. If that’s true, that’s good news for areas in south King County like Renton, Kent, Auburn, Federal Way and others. I know that Amazon has several warehouses/shipping facilities in Kent, but those are not the good paying tech/business jobs within Amazon. I believe that Amazon will continue to increase their warehouse/shipping operations in south King County, but it would be nice if they moved some, not all, of their business and tech operations to the south.
Yes, that’s only a dream since Seattle simply has more to offer tech businesses, especially their younger employees and that’s a fact. But, if Seattle attempts to reintroduce the failed head tax on Amazon and other mid size businesses, along with placing toll roads in the downtown areas, things could change... Especially with Amazon since it appears they would be willing to make a statement, based on a principle verse a sound business decision... Or Possibly a decision with a long term vision, which isn’t the American way of doing business.
Seattle will continue to be the dominating factor in Washington State for at least the rest of my life and to be honest, it’s both a good and bad thing.
I agree with you on this and Tacoma has already started the changes, which will take years of staying the course. My daughter owns a business in both downtown Seattle and in Tacoma... Tacoma being the newest location and she’s doing pretty good there. I really don’t believe this since it would be too good to be true, but the other day, I was talking to some of my co-workers and one mentioned that Amazon was looking at more property to buy/lease in the Kent/Auburn area. If that’s true, that’s good news for areas in south King County like Renton, Kent, Auburn, Federal Way and others. I know that Amazon has several warehouses/shipping facilities in Kent, but those are not the good paying tech/business jobs within Amazon. I believe that Amazon will continue to increase their warehouse/shipping operations in south King County, but it would be nice if they moved some, not all, of their business and tech operations to the south.
Yes, that’s only a dream since Seattle simply has more to offer tech businesses, especially their younger employees and that’s a fact. But, if Seattle attempts to reintroduce the failed head tax on Amazon and other mid size businesses, along with placing toll roads in the downtown areas, things could change... Especially with Amazon since it appears they would be willing to make a statement, based on a principle verse a sound business decision... Or Possibly a decision with a long term vision, which isn’t the American way of doing business.
Seattle will continue to be the dominating factor in Washington State for at least the rest of my life and to be honest, it’s both a good and bad thing.
So Seattle should continue sending 3 BILLION to 33 other counties, thus underfunding themselves but they shouldn’t be allowed to increase any tax or toll and not be able to increase mass transit funding and infrastructure. That’s some magical thinking. The odds of Amazon putting tech workers in Renton are beyond slim. The downtown buildings are codependent and no one wants to live in Renton. Even less so since Renton doesn’t support Sound Transit funding and will be consistently behind the rest of King County.
I do not support King County giving Pierce a half a billion dollars a year only to have them spit in our faces. King County needs to find the funding to increase infrastructure and support of mass transit. That helps everyone including vehicle drivers. And the funding exists, it’s right there. The problem is it’s going to 33 other counties instead of King County. The same people screaming “I don’t want to pay for Seattle!” Are suddenly all “we need to support each other!”. I used to feel that way until the latest election. Now I say keep King County money in King County.
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