Seriously, I've seen democrats and republicans on either side of the issue. I would say I'm a republican and I'm against it. Is this a non-partisan issue?

I also ran across an interesting quote today from Benjamin Franklin: "Two things in life are certainties: death and taxes." huh.

-- cave canine (cavecanine@hotmail.com), November 23, 1999

Answers

The Republicans reluctantly voted to support 695, and the Democrats didn't. Generally, the R's are for lower taxes and less government, and the D's for more taxes and more government; but that is only a generality. D's and R's could support or oppose 695 for their own reasons. I noted that the D's could oppose it because it is anti-tax and anti-government, and the R's could oppose it because it is anti-representative government and would result in the kind of direct democracy that the Son of 695 indicates may become more common. I personally don't understand how either D's and R's can support 695 or the new proposals. A minority opinion now, but that could change if more problems come to light. This seems to be more of a Libertarian kind of issue.

-- dbvz (dbvz@wa.freei.net), November 23, 1999.

cave canine

I didn't think I-695 was a partisan issue. I didn't care if any of the political parties in the state indorsed it or not. It did not suprise me in the least that the state Republician Party waited for a few polls to come out showing the support for I-695 among the voters was still high, before they endorsed it.

What I did do was to sit down and read it carefully so I would know exactly what I was voting on. Also a number of my friends who define themselves as liberal voted YES on I-695.

As for Son of I-695, I'm not sure one way or the other how I feel about it. I have only glanced at a couple of newspaper articles about it and have not had the time to completely read it.

BTW, I was a Republican since I was born, but over the last few years I have come to the conculsion that they and the Democrats are the same once they get into office.

I have talked to a number of my reps over the years about the MVET, tabacco tax (funny that the state and feds take in more money then the tabacco companys on every pack sold) and privatizing the ferry system. And they come back with the same answer, their looking into it for the next session.

Apparently a majority of Washington voters were getting the same response. At which point, they took matters into their own hands as allowed by the state constitution.

Ed - will campaign for anyone, except an incumbent

-- Ed (ed_bridges@yahoo.com), November 23, 1999.

No, I'm not going to slam you Ed, I'm turning over a more civil leaf. I do have a couple questions however. As a public employee at the local level, Do you see the major corruption at local level county level, state level, or among legislators? I beleive that agencies at all levels will ask for as much $ as the legislators and feds will give them. It's human nature to take as much as you can get. If the legislators and feds continue to give out $ with no discression, then they need to be corrected.

On another note, I asked the question a few threads back; what's with the proposed draft referendum that mr. Lewis is proposing? What do you all think about this. I am against it (big surprise). if all public employees cannot earn more than what the average community has the potential to earn. This makes no sense. In most cases, Everyone has the potential to get a public job, so what is the change. 2)If the intent is to make the maximum benefits a public employee gets is the average of the community, that means that Doctors, Teachers, Sherrifs, County corroners, County Prosicuters etc. will make 20k in some places. They will not be able to recruit quality. I can tell you right now that I don't want a 20k/ year surgeon doing open heart surgery on me.

-- theman (theman@wuzzup.com), November 23, 1999.

theman--the short answer: Lewis' proposal appears to be jacqueloon high on the crazy scale.

-- Brad (knotwell@my-deja.com), November 23, 1999.

Ed-

"BTW, I was a Republican since I was born, but over the last few years I have come to the conculsion that they and the Democrats are the same once they get into office."---I see some of that too!

-- cave canine (cavecanine@hotmail.com), November 23, 1999.

theman

Thanks for being civil, now on to some of your questions.

As for the draft referendum that Mr. Lewis is proposing, not sure. I haven't read it yet. And I don't know who is starting it. Sorry, but I work two jobs. One to pay the bills and one for fun (at a large national bookstore).

As for public employees earning more than the community average, I think that's kind of screwy. If the wage is the average of what the person would make in the private sector, that would be a different story. The City of Richland had a salary study done two years ago (Buck Study). Which basically did the latter. However as it turned out, the workers salaries were mostly above the range (with a couple of exceptions). But the supervisors and managers were all below the range (go figure). As it turns out we haven't had a pay raise or COLA for the last two years and don't expect one for the next couple.

Now the supervisors and managers got anywhere from 28 - 33% pay increases. The city manager makes more than Gov. Locke. This in a city with a population of 45,000. But in an interview with the Tri-City Herald one of the cities mouthpieces said that all employees pay had risen faster than inflation. A blatant lie which I called and told the reporter. Yes I did give my name and the fact that I work for the city. Plus I offered to give him the pay scales for the last few years to prove my point. I have not heard from him since.

I was asked once on this site if I consider what I do for the city, an essential service. Again I will reply, that is not my choice. If the people of the city want new water and sewer lines, nice streets and other such items then it is. If however they decide that they want to cut back in certain areas, and one of those happens to be mine, then I guess I'll be looking for a new job (plumbing, civil design). However, as of the new budget I am still in it.

One example of a waste of taxpayer money is the "Uptown Parking Lot Repavement Project". The city has allocated $2.5 million for this. Basically the parking lot is an alley that was owned by the businesses on it. The lot went to hell i.e. pavement torn up, huge potholes. The city tried to get the business owners to fix it up. But the owners could not get together. So the city stepped in a acquired ownership of the parking lot and land up to the store fronts.

The city will use the money to put in new water and sewer mains, new service lines, rebuild the parking lot and put in a small park. They have already spent $180,000 on a consultant. This they hope will shame the business owners into fixing up their storefronts. One small problem. In 1993 the city did the same thing with the Uptown Shopping Center Parking Lot. Only then they spent $3 million dollars on improvements there. Maybe one or two of the storeowners improved their store fronts, the rest are even more worn down then before. The storeowners call the city every winter to come and shovel the snow of the sidewalk (the city owns up to the front of the stores). And the city repairs the sidewalks that the kids us as a skateboard park

If you would like more stories about the city and consultants give me a call. As it is common for the city to hire a outside firm to do a civil engineering job, yet it seems that the people in my office end up doing a lot of the work anyway (which is the way I would prefer it).

Because I work for the city and get my paycheck from the taxpayers does not mean that what I have to say about waste in government is not relevant. I talk to the citizens of the city everyday. I tell them what is wrong, I tell them to go to the council meetings to ask the same questions they ask me.

Finally (sorry for being long winded) you write, "They will not be able to recruit quality. I can tell you right now that I don't want a 20k/ year surgeon doing open heart surgery on me."

I totally agree with you on this. But does the city also have to pay more to run a city of 45,000 then the state does to govern 5,000,000.

Ed - haven't even wrote this much to a member of my family

-- Ed (ed_bridges@yahoo.com), November 24, 1999.

Ed, you make a good point. I am familiar with uptown and agree with you. I think that it comes down to political will. If the City council or what ever form of govt. you have had their act together, they would have put that on the store owners. In tern, by anexing the parking lot, they just put more of the cost on the citizens where it doesn't belong. this is not new, and unfortunately this short sighted form of thinking is prevalent in many cities across the U.S.

Fortunately these people are slowly being replaced by people who do have more inovative ways of getting things done, ie. put more of the cost on developers instead of spreading it out among every one else with nothing to gain from the development.

-- theman (theman@wuzzup.com), November 24, 1999.

Fortunately these people are slowly being replaced by people who do have more inovative ways of getting things done, ie. put more of the cost on developers instead of spreading it out among every one else with nothing to gain from the development.

-- theman (theman@wuzzup.com), November 24, 1999.

theman

You write, "put more of the cost on developers instead of spreading it out among every one else with nothing to gain from the development."

Your absolutely right about this. The city I live in has seen a huge increase in housing constrution that last few years. What with the trucks hauling lumber, concrete and other building supplies the streets are now torn up.

Why the city did not impose a street maintenance fee on the developers I will never know.

I work with one of my councilwomen, and have suggested this several times. Yet continue to get rebuffed with, if a fee was imposed then it would stifle(sp) development.

Also has for the city I work for. I have tried for several years to let the city allow my co-worker and me do as much of the civil projects has we can. Yet they continue to hire consultants.

Ed - got to go. got to pick up a couple of sisters around the state for turkey da.

-- Ed (ed_bridges@yahoo.com), November 24, 1999.

theman

Sorry, didn't mean to repost your response. Had copied it to my word processer and forgot to delete it before it posted my reply.

Ed - got to go. got to pick up a couple of sisters around the state for turkey da.

-- Ed (ed_bridges@yahoo.com), November 24, 1999.

Ed, I'll be busy this weekend as well, but If I remember, I'll try to look for some studies that have been done on that exact issue. I quoted them in my thesis. The crux of these studies goes something like this: Development will happen, It is legal to charge developers 100% of impact on and off site, People will buy into development if they are done right, etc, etc. Look at the City of Redmond. They charge developers 100% on and off site. they still are willing to demo 3 yr. old buildings to replace it with a newer one. sure their proffit margin isn't what it would be, but they still make a good chunk.

As far as tools that the Council might like. Many cities use density bonus's. the developer puts in some ammenities, and the city grants the developer a more dense development. Make sure you let the council think it's their idea though or you'll never get them to buy off on anything. they love feeling smart.

-- theman (theman@wuzzup.com), November 24, 1999.