dpk’s weblog

A co-worker of mine, Russell, has got the motivation and the lack of experience to really make it as a Bush White House appointee. I urge you to write to your representative and senator today. Let’s make this happen people!

Washington state legislature passed a bill to fund hundreds of transporation projects, funded by a $.03-.09/gallon gas tax. In case you haven’t ever visited Washington state, we have some of the worst traffic ever, and of the major cities I’ve visited recently, some of the hardest to use public transit (it’s mostly centralized in Seattle itself, which isn’t all that big a place to be honest, IMO).

In comes the initiative process to try and undo the legislature’s work again. I-912 was created to undo the gas tax increase, and then effectively halt all of those projects it would have funded.

I strongly believe a gas tax is the way to fund transportation projects. It’s a pretty effective way to charge people for the use of roads, without the overhead and extra expense of a toll system, and it is pretty clear we need road repairs. Cutting existing taxes does not seem to be the way to go if we want these repairs and upgrades to ever happen. If we cut this, we’ll only hurt ourselves. It’s not as though the legislature will suddenly find billions of dollars somewhere that they can instantly allocate to road projects.

(Edited: How embarassing. I mixed up I-901 with I-912. I’m voting “no” on both but that’s no excuse.)