Posted by Michael
The Seattle P-I Editorial Board opposes Initiative 985. Here’s an excerpt:
In this economic era, we can understand how people might be so eager to cut their tax bills that they would even want to trim school levies. But would people want to cut money for education and still pay the same taxes?
That prospect — less for schools with no tax cut in return — is one of the frightening aspects of Initiative 985, the impatient person’s poorly considered scheme for addressing traffic congestion by throwing money from all over the state mainly at the problem in the Puget Sound area, probably not achieving much positive and making congestion worse in places. Initiative 985 would divert an estimated $290 million in the next biennium from the state’s general fund, which pays for public schools, health care, law enforcement, higher education and other services, into a new traffic congestion relief account. Yes, it would come out of that general fund, the one already facing a $3.2 billion shortfall.
