2/17 Townhall in the Twenty-Seventh

Learning what the newly Democrat Party controlled legislature - with a single seat majority as of the election last fall - is attempting to do to tax payers if they have their way with imposing even more taxes, I decided to attend the single town hall meeting at the Evergreen Extension campus this year for the 27th legislative district in which I live. It wasn't my first, and it may not be my last. But, based on what I learned from attending it, I felt it would be insightful to share for my interested readers.

Before heading there this morning, I gathered together some information from my sources. Here's a list of questions I compiled, in hopes of asking and hearing their answers:

• To Sen. Jeannie Darneille: On 2/12/18, the Seattle Times published an article titled, "State Democrats on the Wrong Side of Open-records Fight" with the opening remark stating, "Since regaining control of Washington's Legislature last fall, Democrats seem bent on defining themselves as the party that opposes transparency and open government." My question to the Senator is... Why have you claimed that you are "...concerned about protecting voters from identity theft, when [her] amendment to Senate Bill 6353 renders the otherwise noble effort to expand automatic voter-registration unacceptable?" as was stated in the article? Would you please explain this contradiction, Senator?
• To Rep. Jake Fey: As a seasonal employee at Safeco Field in Seattle, I have repeatedly encountered unreliable service for the 594 Express line I rely on when boarding at the Tacoma Dome Station stop. All too often one of two circumstances occur; one, the bus arriving from Lakewood is completely full, requiring me to make a decision of standing in the center isle all the way into Seattle, or to gamble waiting for the next scheduled bus to not be the same - if it actually shows up, which also has happened at times. And two, jumping with a few others into a vehicle, wanting to get to Safeco Field in time to clock in, by taking the commuter lane into Seattle. With a Sound Transit Supervisor present only a few times in two years, a "back up" bus was provided only twice out of more than a dozen instances when this occurred. Last summer the News Tribune of Tacoma published an article in July about the impact of the I-5 repaving of the northbound lanes which forced four lanes down to one, resulting in delays in getting to work on time. The article also pointed out Sound Transit's disinterest in making any accommodations for riders being provided alternative, or additional lines to address the situation. Sound Transit refused any changes and told riders to use the existing schedules. My question to Rep. Fey is... Since you recently were on the Sound Transit Board, could you provide me with an answer to why, and how, Sound Transit can demonstrate such disregard for it rider's needs in using their buses and commuter train - The Sounder - when it's now been established, via the State Senate's hearings on ST3 being voted through in the last election, that it had not only lied to the voter about the tax impact on them, but also to the legislators as well, and not be dealing with any consequences? I find it ironic that Pierce County voters did NOT pass the initiative like the other two counties did.
• To Rep. Jinkins: The legislature just learned, and it has been reported in the news, that tax revenues are up 15.4% in this two-year budget cycle compared to the last one. From that huge figure, they're expected to grow 9.1% in the next cycle, followed by 7.6% growth in the following biennium. Question to Rep. Jinkins: How can Democrats justify ANY tax increases; especially one like the capital gains income tax bill which is scheduled for a committee hearing soon?

Upon arriving at the venue for this town hall, I learned that anyone who wished to speak - ask specific questions - were only required to write on a colored card one's name, organization, and topic of question(s). These cards were then grouped together according to topic and chosen by Sen. Darneille.

The first topic she invited speakers to was the ongoing battle between the City of Tacoma and City of Ruston over the area of land being developed in Point Ruston's new commercial center near Point Defiance Zoo and park. After about an hour, and several very emotionally frustrated resident's of Ruston remarks, the topic of the under construction LNG plant in the tide-flats of the Port of Tacoma near the Northeast bluffs turned into a shouting match by RedLine advocates for demanding construction be shut down now. Sen. Darneille remarked that there were no city council, or Port of Tacoma Board members present, one of the speakers for RedLine shot back out of turn that she was formerly on the city council. Sen. Darneille said, "You no longer have power. You only hold the power while in the position." How interesting. With some more terse responses to the shouter's disruptive behavior by two of the three legislators at front, discussion was able to continue in an organized and civil manner.

After a few more topics were addressed, I was called on to speak as the only person regarding the topic of taxes. (How interesting among predominantly liberals in the audience.) After posing my statement of facts and question to Rep. Jinkins, her response was that out of that surplus of revenue, two-thirds of it was required by law to go into the "rainy day fund". So, with the remaining third would be stretched thin to provided tax relief for the lower-income families, and when it came to the capital gains income tax, she claimed that Jeff Bazos and Bill Gates would be the focus of collecting those funds which these millionaires were happy to pay. These funds, I thought I heard her say, were intended to be used to provide tax relief in offsetting the ST3 tax on property. Huh? [Update: The Seattle Times, on Monday following this post, published the following article detailing what the Democrats budget proposal does with this windfall revenue.]

Granted, how she explained this may not be accurate, or I possibly may have not correctly recalled what she was intending to explain, but this is how it came across. Anyway, my personal suspicion as to why I was not called to ask about government transparency was that Darneille was all too aware of what I wanted to ask her about, having most likely read the Times article earlier and didn't want to have it brought up there.

Once the town hall session was ended, I went directly up to Rep. Fey who was still sitting at the front table on the dias. After sharing my issue with him in a more brief format, he informed me that Mayor Victoria Woodards was now on the Sound Transit Board, and took down my contact information after asking me if I wished to have someone from Sound Transit contact me about it. While I doubt this will lead to any significant outcome, I invite the opportunity to keep this issue "in their face", as I have working friend at Safeco Field who has initiated this issue with the upper management there at the Mariners organization, asking them to be a liaison for their employees to help resolve the transportation issue. As seems to always be the initial case with such things, management has communicated that they have some suggested solutions regarding it. However, it is the friend's concern that they are not clearly understanding the point of our contact them. He feels they may believe we've written them about our transportation problems because we want them to solve the issue, when in actuality, we are only asking them to arrange a dialog for resolving it directly with Sound Transit.

In summary, this day's experience has revealed to me that the elected officials live in a "bubble" of bureaucracy and details, while the tax payer they claim they're representing is suffering from the outcomes of their perceived solutions in the form of more laws and regulations.