2008 Dino Rossi Is No Moderate
posted by on April 17 at 13:23 PM
Over on Crosscut, Skip Berger argues that Rossi may be moderate enough for many Washington State voters, because he’s “fronting positions that are perfectly reasonable, as evidenced by his transportation plan.” Yes, the plan is “roads heavy,” Berger says, but it also includes “proposals that add a green tinge to his agenda,” like converting the state vehicle fleet to hybrids and plug-ins by 2015, getting rid of the sales tax on hybrids and plug-ins, and fixing culverts that block salmon runs.
The problem—as I wrote a few days ago, and argued last night on KVI—is that the $767 million Rossi proposes spending on “green” tax breaks and culvert repairs isn’t enough to make up for the billions and billions of dollars he wants to spend expanding roads—including roads that Seattle, Puget Sound region, and Washington State voters have said they don’t want expanded. And he wants to do it by taking 40 percent of the revenue from sales taxes on car sales out of the state’s general fund—depriving Washington citizens of nursing-home care, health care, and education. (If you believe Rossi’s claim that he won’t raise taxes or cut programs supporting health care, education, or nursing homes, then here’s my question: What WILL he cut to pay for the loss of $10 billion from a budget already $2.4 billion in the red?)
Here’s how Rossi characterizes Gov. Christine Gregoire’s slightly more transit-friendly approach to transportation:
Christine Gregoire started talking about congestion relief, but unfortunately, she’s also said that she wants to force 50 percent of us out of our cars by 2050. Everybody thinks ‘Well, you’re not talking about me because I have important things to do.’ Well no, she’s actually talking about you.
Got that? Christine Gregoire is going to COME TO YOUR HOUSE AND TAKE YOUR CAR AWAY. Rossi added:
“We’re talking about two different visions. … One of trying to force people out of their car or of freedom for you to choose how you’d like to move about the region.”
But choices are good, right? Who doesn’t like choices? Well, Dino Rossi, for one. His plan would not only fund roads to the exclusion of all other forms of transportation, it would effectively kill Sound Transit (handing transit governance over to a new regional transportation authority which would also oversee roads) and eliminate funding for light rail to Bellevue. (So much for Rossi’s statement that “the state should not meddle in local transit decisions.”) Rossi would take $690 million out of Sound Transit’s Eastside funding and use it to build “transit-related infrastructure” on the Eastside. That’s HOV lanes on 405 and 520 to you and me—HOV lanes that could be used by the buses Rossi thinks are better than rail.
But at least they’re HOV lanes—that’s better than nothing, right?
Well, yeah—but here’s the problem. Rossi’s plan also calls for opening HOV lanes up to non-HOV drivers during “off-peak” hours—a period that, if his definition is anything like Tim Eyman’s , is completely inadequate. Eyman’s latest initiative, like Rossi’s plan, would open HOV lanes between 6 and 9 a.m. and between 3 and 6 p.m.— despite the fact that an audit of the state Department of Transportation by state auditor Brian Sonntag found that, in Sonntag’s words, “the phenomenon of an all-day rush hour is beginning to happen across the Puget Sound region.” So Rossi’s plan would undermine its own HOV lanes by opening those HOV lanes up to solo drivers at times when highways are already congested. By ensuring that buses (always the favorite transportation “solution” of those who never have to ride them) will be stuck in the same traffic as everybody else, Rossi’s plan is a plan for failure.
Wow, I didn't think I liked the guy. Everything described here sounds great. He gets my vote.
(singing) Dino Rossi Asti Spumante... some of the best things in liiiiife--*cough!*
We're too far along for half-measures on transit, and Dino is no grace note.
ECB is the best judge of a person's 'moderate' creds one could ask for!
HOV lanes will be open during rush hours and closed the rest of the day? Sure that they will only be restricted during rush hours under the R/E plans?
Saying that Gregoire wants to take your car (i.e. your FREEDOM!) away is like saying Rossi will make everyone of driving age in your household purchase a car... actually, that's closer to the truth.
Why does he care anyhow? Neither of them are going to be alive in 2050.
The only way Red Rossi has a chance is if he declares his personal separation from his former America-hating ways.
Uh, Erica you have it backwards I think. HOV lanes would be CLOSED to non-HOV during rush hour, and OPEN to all traffic during off-peak hours.
I-405 opens to all traffic during non-peak (eg, after 7pm), which I've found is totally fine (except when I get stuck behind the pokey old people who don't realize it's the passing lane after 7pm).
As you point out, ECB, on issues like transportation there are extremely important contrasts. The way that your colleague, Josh Feit, has repeatedly attacked Governor Gregoire in his interview and in slog posts, he seems to be just fine with a Governor Rossi. Why the governor or no one will do a job that we all think is perfect, Josh seems willing to cut off his (our) nose to spite his (our) face.
Let's see, take voter-approved transit dollars and reprogram them to road building from the state...sounds pretty moderate to me.
When Rossi says he thinks transit should be a local decision and then proposes robbing local jurisdictions for their cash - he isn't talking out of both sides of his mouth, he is saying FU voters.
A candidate who will not add taxes without voter approval to fund his projects, but will reappropriate at his will.
VS
A current governor who will add taxes (plastic bag tax) and other financial burdens (520 toll) WITHOUT voter approval to fund projects at her will.
What do I want? To pay more money to the government without telling them I'm OK with it, or to have projects done without my approval, but which I will not have to pay more for?
*sigh*
As for moderate vs non-moderate...basing your judgment on a single topic - transit, which is YOUR personal pet eco-terroristic project (DOWN WITH CARS!) - is purely asinine. But, then, so are most of your arguments shrilling away against anybody who doesn't subscribe to the full-on environmental suffer-the-people-to-make-them-submit agenda.
As someone who just took a job that will require commuting across 520, I would just like to declare that threatening light rail to Bellevue gives me the strong urge to punch Rossi in the face. I really, really, really want fast, frequent mass transit across the lake in a dedicated, grade separated lane.
Rossi has been working to get rid of light rail for a number of years now.
In 2001, Dino Rossi introduced legislation to eliminate Sound Transit, which was had been approved by the voters 4 years earlier.
Rossi introduced Senate Bill 5362 to undo the creation of the Central Puget Sound Regional Transit Agency through a revote, and redistribute voter approved revenues to other programs, including monorail, buses and vanpools. The original version of the bill even contained language giving the fledgling Elevated Transportation Company (pre-Seattle Monorail Authority) the power to decide what it wanted to do with Sound Transit's light rail dollars.
The bill passed the Republican-controlled Senate in 2001, but failed to clear the House.
the rossi household tipped popcultureicon two dollars for two pizzas PAYING BY CHECK. ROSSI DOESN'T SHARE OUR VALUES.
Skip Berger likes Dino Rossi because he finally found a politician who is smarter than Skippy...esp when it comes to transportation.
I love how Rossi's Kemper Freeman-inspired transportation plans center around taking that light rail dough and spending it on HOV lanes...which Rossi himself fundamentally opposes.
From KUOW's "The Conversation":
REYNOLDS: Wouldn’t opening up the HOV lanes during the middle of the day make it harder for those who have voluntarily decided to carpool or those who’ve decided to ride buses – those who some would argue are being good citizens by not driving on the highways – wouldn’t it make it harder for them to get to their destinations when some would argue they should be rewarded with a single lane that they can use exclusively during that part of the day?
ROSSI: Well, you’re absolutely right that there are tie-ups in the middle of the day and much of that is because there are car accidents during the middle of the day, and the whole point of spacing these cars further – improving the capacity on state 405 – would probably relieve a number of those congestion problems, because people wouldn’t be getting hurt and getting in car accidents. **Picking people and rewarding them for what you believe or others believe is the proper way to commute I don’t believe is the right method.**
Speaking of Skip Berger, how is it that this Kirkland resident spends all his airtime on KUOW, and column space at Crosscut/Seattle Weakly/etc bashing all over Paul Allen's development plans?
Kemper Freeman is trying to turn downtown Bellevue into Chicago's Miracle Mile, and has used all kinds of hardball lobbying tactics to get Bellevue to follow his lead (overturning Skip's pastoral Lesser Seattle vision of the region)...yet Skip never utters a negative word about Kemper. Not even when Karl Rove came to visit his perch.
Please don't post about me. It will only encourage me. And then I will write crap again, which hurts all of us.
Dino is fucking toast. Huge headline in the Times says he wants a tunnel to replace the Alaskan Way viaduct. Everyone knows Republicans think a tunnel is a taxalicious boondoggle and prefer a rebuild of the viaduct. (It's always the same old codgers in Magnolia that faithfully alternate their "Republican-Lamb-To-Slaughter For Mayor" yard signs with their "Save The Viaduct" yard signs. Can't believe Dino got this one so wrong.
"Huge headline in the Times says he wants a tunnel to replace the Alaskan Way viaduct. Everyone knows Republicans think a tunnel is a taxalicious boondoggle and prefer a rebuild of the viaduct."
Ah, but not the whack-job Discovery Institute brand of Republicans (all 20 of 'em). Dino had to throw a bone to his Intelligently Designed friends over at the Cascadia Center...and the deep bore tunnel checked that one off the list.
Even more insane is the crap Dino got from Kemper Freeman and his "think tank," the Washington Policy Center. But that's a whole 'nother story.
The guy is clueless, rudderless and just plain ignorant. But at least he's got a nice smile.
I got totally turned off by him talking about freedom to drive or whatever.
Do politicians even know what freedom is? Well, beyond a talking point and a commodity that is sold by stock brokers as "the freedom to buy and sell stocks!"
I hate amierca
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