Comments

1
chill out dude. Everything is connected, he has first amendment rights like you or me, and if a district overspends on construction how is that bad to note it? what, no free speech?

And don't you think there is some connection via...it's the same taxpayers that pay all these different levies, taxes, and fees, so when there's overspending or waste by ANY government ANY where, it harms the efforts of progressives to try to get support for more spending on good programs. Why in the world should seattle construction costs be 25% higher than elsewhere, it makes no sense, and so it is WASTE dude.

Democrats need to stop the knee jerk defense of waste in government and the attacks on those attacking it. You'd find that if we were more tuned to performance and efficiency then we could get more support for oh I dunno AN INCOME TAX maybe.
2
Only read the front page, but no where did it say that the levees were replacing existing levies that are expiring. Seemed like the whole point was to gin up controversy from the low tax Neanderthals.
4
In our state, middle-income families pay up to four times as high a share of their income as the wealthiest families, and low-income families pay as high as six times as much in taxes.

Nationally, gaps between tax rates as a percent of income exist across the board. On average: the bottom 20 percent of income earners pay 11.1 percent in taxes, the middle 20 percent pay 9.4 percent, and the top one percent pay 5.6 percent. If averages are taken here in Washington state, not only is there a wider gap between what income groups pay, but additionally, the numbers themselves are worse locally for low-income people and better locally for rich people. The bottom 20 percent pays 17 percent; the middle 20 percent pays 10 percent; the top one percent pays a mere 2.8 percent in taxes.
http://seattlemet.com/news-and-profiles/…
5
@1--You don't get it, dude. Anything you could remotely describe as "waste" was gone ten years ago. The assholes in the legislature (Read: Rodney Tom) have cut basic education for more than ten years, to the point that this shit is going to force the state supreme court to take over the schools and budget. Rodney Tom's head is so far up his ass that he can't hear.The last time it happened was 1963; the right-wing assholes who were in Tom's place fucked things up so badly that the federal district court took over and ran the 1965 session.
6
What do you care Goldensteinemberg, you send your daughter to all white, rich Mercer Island high school, not her assigned school, rainier beach.
7
I have no child to send anywhere #6, and I care deeply about funding our public schools adequately.
8
There are direct links between occupant comfort and student peformance. Students simply learn better when they're not being taught in dilapidated facilities. Independent of teacher performance and efficiency, this is still true. That's what this money is for, and it's worth it.

I don't begrudge Rodney Tom for not knowing that, but seeing as how he obviously doesn't know anything about that, he should keep his fucking mouth shut.
9
@6 First: what does that have to do with this discussion? Second: so what? Given the chance to choose between two different schools, what responsible parent wouldn't choose the better of the two? That decision, and the decision to support renewing funding for Seattle public schools, are not mutually exclusive.
10
@8 about the only direct link between schools and performance is if the parents give a shit.
11
@10 good to finally see some money being spent on the underserved communities in North Seattle.
12
When is that mope Tom up for reelection again?
13
#6 The anti-Semitic tone of your comment just makes you sound like an asshole.
14
I'd pay a tax to give goldy more money. This guy's a champion for our children and our city. Be glad we have him!
15
Rodney Tom's having more delusions of granduer.
16
@10 Yes, parental involvement and engagement is a huge issue. It does not negate the well-documented effects of work environment and occupant comfort on performance and productivity.
17
I dont give Tom a pass on this one and nobody should. This is complete ignorance on his part.
18
Tom thinks he's the smartest guy in the room on any and every subject. That's your answer.

When really, he's just a puffed up little traitor.
19
So this is what you demand: Pay the bills, and don't say anything about how the money is spent.
20
Having comfortably nailed down Asshole of the Year award, Rodney Tom is shooting for Asshole of the Decade.
21
Goldy's daughter better be going to a good school. It's the least her mother can do to apologize for letting that fat slug crawl on top of her and grunt during her moment (years?) of weakness. Now the daughter has to go through the world looking half like him.
22
@21: stay classy, buddy.
23
#22, do you mean like #8 at the link?

http://tinyurl.com/goatfck
24
@5
chill out dude. plenty of waste all over. ever go to city hall? the lobby is a waste, it is empty, the bbasement is waste, it is not used. sounder north? a billion in capital waste. new basketball stadium for billionaire investors, waste. mariners stadium, waste. lots of waste all over. in schools, sure, we have had too many cuts, but overspending on some schools construction by 20% won't fix that so it is ENTIRELY LEGIT to bring up whether or not that is waste, and the knee jerk reaction you have, so typical, is what drives voters here crazy with distrust of government because too many liberals can't see any waste anywhere. personally, i would like sweden style government spending, the reason we can't get there is we don't make government work and having slight more space per pupil really does not improve performance in seattle schools. lack of space isn't the problem. it's not what is holding down graduatino rates. only about on sixth of our students go on to four year college, our education system is crappy, so i voted yes on the levy, but this doesn't mean the seattle schools in it could not have been designed to cost 20% less -- try to hold two thoughts in your mind at one time, okay? we need more good government, but we need less bad government. complex, i know, but just try.

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