by Stefan Sharkansky, 03:20 PM
Kent Kammerer at Crosscut writes about Seattle's government-owned electric utility following an 18% rate increase imposed by the City Council: "City Light audit: Are rate games being played?"
The city cooks the books and bills City Light for expenses that would normally come from the general fund. City Light must then recover that cost from ratepayers. The practice, in essence, uses the City Light utility as a taxing system. You aren't paying just for your power you are paying for overhead from other city government expenses that should be operating within their revenue budgeted from the general fund. The accounting sleight of hand makes city spending look better.Although Seattle's electric rates are relatively low thanks to geography and hydroelectric power, they're still higher than they need to be, and double-digit rate hikes won't help.
And now some well-paid superfluous City Light managers, threatened with job cuts, are forming a union. Good luck cutting the fat now.
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by Stefan Sharkansky, 02:26 PM
Seattle Times: "State Senate passes tax package, remains at odds with House on sales tax"
The Times homepage currently has the more optimistic headline "Lawmakers still can't agree on sales tax"
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by pudge, 09:47 AM
The health insurance reform bill should be opposed on many grounds. The most obvious to those of us who put a priority on liberty is that it violates our rights: our right to not buy insurance, our right to buy whatever insurance products we want, our right to not offer certain benefits as employers, and more.
Another big problem, if you're pro-life, is that the bill pays for abortions. The Democrats have been saying all along they would not pass a bill that pays for abortions, but they lied. This bill does precisly that, because it pays for insurance coverage that pays for abortions. There's no wiggling out of this lie.
Speaking of big lies, the Democrats have been saying...Read the rest >>
by Ron Hebron, 09:16 AM
"This is the first time since 1994 that a special session has been needed with one party in control of the Capitol," according to Politics Northwest at Seattle Times.
Even though they have one-party rule they can't use their time responsibly; they have been there full time since the first week in January. Now Christine Gregoire is leading. She told the Democrat-led Legislature yesterday to get done by Sunday or ....
They are working hard. It sure is hard finding ways to cut costs. Wrong. They are not doing that; they tried, sort of, a little. The Senate's proposed budget would raise spending $2.95 billion; the House only $2.7 billion. EFF (pdf)
Their union supporters see only small...Read the rest >>
by Jim Miller, 01:07 PM
Senate candidate Chris Widener has had his campaign site up for some time. Now he has added a negative site, NOtPatty.com. (That first "O" looks familiar, for some reason.)
(I plan to put up more links for candidates, as I get personal notices from candidates, or their representatives. That includes Democratic candidates, though I may require them to show some evidence of having read my posts.
I would advise most candidates to wait at least a few days to see if ObamaCare passes the House, since that fight is attracting so much attention right now.)
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by pudge, 05:44 PM
To most people, it's obvious that the White House line -- that people should like the health insurance bill because it has something in it that they like -- is idiotic.
It's entirely intuitive that just because you like one thing, doesn't mean you'll like something else that happens to include it. I've drawn the analogy that just because a bill that kills cute puppies cuts taxes, doesn't mean people who like low taxes will also like the puppy-killing bill.
George Will, on Sunday, used the analogy that he likes sauerkraut and ice cream, but doesn't like sauerkraut ice cream. I think that analogy isn't bad, but the point would be made better if he didn't like sauerkraut (as I...Read the rest >>
by Jim Miller, 03:56 PM
In a neighboring suburb.
Read the rest >>Major Update: Tonight (Thursday night [March 9th]) the Bellevue Math Adoption Committee voted to adopt Holt instead of the Discovering Math series. This is extraordinary good news and one can assume that school board will follow suit. It was clear to those attending that the massive intervention of Bellevue parents was a major factor. The School district received over a 100 comments, most in support of Holt, and a new analysis by Bellevue parent Jock Mackinlay of the piloting data showed the clear superiority of Holt in supporting student learning. Active, determined parental intervention can make a huge difference and it happened in Bellevue tonight. One can also thank the district for leaving ideology...
by Ron Hebron, 08:05 AM
Our Washington Legislature cut spending to the bone, but was reluctantly forced to raise taxes. Right?
FOOLED YOU.
State workers are sacrificing during this downturn in the economy. Right? WRONG
We have all heard that our Senate and House have cut spending to the bone; can't cut another penny. But they didn't cut; they increased spending. Increased it!
Since they increased spending they are forced, painfully forced to increase taxes. And you are supposed to fall for this line.
Spending
Evergreen Freedom Foundation digs deeply into the details. (pdf) They found that the Senate's proposed budget would raise spending $2.95 billion; the House only $2.7 billion.
They are using a bunch of gimmicks: one fund "borrowing"...Read the rest >>
