Washington State Election 2008 – Initiative 985

Initiative Measure No. 985 concerns transportation

This measure would open high-occupancy vehicle lanes to all traffic during specified hours, require traffic light synchronization, increase roadside assistance funding, and dedicate certain taxes, fines, tolls and other revenues to traffic-flow purposes.

Should this measure be enacted into law?

Yes [ ] No [ ]

I thought that the best way for me to decide which way I should vote on ballot issues would be to look into each one of them between now and the election. I am hoping that I will not only gain a little more knowledge about the ballot measures but possibly someone will post a comment that will point out why my thinking is wrong and convince me I should vote the other way. The Washington State Voter Guide does not appear to have anyway to link directly to the details, so go ahead and drill down find more information about this initiative. The full text of the initiative is available but is very difficult to read.

When I read the Explanatory Statement and the Statements For and Against my first thought is that since it deals with traffic congestion and since I live in Eastern Washington, in theory, nothing in this initiative should affect me except when I must visit Seattle.

But then there is this portion:

A portion of the revenues collected through the levy of the state sales tax (15% of the amount of sales tax revenue collected from the sale of motor vehicles, except for retail car rentals) would be placed in a Reduce Traffic Congestion Account established by the measure.

So, when I buy a car over here in Eastern Washington, 15% of the state sales tax will go to reduce congestion in Seattle! No thanks.

And if that were not enough,

In addition to the sales revenues, the following revenues would be placed in the new account: … one-half of one percent (.05%) of the money appropriated for any transportation-related public works project.

This is, in essence, a tax on all road projects, thereby raising the price of all projects by half a percent. Since the amount of money available for these projects does not magically increase with the imposition of such a tax, it would, necessarily, reduce the amount of money available for projects which means reducing the number of projects that can be accomplished with the available funds.

So, as much as I hate visiting Seattle because of the traffic, I can easily solve that problem by staying away and suggest others to do the same. If some of the companies pick up on the idea, their employees will not only be able to avoid the traffic congestion but will also be able to enjoy a much better quality of life! And we even have Starbucks over here.