Even with the state’s elected leaders gearing up for a budget fight, the crowd at Saturday afternoon’s 43rd District Town Hall seemed less interested in the prospect of looming tax hikes than preserving the state’s social services and making progress on issues like the 520 bridge replacement. In fact, one of the crowd’s biggest round of applause came after a passing mention of the need for a Washington state income tax. This was not a meeting for Tea Baggers.
The 43rd District trio of House Speaker Frank Chopp, state Senator Ed Murray and Representative Jamie Pedersen made brief statements and took questions from community members inside the First Baptist Church at 1111 Harvard Ave. Here are CHS’s notes from the day. If you were there, let us know what you heard.
View from the back of the question line
- A rep from Sustainable 520 made a brief statement and called the three politicians heroes for their work to push for a better transportation solution for the Evergreen bridge replacement plan. That garnered a standing ovation from the crowd.
- Chopp compared the 520 situation to an example from the 1960s when the state wanted to build a freeway through the Aboretum but was foiled by a costly lawsuit. “Sometimes you gotta sue them,” Murray said.
- Chopp said that there is a plan coming together that will “make 520 transit work” and has “more in it for the west side.” He said he would be talking to community groups about the new plan this week.
- Murray had fighting words for the five Seattle City Councilmembers who joined Eastside officials in support of pushing forward with the ‘A+’ design for the bridge replacement project saying the quintet had “undermined” Seattle’s bargaining power. If you’re keeping score, those five were Richard Conlin, Tom Rasmussen, Tim Burgess, Sally Clark and Jean Godden.
- Phrases making it clear Dems will be pushing for new taxes: “No one wants to do this,” “Washington should have a state income tax,” and this mysterious statement from Pedersen that we’re still trying to parse, “We need more revenue.”
- Chopp praised Capitol Hill’s Country Doctor Clinic for their support in the battle to roll back I-960, a Tim Eyman initiative passed in 2007 that requires a two-thirds vote of the legislature to raise taxes. Chopp said Country Doctor “cleaned the Eyman people’s clocks.”
- A few different citizen questions boiled down to this: Why are my benefits cut when state employee benefits aren’t? Pedersen’s answer: The bennies make up for miserable wages paid to state employees.
- Our favorite question came from a Seattle schools blogger asking the three why they had not responded to her e-mails. Murray claimed to be the most e-mailed person in the legislature saying he receives thousands of e-mails a week.
One note on 520 – if you go with a transit only option for the third lane, then you don’t need to rebuild the freeway at all past the Montlake Interchange, though you would be routing downtown buses via the arboretum.
In any case, the final transit design is exactly the place to focus. I would modify the McGinn proposal just a tad though – allow public safety vehicles in that lane, AND, private ITS equipped cars – something we could see in the Obama years.
Lastly, please don’t use the term tea bagger (look it up).
Shhhhh…..I love that those wing-nuts keep using the phrase tea-baggers. I giggle everytime I hear about the tea-bagging movement.
This blog doesn’t mention the large number of supporters of the University of Washington and higher education in general who were there to ask for the legislators’ advocacy.
Did anyone ask why Pedersen pushed his agenda for paying for surrogate mothers? What does he have against children who need to be adopted? What about why he shot down a bill that would have ended legalized land theft? Perhaps his attorney friends would miss their income for adverse possession lawsuits? Why is Pedersen pushing to sue for 520? Oh, could it be his attorney friends will make more money on the backs of everyone else? What else is Pedersen hiding?
This was not a meeting for Tea Baggers.
I relish each of the many opportunities I’m often afforded to write the Knight Foundation and the Seattle Times’ ombudsman and congratulate them on the journalistic professionalism of their “community news partner” [sic] capitolhillseattle.com, where news is seamlessly woven together with the street-fighting rantings of a 19 year old radical in a 40 year old man-child’s body in a way that would make even Pravda blush.
I believe you, ProstSeattle. The disposable class is easily amused with cake and shiny baubles.
Considering that one out of every five contributors to the slug Pederson’s last campaign were corporate pig lawyers, that sounds about right. Jamie Pederson is one of the most disgusting, drooling, servile, sycophantic slugs in Olympia.
Seven thousand State workers and their supporters took over the steps of the State Capitol to demand “ Raise Revenue!” and “ Save our Future!” Washington State faces a $2.8 billion budget shortfall this year, following a cut of over $4 billion last year. Organized by the Washington Federation of State Employees, the rally was supported by students throughout the state as well as advocates of social services, including Planned Parenthood and several other unions such as the Machinists and the Service Employees.
Several people spoke about what the budget cuts would mean to their lives—from aid recipients, to state workers, to teachers and students. One moving statement came from a fourth grade student “ These cuts are hurting kids. My school can’t even afford new library books.” John Martinez, a community college teacher , told the Seattle Times, “ We’re opposed to any further cuts to education and social services. We need to expand services and raise salaries for educators and health workers. We think a tax on wealthy individuals and corporations will contribute to that.”
Democratic Party politicians including Senator Ed Murray from Seattle said they supported the rally’s demands and got rousing applause from the demonstration. Yet the Democrats real approach was revealed by House Majority Leader Lynn Kessler telling the Seattle Times “You just can’t do an all-cuts budget. We cut so much last year we don’t have much left.”
This means that the Democrats are planning to raise some revenue, but also make more cuts. Unfortunately , many union leaders have echoed this , calling for a “balanced” approach—-tax increases AND more cuts! With thousands of layoffs from last year, wages frozen, services cut and whole programs dropped, Washington State cannot afford ANY more cuts! If the planned cuts go through this year, thousands of students will lose financial aid and thousands of low income people will be forced off the State’s Basic Health Plan.
The other problem is that the Democrats are proposing regressive taxes that hurt poor and working people. Gov. Gregoire has proposed taxes on bottled water , soda, cigarettes and candy! These taxes would raise only $700 million in new revenue , leaving a gap of $2.1 billion. Unfortunately the union slogan “ Raise Revenue!” leaves open the possibility of these regressive taxes. Not only will these hurt other working people, but they will undercut support of workers in the private sector for the demands of State workers.
A far better approach was followed in Oregon , where voters passed Initiative 66 and 67, raising taxes on the rich. ( http://socialistworker.org/2010/01/29/oregonians-tax-the-ric). There was plenty of support for this approach at the rally. Hand made signs said “Robin Hood was right, tax the rich!” But if this approach is to win out over the regressive consumption taxes now proposed by the Democrats, it will take a strong organized campaign. This will mean dropping the “balanced approach” now followed by too many labor leaders who want to get along with their “allies” in the state legislature.
The danger of relying on taxes that undercut the living standards of ordinary people was shown by the smaller rally that preceded the union rally. At that rally, the “Tea Party Movement” called for a cut in state taxes. If taxes continue to target the poor and workers, this will only further fuel the anti-tax movement. Washington State has the most regressive tax structure of any state in the U.S. The top of the income scale pays only 3% of its income in state taxes. The bottom 20% pay 17% of their income in state taxes. Both to defend working class living standards , and to win more political support from poor and working people , those who oppose budget cuts must demand “Tax the rich!”
Other rallies are planned to keep the heat on the legislature which is scheduled to announce its budget on March 11. One of these is a student day of action in alliance with the California demonstrations to defend education on March 4. Actions will be held on campuses in Seattle, Olympia and probably other areas of the state.
brevity is a talent
Did you actually just rise to the defense of state Democrats by quoting “Socialist Worker”, the official newspaper of the International Socialist Organization which describes itself as The ISO stands in the tradition of revolutionary socialists Karl Marx, V.I. Lenin and Leon Trotsky in the belief that workers are the only force that can lead the fight to win a socialist society.?
With enemies like Loonie Lonnie, who needs friends?
Dontcha worry Loonie Lonnie, just eight months and the most reactionary, regressive, fire-breathing, hell-and-brimstone / revenge-seeking, conservative monolith will blast its way into DC with power so great it will make martial law look like anarchy. Even the silly machinations of the flower children in Olympia won’t be safe from what’s coming down the pipe. :)
thousands of low income people will be forced off the State’s Basic Health Plan
Uh oh, the gravy train is about to stop running for the Sponges! But
I thought liberals supported Charles Darwin* (i.e. survival of the fittest)?
* actually, I believe that was Herbert Spencer’s quote – but it’s popularly attributed to Chaz so I’ll go with it
By “Sponges” I presume you mean employers who refuse to provide their low-wage workers with health coverage as long as there’s a public program to dump them into — am I correct?