The earth moved

In Seattle...under the people movers. Or, Goo-goos bite dog;

The Municipal League of King County, in a surprising endorsement decision, has come out against both a tax measure to fund Seattle bus service and a proposal to revive plans for a Ballard-downtown-West Seattle monorail line.

In recommending a no vote, the good-government group noted that the King County Council has cancelled future rounds of Metro bus service cuts, and that Proposition 1 is “something close to a blank check” in which Seattle voters are not told what they will be getting.

We ask, when did that ever stop the mass transit fascits before? But, encourage more of this kind of thinking;

“Proposition 1 now operates as something close to a blank check — and one that creates a substantial risk of facilitating a localized ‘pay to play’ approach to funding important public services,” the League added.

“The Municipal League is also concerned that an influx of additional funds will reduce incentive for Metro to continue its efforts to address its structural financial problems, which contributed to the need for service reductions …”

Our bold in the above. Prop 1 would raise taxes--on vehicle licenses and a .1% sales tax increase--to fund bus service. As for the Seattle fave, The Monorail, there was to be a $5 fee on purchases of new cars;

... used to pay all or a portion of the costs of planning and designing the first phase of monorail service. The money would be controlled, for as long as 13 months, by the measure’s advocates.

 Which was just too transparently designed to benefit the transit fascists;

The Municipal League describes the monorail plan as — literally — disconnected and ‘a poor use of taxpayer dollars.”

Again, we say, what's new about that? And then applaud;

...said the League, it is “questionable whether the $2 million projected to be raised will eventuate in a worthwhile project.”  It noted that the city spent more than $100 million to study and design a monorail, a project which imploded early in the last decade.

.... [The monorail ballot measure]  “is designed to ensure that the agency will be run, for a significant period of time, by citizen advocates who strongly support construction of a monorail system,” said the League.

Tullock and Buchanan would smile.