Voters provide some clarity
Published 2:54 pm Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Admittedly, deciphering the messages sent by voters in an election is a murky task — like trying to read a bumper sticker on the car in front of you at night.
Still, the politicians and those who advise them will try, so we’ll throw a few thoughts into the mix. (Please add your own comments online, or in a letter to the editor.)
•Money talks (and on TV, it never shuts up). Costco’s political spending spree paid off in a surprisingly one-sided victory for Initiative 1183. Come June, the state will no longer sell hard liquor, ceding its long-held monopoly to big grocers and other large retailers.
The record $22 million spent by Costco nearly doubled the opposition’s $12 million warchest. Political speech went on a two-month bender.
With lessons learned from the failed attempts to privatize liquor last year, Costco crafted I-1183 to keep booze out of urban mini-marts and enhance revenue to state and local governments. But without a central message that resonated — government’s role regarding liquor should be regulation and enforcement, not sales and distribution — the forces for change couldn’t have won.
Voters want government to focus on its core responsibilities. Selling liquor, they’ve decided, isn’t one.
•We don’t love tolls, but we know they’re necessary: And so Tim Eyman’s I-1125, an effort to put highway tolls on a very short leash, appears to have gone down by a close margin.
Voters understand that more fuel-efficient cars mean less gas-tax revenue to build and maintain roads and bridges, so new sources of money are needed. They’re even OK with variable pricing, where traffic flow is managed more efficiently by charging more to use certain roads or lanes during peak periods — reducing the need to keep widening existing roadways.
But the tight margin of defeat suggest lawmakers ought to resist pushing too far. Toll revenue should only be used to pay for projects on the corridor where it’s collected.
•Shut off red-light cameras. By a nearly 2-1 margin, Monroe voters urged their representatives not to renew the city’s contract with Arizona-based Redflex Traffic Systems after it runs out in 2013. Voters in Bellingham and Longview also voiced strong opposition to traffic-ticketing cameras. Any city thinking about installing them ignores such clear messages at their peril.
Taxes remain a tough sell. Three temporary levies in Edmonds went down in flames, and even tax-tolerant voters in Seattle rejected a $60 hike in car-tab fees to pay for city transportation projects.
Legislators must take such sentiment into account as they consider putting a tax package in front of voters to stave off deep budget cuts. The case will have to be compelling.
Family budgets are strained, too. From today’s vantage point, getting a majority of voters to support a general tax increase next spring looks like a long shot.
