Road taxes could drive voters over the edge

As reported here, as we get closer to November, some politicians are beginning to worry that local voters will be 'fatigued' with all of the road tax proposals on this years ballot, with two other massive tax proposals coming in 2007. These are some of the things we face:

Traffic jams, crumbling streets, bridges so vulnerable they must be closed to cars during fairly routine windstorms, along with trying to find the resources to replace both the SR-99 Alaskan Way Viaduct and the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge, both of which are critical transportation conduits for the Metropolitan Seattle area.

Seattle got into this mess, politicians acknowledge, because those in charge gave the region's transportation network short shrift for decades.

Over those decades, it has been more about process and paralysis through over analysis, rather than actually doing anything about our road infrastructure, coupled with imprudent spending. Add to that the dot com bust of the late 1990's and the events of 9/11 with the resultant recession, resulting in jobs losses and reduced tax revenue, forcing cuts to most spending programs except entitlements, and you wind up with the mess we have today.

Now officials have a plan for breaking the logjam. More precisely, they have at least four proposals -- each with its own price tag, each headed to a ballot soon.

The projects could cost a typical Seattle household nearly $450 annually in coming years, plus any tolls, localized property tax surcharges, business taxes and developer fees official[s] tack on.

It's got some asking whether voters are being pushed too far. Some political insiders worry government is asking for too much, too late -- and all at once.

Let's see now ... a $1.6 billion dollar tax proposal from the Mayor of Seattle, and a sales tax increase proposal to "improve" transit from King County Executive Ron Sims for this years ballot at the tune of about $570 million dollars, and then two more massive regional tax proposals for 2007 costing close to an additional $17 billion dollars more, and "some" are asking if this is too much, too late, at all at once? You THINK?

Oh, and then there are others who think that the voters in both the city of Seattle and in the region will just give a blanket ok to all of these tax proposals without batting an eye, which smacks of arrogance to me.

Yes, our roads are a mess and do need to be fixed. The Viaduct is a disaster waiting to happen, as is the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge. Transit does need to be improved (I should know, since I take the bus to commute to work and back right now). All of these issues will take massive amounts of money to fix, but these issues should, and could, have been addressed in the previous decades, but weren't because of a lack of political back bone and vision.

Everything here is more about the process, rather than actually doing anything, so now we are faced with massive tax proposals in this years, and next years, elections.

To the tune of about $20 billion dollars.

Too much, too late, and all at once pretty much sums it up I think. I think it's time the voters in both the region and the city of Seattle take a very long, very hard look at our politicians, and make some needed changes to bring in some people who will actually get things done, and not just study something to death.