We’re forgoing our regular Morning Fizz report of caffeinated news and gossip to write an angry editorial about the state legislature’s misallocation of stimulus money; i.e., millions of dollars are going to Red district projects whose legislators said they didn’t want the money, while Seattle is getting stiffed.—Eds.
Unfinished projects from the state’s Nickel Account project list—road projects that were authorized when the state legislature passed the .5-cent gas tax increase in 2003—got top priority this week when state legislators decided how to divvy up the $341 million in federal stimulus money for road work.
Meanwhile, as we all know, one project that didn’t make the cut was Mercer St.—a Seattle project that was relying on $50 million from the federal stimulus account.
The Mercer St. project wasn’t a Nickel Account project, but PubliCola did a little checking, and get this: $40 million of the money that’s going to backlog Nickel Account projects is going to districts whose legislators voted against the nickel tax.
Indeed, $30 million is going to the I-82/Valley Mall Blvd. project in Yakima. In 2003, Yakima’s then-state senator, Sen. Alex Deccio (R-14), voted against the nickel tax.
$10 million is going to SR 501/Ridgefield Interchange in North Clark County. In 2003, North Clark County’s state senator, Sen. Joseph Zarelli (R-18), voted against the nickel tax.
Question: If the voters in these districts support legislators who voted against the nickel tax, why should their nickel tax projects go to the top of the list?
Adding insult to injury, the $30 million project in Yakima happens to be in the 4th U.S. Congressional District—home to U.S. Rep. Doc Hastings (R-WA). Guess how Rep. Hastings voted on the fedreal stimulus package. He voted “Nay,” and he had this to say: ”More spending, [and] bigger government … financed by raising taxes and forcing future generations to foot the bill is not the solution.”
Seattle’s Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA, 7) voted for the stimulus package.
Where’s Seattle’s $40 million?
And you know who else voted against the federal stimulus package? U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA, 5), who represents Eastern Washington, including Spokane.
If Seattle wants to get up to the magic $50 million for Mercer, there’s another $10 million going to road paving on US 395/Loon Lake to Immel Road (about 40 miles northwest of Spokane). Loon Lake carries about 7,000 vehicles a day. Mercer St.? 39,000.
Sigh. Olympia’s anti-Seattle schtick has become pathological.
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Excellent post.
Where can we find more information about the (mis)allocation of stimulus money? This is RIDICULOUS.
Hartman @ 2,
Here’s the roads projects list:
http://leap.leg.wa.gov/leap/Budget/Detail/2009/ht2009leapdoc_0224.pdf
These people don’t make it to Oly because they actually have a toe in the public policy-making pond. Don’t get me wrong, there are some fine State Legislators, but our whole system of so-called “citizen legislature” in this state ensures a parochial politics.
I once met Mary Margaret Haugen (head of the committee that oversaw these allocations) as a participant in a state-wide leadership program. While I was thankful for the few minutes she gave me, and I did think of her as approachable, I was struck by what seemed to me to be an inordinate amount of unwarranted arrogance. I guess that’s the effect of power vested in a small-time pol.
Thus, I didn’t expect anything more when it came to this funding. Hopefully they won’t f*ck with WSDOT’s share of the $8B headed to high speed rail improvements.
Gee, here’s a golden once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Republicans to prove they mean what they say by refusing to take the money!
If Seattle elected officials would stop doing shit like:
a. adopting county budgets that depend on the legislature to balance…without talking to legislators about it first;
b. negotiate lease buyouts with Oklahoma millionaires with clauses that attempt to force the legislature to take an action….without talking to legislators about it first;
c. demand money for arterial street projects and claim they are tied to the viaduct…without talking to legislators about it first;
d. I could go on….
Seattle suffers in Olympia because Seattle elected officials treat Olympia with disdain and contempt and then wonder why they get the same attitude in return. With the power positions in Oly that are held by Seattle legislators, the city could be running the show if local elected leaders- city and county- would stop with the damn attitude and try reaching out.
I’ve worked in Oly for 20 years and yet it still stuns me how badly the city and county play the game in Olympia.
Btw, what’s the status of the criminal prosecution of Cuban cigar-smoking Republican ex-congressman Tom DeLay?
So Josh, you obviously didn’t vote for Bush. That means you didn’t accept your $600 check last year, right? You didn’t vote for Bush, that means you were against the idea of a check. Did you send it back, or accept it?
And with that, I believe I have just won this argument.
@8,
I did vote against George Bush (twice)—although, I’m certainly not a member of Congress giving big speeches about how government spending is bad.
President Bush screwed up the economy by deregulating the banking industry. I was happy to accept his make up call.
Question: If the voters in these districts support legislators who voted against the nickel tax, why should their nickel tax projects go to the top of the list?
Yes they should get money from the nickel tax bill because they are paying it. And because they’re too stupid to support the renewal and maintenance of their infrastructure–much like children unable to change their own diapers they blubber until the adults arrive to supervise. Call it Republican Stupidity Syndrome. The pie should be divided up on a percentage basis of revenue generated per area.
@10 “The pie should be divided up on a percentage basis of revenue generated per area.”
Do you also believe that to be true for Seattle Public Schools?
Is this about anti-Seattle legislators, or about an ineffective Mayor whose bullying tactics have backfired yet again in Olympia?
A little critical thinking, please.
I continue to be amused at the KLOWNS spitting at each other as the claw & fight for Obama’s FREE MONEY (that ain’t Free at all).
As I gaze longly at the light snow falling and the wide open spaces where my wife & I are blessed to live….I can only laugh at the angst and selfishness that plagues all you MetroSexuals.
Maybe you need to just pass the bong around and have a few days of group sex to mellow out??
Keep up the entertainment!
And keep your eyeballs on the Militia in Real America.
S O @ 12,
I’ve heard the Nickels theory (actually posted about it yesterday), but … really?
Do you think if Seattle had a nice mayor, the Mercer deal would’ve trumped Olympia’s anti-Seattle hang up?
Chopp has been on an Eastern WA. charm offensive for years. Not matter how much Seattle tries there’s no winning over non-Seattle legislators (who have to please the invincible anti-Seattle sentiment of their constituents.)
So, with 18 Seattle legislators, we still got nothing.
I’m no Nickels fan (check out my reporting during my tenure as Stranger News Ed.), but blaming Olympia’s anti-Seattle pathology on Mayor Nickels is a little simple minded.
If by “pathological” you mean “sick,” you’re right.
13 Cyn
I look forward to seeing you get your ass shot off, Mr. Militia.
re 8: Not voting for Bush means you are against tax rebates?
I’m not against everything Bush did. Everytime he fell off his bike, I wished he’d do it again — and he did!
Except that the Mercer project is a waste of money. Everyone knows, but fewer care to admit that this project is pork for Nickel’s developer buddies in the SLU neighborhood. There are plenty of infrastructure issue in town that should be higher on the list of priorities but since campaign money comes from Queen Anne, Downtown, and Magnolia, that’s where the attention goes. The only thing the South End is, er, was good for was property speculation, as they began to proce people out of the urban core. Though Stranger writers have swallowed the development for development’s sake (now in Kool Aid Green), I’m not buying it.
@18,
Good point, but it’s a separate one. (And one you could likely make about most of the projects on the list in the context of their towns.)
Another issue is whether or not Nickels’ plan will even solve the problems at Mercer. Nick Licata and others don’t think so.
The point I was trying to hone in on was the hypocrisy on the Olympia-side and the GOP side.
Btw: No Stranger writers here. And I believe Barnett— @ the Stranger—has trashed Nickels’ Mercer plan:
http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=557816&nw
…as did Amy Jenniges, back when Nickels was first talking it up:
http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/under-fire/Content?oid=18702
It is pretty easy to decide what to cut – any project that can’t get done right away, like that project in Yakima. It doesn’t look like it will actually be ready anytime soon, and $40 million will be sitting there not producing a single job any time soon.
There are other projects on the highway list that don’t look ready. They are easy to spot.
If they are not ready in time, the state loses the stimulus money.
Has anyone outside the highway department actually had a chance to ask whether any of the projects on the list are actually ready? Or is the legislature just assuming that the highway department knows what it is doing, without having an outsider double-check?
Everything else, everything, is being held to a much higher standard. It is only on the state list in HB 1978 where there are projects that won’t be ready until next winter, like the one in Yakima, which seems like a bad time to build anything there.
This legislation all sounds really risky. All the non state highway projects – like Mercer – are much more ready. They must be ready within 120 days.
If you apply the same standard to all projects, it would be easy to find projects that drop off the current list and actually put people to work before next winter.
Maybe the legislature should wait a few days before ramming this one through.
Josh: Perhaps you shouldn’t be so hard on those outside Seattle. Afterall, Clark County voters, to the true amazement of many of us, voted against repealing the 12-cents-per-gallon increase in the state’s gasoline tax when given the opportunity with I-912. Not by much. But a majority did vote against it. By a far larger margin Clark County voters rejected Tim Eyman’s I-985. In fact, the percentage of ‘no’ voters was larger than opposition in King, Snohomish and Pierce counties. Yakima County also voted overwhelmingly (roughly 65 percent opposed, I believe)against the Eyman initiative. The point is, how people in different areas vote do not always reflect the way their lawmakers vote.
Josh
original Tizz:
In 2003 it’s 5-cent not .5-cent
Where can we find more information about the (mis)allocation of stimulus money? This is RIDICULOUS.