Money is Money

As a former legislator, lobbyist and yes, school board member, I am fascinated by the use of money in formation of public policy. If you don't look at it as the new fourth leg of the stool, you could get sick to your stomach.

First, the hypocrisy: The leftist blogs out of Seattle start out their posts about Eyman's initiative with a cute little hook, “With BP and other oil industry companies paying for signatures,” the initiative that would reinstate the two-thirds vote to raise taxes has made the fall ballot.

Hello? As if all the other initiatives that foist taxes and goofy environmental laws on us aren't paid for by the unions that reap the bennies or the grant-bloated gaggles of non-profits that hover in synchronous orbit above the Department of Ecology? Get over it, people. Money fuels legislative campaigns and the initiative signature-gathering drives.

Second, the paradox: The initiatives are going to give us a statewide plebiscite on the fiscal policies of our legislature and governor. Will the voters uphold the taking of their money – in taxes – to pay for a government that has failed to retool/reboot and shrink in proportion to our state economy? These voters elected this batch of spenders and taxers. Now will they support what they have done? The problem is the metro area will, as always, have an inordinate impact on a state wide vote. And as we have just seen, King County is going to vote to decide if they will increase the local sales tax. (That will take it to 9.7 percent, might as well get out a dime for every dollar. BTW, if you bought a 20K car in Shelton instead of Seattle, the sales tax difference would be about $300!)

Third, remember there are two sides to every issue. There is going to be money spent to support and oppose these initiatives. It will come from both sides. Money redistribution saturates our fall ballot. Taxes repealed? Taxes upheld? Monopolies repealed, costs reduced? Tax increase votes reinstated to two-thirds? Yes, this will suck up a lot of money.

Fourth, how much money is left for the legislative races? If all of this money is going for signatures, legal work, campaigns for and against the initiatives, what's left for the legislators and their local races? There will be an impact for sure.

Yeah, yeah, money is the mother's milk of politics. But if you follow it, this fall it will be heading more for the ballot issues than the candidates. We might ask if the Legislature has become irrelevant on major issues, or at least weaker?

I like to hope that with technology and instant information, we are just seeing the evolution of democracy. If you draw a public paycheck this might be troubling. But just think back to the good old days when these money driven initiatives did things like decrease class size (actually same-size class. just more salaried folks in the room – better ratios, you know), and made us all subsidize wind power while rejecting hydro as a renewable energy source. How's that going to work for you?