Sammamish Forum Jan. 23
January 23, 2013
By Administrator
Lawmakers seek to deny public information
Two bills making their way through Washington State Legislature aim to take away the public’s right to transparent government and review of public decision making.
If your city, or the state ever made a decision you questioned, or if you joined a committee to have your city council members or state officials hear your side of a controversy, then write your senator and representative immediately and tell them to stop bills HB 1128 and HB 1185.
Laws on our books protect citizen right to information RCW 42.56.030 “The People, in delegating authority do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know.”
Yet HB 1128 is Titled “Limiting Public Records Requests”. HB 1185 creates a cost environment wherein those that ask to see “records belonging to them as the public” will be charged fees up to the salary of government employee. The public is already paying the salaries to maintain and retrieve public records for the public, so this is asking citizens to pay twice in order to make it too expensive to ask to see the materials upon which decisions are made.
Karen Levenson
Complicated project
is too much
The work being done off East Lake Sammamish Parkway from Gilman Boulevard to Southeast 43rd Way in Issaquah on the existing walking/riding trail on the old railroad grade is a gross excess expenditure of tax money in the name of an “improvement.”
It looks like this county project is building a section of the interstate highway system on what was a very satisfactory walking and riding trail that only needed a hard surface for the bikers who don’t have mountain bike tires.
But instead, the county has built retaining walls, added more ballast on top of the old railroad ballast, and on top of the existing 4-inch to 6-inch thick crushed rock surface installed a few years back, all in an effort to “improve” the trail. What a waste of tax money! The existing rock base was very adequate in thickness and width, even for vehicles. The trail just needed paving to take care of the bikers.
I would hope that in the future, King County administrators would be better stewards of expenditures than what is happening along this trail.
E. J. Dale
Issaquah
Oppose road tax
by the mile
Give me a break! I see another bureaucratic nightmare coming with the state looking into levying road tax by the mile.
Unless the oil companies see a way to rake in more profits, eliminating the gas tax will lower the price of gas and will increase consumption, because gas is cheaper — the reverse of what is needed to reduce consumption.
Problems: Do I get credit for my out-of-state miles? Who will check my odometer each year? Is my tax per mile for a 3,000-pound vehicle going to be the same as the little, 900-pound Smart car and the 20,000-pound truck? How will they charge for mileage on interstate trucks? Will I get a separate bill to pay? Will it be prorated when I trade vehicles? You get the picture.
The gas tax is fairly applied now based upon the gas you buy, except for bicycles and electric cars, which don’t buy gas. Solve that problem versus creating another bureaucracy costing more than it will take in with a new revenue system for the roads. For electric vehicles, add a fee to the license tags based upon vehicle weight.
Olympia, can you hear us? Instead of creating five problems to solve one, keep it simple.
Larry Brickman
Bellevue
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