Politics
I find myself a bit undecided on a number of things during this election period.
Proposition 1
Proposition 1 - Light rail seems great to me if there are frequent pickup(loved riding the train in London and DC), but can we believe the finish dates (sometime in the 2020s)? On the other side of the coin - if we don't do something now, then when will we ever do anything? This transportation issue has been talked about for a minimum of 15 to 20 years (portrayed in a sort of goofy way in the movie 'Singles'). I don't know that Prop 1 will give me what I want (frequent and reliable public transportation), but I know that we've not done much of anything for quite a while. I just wish Seattle was more like Portland.
Gregoire v. Rossi
Gregoire v. Rossi - This is a frustrating choice for me. Both candidates seem unattractive to me, but Rossi seems particularly unattractive.
- Public Safety - Rossi is yet another republican who wants more prisons. A number of prisons have been, or will be, expanded (Walla Walla August 2007, Coyote Ridge December 2008), so what does building more prisons do for us that the expansions aren't doing? Next, Rossi's page notes cases of people being released early from the King County jail and committing more crimes. What does that have to do with prisons? If he were to say that we need to increase funding for programs to help jail and prison inmates so that once they are released then the chance they will commit violent crimes is reduced, then I would agree with his stance. However, his solution is to just build more prisons, and try to draw conclusions from one off cases. Besides, didn't we build a new prison in Eastern Washington somewhere? Also, prisons cost money to build and maintain - wouldn't building even more prisons increase state spending? And what do we achieve by increasing the number of prisons (other than to reduce crowding...which does make sense)? I think we should focus more on education and youth outreach, as well as implement programs in prisons that foster self policing. NPR had a great story about AA type programs that focused on behaviour, as well as drug issues, in prisons and how that helped reduce repeat offenders.
- Education - Rossi states that the state is being sued for not having a valid funding formula. That's true, but it isn't that Gregoire implemented an invalid funding formula - the funding formula that is being used is one that was implemented 30 years ago and has since been ruled unconstitutional. Rossi's point was that we need action, not more study. I can agree with that. What I don't agree with is that the wording from Rossi's campaign page makes it sound as though Gregoire is the sole reason Washington doesn't have a valid funding formula. What about all of the previous governors from the past 30 years? I agree that something needs to be done, though. Attracting good teaching staff and administration is essential for creating good schools. One way to do that is through equitable salaries. Areas that are underfunded by the state due to an outdated funding system (salaries in the 1976-77 school year) might not have the resources to pay the extra amount to help create equitable salaries. However, this problem is not new, and who is to say that Rossi will resolve the problem? A program on This American Life focused on an education program in Harlem that followed kids from pre-school through highschool. The education program helped parents become more involved in the education of the kids, and stressed positive communication with their children. I wish we had programs like that throughout the US. Neither candidate seems to focus on education in a way that appeals to me. Both seem to point at the funding aspect of education, and not much is mentioned other than teacher/administrator salaries.
- State Spending - I'm not sure what to think about state spending issues, since this seems like one of those arguments about what we should be spending money on more that how much we should spend money on. One of the things that Rossi's page asks is, "Does your family see $4000 of additional value from state government?" That seems like a ridiculous question to me. For one, the $4000 is an average based on the amount of tax money spread out over an estimate of each family. Since this is based on things like property taxes, then has each family had an increase of $4000 per year in property taxes? No. How about $2000, with the remaining $2000 coming from gas tax, cigarette tax, etc? It still doesn't match. Perhaps a state income tax would make sense then, since the tax would be based on what we earn - that should make it fair. We might even be able to afford a decent transportation system if we have a state income tax. I'm sure that I'm missing the point on this, but I can say that the Rossi campaign page isn't persuading me.
- Transportation - This really infuriates me! Rossi's page asks, "Despite Gregoire ramming through the largest gas tax increase in state history, has your traffic commute gotten better or worse?" It seems like any transportation propositions that are put up for a vote end up getting voted down - in large part due to the bundling together of plans so that the overall package is unattractive to the voters...and it seems like it is usually unattractive to people for opposing reasons - environmentally or fiscally.
Rossi's campaign is full of negative attacks, and seems to be full of arguments that don't seem to be logically correct. Perhaps Rossi does have a valid point, but the campaign page isn't convincing me. I do like that there are links to news articles to back up his arguments. It just seems to me that the articles don't support his argument very well.
Gregoire's campaign seems to lack substance to me. The "issues" section of her campaign page seems to be devoid of content. There are short statements, but I want more...and I want to see something that counters what Rossi is saying. I feel like Gregoire is conceding to Rossi by not countering what Rossi is saying.