Why vote for poor to subsidize wealthy in King County?

Taken from Monday’s edition of The Dori Monson Show.

Ballots are in the mail now for an upcoming transit tax here in Washington and I want to make sure everyone is well aware of these taxes.

This is a massive tax hike to redistribute wealth from the poorest people here in the Puget Sound area to the wealthier people here in the Puget Sound area

This gigantic new transportation tax in King County would be a sales tax increase, which of course hits the poor the hardest, and it’s also going to be a car tab increase of $60 a year.

If you have two cars, it’s going to be $120 more a year for car tabs, plus the sales tax increase, which for the average family is going to add $100 or so a year, plus the hundreds you’re already paying. So a family might be paying $800 a year to subsidize bus riders.

There’s only one problem with all of this. Did you know that bus riders have a higher average income than the median income in King County?

According to a survey of their riders, the average Metro rider has a higher median income than the King County median income.

So instead of raising the fares on bus riders to get the money they say they need, they would rather take from the poor and give to the rich through this transportation tax.

Now you could vote no and tell Metro Transit to have their above-average income clients pay for their own bus ride and pay more at the fare box. You could tell Metro that with their 400,000 riders a day – that it’s up to them to at least break even and not have to dip into the wallets of below-average people to subsidize their operations. But it’s a tax and it’s for buses and everybody loves buses.

The sensible vote is a no vote. But if you want to subsidize the wealthier people and do it on the backs of the poorer people, vote yes on King County Proposition 1. If you want to stand up against all the waste, then maybe a rare no vote would be appropriate here.

Taken from Monday’s edition of The Dori Monson Show.

JS