King County Parks levy says ‘not a new tax,’ but adds $176 million to our tab
Jul 31, 2013, 1:20 PM | Updated: 1:59 pm
KIRO Radio's Dori Monson says he's approved a number of parks levies and he's rejected a number. He says voters should look at each one individually. (Image courtesy King County Parks)
(Image courtesy King County Parks)
Taken from Wednesday’s edition of The Dori Monson Show.
One of my great frustrations with voters in this region in which I grew up is that they have turned into lemmings. I truly believe that the Seattle of my youth was a pretty free-thinking place. I think people actually gave thought to their votes. That does not happen anymore.
This has become one of the most reliable groups of sheep and lemming voters anywhere in the country, and I’m not just talking political party. I’m talking about things like school and park levies, or EMS, Medic One. If it’s on the ballot and it says “parks,” or “Medic One,’ or “schools,” people say, “Yes. Yes. Yes.”
But this time they’re really pulling a fast one on you.
The current King County Parks levy was $220 million over 6 years. But a new levy appearing on the August ballot, would almost double the amount taxpayers, home owners, and property owners are giving to the parks. It would go from $220 million to $396 million.
And Danny Westneat pointed out in a column in The Seattle Times that they have the audacity in the voter’s guide and on the ballot to say “Renewing the parks levy IS NOT A NEW TAX.” It actually appears in caps like that.
They say that almost doubling the amount we’re paying for parks is not a new tax? What is it?
Our requests to get someone from the Yes for Our Parks campaign on the show were refused, but here’s what they said to Westneat:
“It is a renewal of an existing levy, so that’s what we meant when we said it’s not a new tax. And we do see it as only a modest increase. So that was our thinking in what we wrote,” said Yes for Our Parks spokesman Sandeep Kaushik.
Only in local politics can jacking up your property taxes $176 million – that’s the increase alone, a $176 million increase – be called modest.
In what universe is that modest? It’s unbelievable how deceptive it is. How wrong it is.
Even Westneat said voters are a bunch of Pavlovian dogs. He admits he’s one of them.
I’m the only person who ever, in the media, takes a stand against parks and EMS and school levies.
There are a bunch of school levies that I have supported and there are a bunch that I have opposed because I consider everything on its own, on its own individual merits. That is what most voters in this region do not do.
The King County Parks system should be ashamed of this voter’s guide description, on how deceptive they’re being, and on how massive a tax increase they’re seeking in a difficult economy.
I know that I’m just spitting into the wind here because the lemming and the sheep voters of this region – ‘I always vote yes for the parks’ – they won’t look into this. They won’t look at the numbers. They will remain blissfully ignorant and they will jack up the local property owners’ property taxes from $220 million over 6 years to $396 million – a $176 million increase.
Taken from Wednesday’s edition of The Dori Monson Show.
JS
