Voters caused ferry mess
July 3, 2008 · Updated 8:46 PM
I moved to Oak Harbor from California after witnessing the financial devastation to the state treasury caused by Proposition 13, which rolled back property taxes to levels in effect 10 years previously and limited increases from that point on.
Then, I watched in horror as Washington voters approved I-695, which limited vehicle license fees to $30. Island County voters concurred by a wide margin. At the time, a headline in another newspaper read, State may lose the service of 10 ferries in I-695s wake.
Even before I arrived, I-747 did the same thing to Washington property taxes that Prop. 13 did in California, except for the rollback. And now we have another tax-obstructing initiative, I-960.
Today, you who voted for these disasters have nobody to blame but yourselves for our ferry mess. Services cost money. Taking away the means to provide those services, expecting your legislators to provide them, and then blaming them for not doing so is terminally stupid. Managing the Legislature by voter initiative is like wagging a dog by its tail. The result is always bad, and it hurts the dog.
James Bruner
Oak Harbor
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