November 3 General Election

2015 General Election – not a long ballot, but important issues

I see from the blog report that people have been checking in. Sorry, it took longer than expected to research all those advisory issues.

Here’s the basic information:

Ballots must be returned no later than November 3.

   You can mail your ballot, as long as the postmark is on or before November 3.

   Or you can drop your ballot into one of 5 special collection boxes at:

            Island County Elections Office            400 N Main Street           Coupeville

            Oak Harbor City Hall                           865 SE Barrington          Oak Harbor

            Trinity Lutheran Church                      18341 Hwy 525               Freeland

            Ken’s Corner Red Apple                      4141 Hwy 525                Clinton

            Camano Annex                                     121 N East Camano Dr   Camano

For questions, contact  elections@co.island.wa.us

or phone 360-679-7366  M-F  9:00 – 4:00

There are 2 initiatives on the ballot this year. One good and one very very bad. Check them out:

I-1366 re taxes

            The ballot statement reads: “I-1366 concerns state taxes and fees. The measure would decrease the sales tax rate unless the legislature refers to voters a constitutional amendment requiring two-thirds legislative approval or voter approval to raise taxes, and legislative approval for fee increases.

            “Fiscal impact of reducing sales tax: $8 billion over 6 years to general fund + $12.8 million to performance audit fund. B&O would increase $39.9 million, local tax revenue would increase $226.1 million. If an amendment is referred to the voters, 2017 election expenditures would increase by $101k with unknown increase in local election expenditures.”

            This is unconstitutional, but it will cost huge amounts to go through the process to prove that. Meanwhile, much more important uses for that money are going unfunded.

This is another of Eyman’s “kill government” initiatives.

            Revenue from state sales tax accounts for 47.2% of all state revenue, +/- $15.6 billion, in the general fund 2013-15. It is the state’s single largest source of revenue. This initiative is supported by the state Republican party, and the Citizens’ Committee for the right to Keep and Bear Arms.

donors:

Clyde Holland (CEO, Holland Partner Group, developing, redeveloping, acquiring, and managing multifamily communities )                                                     $450k

Kenneth Fisher, billionaire investor                                        $125k

(founder, CEO, Fisher Investments, a money management firm)     

Kemper Holdings LLC                                                           $100k

CEO, Kemper Freeman, Bellevue developer has put in $1.1 mil personally. His specific interest is to prevent light rail in Washington.  

National Electrical Contractors Assoc, Puget Sound Chp      $100k

Garneau Properties, property management                             $50k

Lawrence P Hughes, financial advisor                                    $50k

Fremont Dock Co, a real estate company in Fremont             $45k

Robert Rotella , Rotella Capital Management                         $25k

 opponents:

Northwest Progressive Institute

National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, WA

Washington Conservation Voters

Statewide Poverty Action Network

League of Women Voters of Washington

Professional & Technical Employees Union, local 17

Tax Sanity (Working for Reform and Closing Tax Loopholes)

Transition 2030 (advocates for renewable energy, modern transit, and high mpg vehicles, and to replace Washington’s current tax system with a modern progressive income tax)

WA State Democratic party

WA State progressive caucus

numerous county & district Democratic organizations

This comes down to Eyman trying to take the state hostage. Either we agree to cut the sales tax by more than 15% or we amend the constitution to make any tax legislation require a 2/3 majority vote. The initiative was brought before the King County Superior Court, which gave a peculiar opinion. The judge agreed that it was most probably unconstitutional – but then allowed it to be placed on the ballot anyway. From the opinion: “although the ultimate decision is obviously the Supreme Court’s, there is a substantial possibility that 1-1366 will be found to be invalid for exceeding the scope of the initiative process, and that voters will be voting on a measure which will never go into effect.”  We can only hope.

In the last few weeks the Attorney General has been looking very closely into Eyman’s finances, and has determined that he has been taking kickbacks for many years, among other financial crimes (like money laundering). The guy is a crook and his initiative is crooked.

Needless to say I will be voting a resounding NO!

I-1401 re trafficking of Threatened and Endangered animals

            The ballot statement reads “I-1401 concerns trafficking of animal species threatened with extinction. This measure would make selling, purchasing, trading, or distributing certain animal species threatened with extinction, and products containing such species, a gross misdemeanor or class-C felony, with exceptions for certain types of transfers.”

            The US signed onto the CITES treaty to protect endangered species 45 years ago. This measure would bring Washington state law partly into line with the federal regulations. There are exceptions for antiques and for educational and scientific transfers.

            This initiative was bankrolled by Paul Allen. It covers only 10 species. This is nowhere near as complete and thorough as we’d like, but it’s a good start.

Supporters include:

 The Humane Society

Woodland Park Zoo

Natural Resources Defense Council

National Audubon Society

National Wildlife Foundation

International Fund for Animal Welfare

African Wildlife Foundation

The Zoo Society

Conservation Northwest

Born Free USA

96 Elephants

WildAid

Washington Conservation Voters

Washington State Democrats

Mainstream Republicans of Washington

The Seattle Aquarium

Pont Defiance Zoo & Aquarium

Metro Parks Tacoma

Not surprisingly, it is opposed by the NRA, the Safari Club International, and a group calling itself Legal Ivory Rights, based in Chehalis.

It does not go as far as I would have liked, but it’s a good start, so I’ll be voting YES.

Advisory votes

These require some explanation, and the best source is the Secretary of State’s office. Here is their statement from last year. I found none for this year. 

            “This is the third straight year that Advisory Votes have been on Washington’s General Election ballot. The first two Advisory Votes were placed on the 2012 ballot and Nos. 3 through 7 appeared last year. Because Advisory Votes are nonbinding, the result is not a repeal of the bill, as would be the case with a referendum measure. The Legislature is not required to take action based on the results of Advisory Votes.”

  So this is basically Tim Eyman wasting a lot of the public’s time and tax dollars - again. Thanks Tim. Oh, and the peculiar, rather in-your-face language comes out of the Eyman initiative as well. It definitely takes some decoding.

#10      ESHB 1449

Ballot language: “The legislature imposed, without a vote of the people, oil spill response and administration taxes to apply to crude oil or petroleum products transported by railroad, costing $17 mil for government spending.”

            This really is about oil spill prevention and response. The legislature asked the Dept of Ecology to prepare a report on just how ready we are to deal with exploding oil trains or grounding supertankers. That report was finished early this year. There has for a long time been a tax of 4¢/barrel of oil for prevention programs (think tug at Neah Bay) and 1¢/barrel for oil spill response. There is also a regulatory fee on railroads, which is now increasing from 1.5% to 2.5% of gross intrastate operating revenues, specific to trains hauling oil. We’ve seen what happens when oil trains explode, which they do with painful regularity. People die, the environment is trashed, and the cleanup cost is astronomical. This tax supports prevention and response for oil train accidents, in the hope that the oil companies pay for their disasters rather than we taxpayers.

            There’s a whole lot more to this bill and it looks like something we desperately need. It passed in the senate 46/0 and in the house 95/1. Sounds really controversial, doesn’t it?

            For all the gory detains (its actually a good read) google: 

1449-S.E HBR FBR 15.pdf

            The wording of these advisory votes is:

This tax increase should be:

[ ] repealed

[ X ] maintained

            I will be voting to MAINTAIN this “tax increase”

#11      2SSB 5052

Ballot language: “The legislature imposed, without a vote of the people, the marijuana excise tax on medical marijuana sales, costing an amount that cannot currently be estimated, for government spending.”

            The claim in the voters’ pamphlet says that it extends the marijuana excise tax to medical marijuana. But reading 2SSB 5052 I can’t find that. I have no trouble taxing recreational drugs, including marijuana, alcohol, and tobacco. I have a lot of trouble taxing medicines, and medical marijuana is medicine, pure and simple. It should not be taxed.

            This bill is titled “Establishing the cannabis patient protection act.”  I’ve now read the Senate bill report and its still fuzzy to me. It changes the rules for medical marijuana and the claim here is that it taxes it. I didn’t find that in the bill report, but I could be wrong. There are good people on both sides of the issue, which doesn’t help. It does create a medical marijuana registry which would be accessible to law enforcement, and this scares a lot of people, probably with good reason.

            More detailed and careful reading reveals that it would effectively ban marijuana grow coops (no more than 4 people) and no grow coop could be within 15 miles of a recreational retail outlet. Since everyplace on Whidbey is within 15 miles of a retail store, growing for personal medical use would be illegal. And if someone needs one of the Cannabis strains useful for treating seizures (doesn’t get you stoned) and the local store doesn’t sell it because there’s not much demand, they’re out of luck. And if a medical marijuana patient can’t afford to buy it from the overpriced legal store, it will be illegal for them to grow it for their own non-commercial use

            The people who sponsored 502 testified against this bill. All in all, I’m inclined to be suspicious. Which is why I’ll be voting REPEALED.

lawfilesext.leg.wa.gov/biennium/.../5052-S2%20SBR%20FBR%2015.pdf

 This tax increase should be

[X] repealed

[ ] maintained

#12      SESSB   5987

Ballot language: “The legislature imposed, without a vote of the people, additional taxes on motor vehicles and special fuels costing an estimated, 3.707 billion in the first 10 years, for government spending.”

            This bill is titled “an act relating to transportation revenue”

            Right now we’re paying 37.5¢/gallon in motor vehicle fuel taxes. That money and what we pay in licensing fees may only be spent on roads – bigger better highways. Specifically, it must be spent to build, maintain, operate, and administer highways and ferries. There are lots of exceptions in there for ORVs, non-highway vehicles, snowmobiles, and marine uses. Weight fees (that’s the $30.00/year) are allowed to be spent on “Multimodal transportation”. That would be buses, light rail, trails, etc.

            This bill increases the motor vehicle fuel tax by 5¢/gallon in 2015, 4.2¢/gallon in 2016 and 2.5¢/gallon in 2017. Revenue from this tax will be available for transportation uses other than just roads. It also raises the tax amount for off-road vehicle fuel use, a gaping loophole which has long needed closing. Weight fees are also increased. The biggest thing this does is allow the fuel tax to be used for non-road transit. The intent is to make it possible for more people to use public transit so we don’t need as much fuel or as many roads. Yep, its going to cost a bit more at the pump.

            This is the bill that the republicans poisoned with a proviso that the governor is not allowed to enact a low-carbon fuel standard. But it funds light rail and other non-automobile transportation, so its worth it even with the poison pill.

            Testifying in favor was every mayor west of the Cascades, along with the Trucking Association. Against, interestingly enough, were a number of my favorite environmental organizations. They were not against the bill but against the poison pill.

            I’m hoping that we can remove that poison pill in the near future. In the meantime, I intend to support what we have.  I’ll be voting MAINTAINED.

lawfilesext.leg.wa.gov/.../2015.../5987-S.E%20SBR%20APS%2015.pdf

This tax increase should be

[ ] repealed

[X] maintained

#13      ESSB   6138

Ballot language: “The legislature increased business and occupation tax revenues and excluded certain software manufacturers from a retail sales tax exemption, without a vote of the people, costing $1.449 mil, for government spending.”

This bill is titled: An act relating to increasing state revenue through improved compliance methods and eliminating tax preferences for royalties and certain manufacturing equipment.

            This one gets pretty murky pretty quickly. The intent is to close loopholes enjoyed by certain segments of the business world, namely those businesses which produce and sell software or which franchise to sell software. Because software is usually not a box you carry away, payment for software is categorized as a royalty payment. There are some strange laws regarding the taxing of royalty payments, largely because the product is so ephemeral and can be sold anywhere in the world on line. There are more clauses than I can wrap my head around, but a lot of people I really don’t like are screaming that this will kill them and that all business in Washington will dry up and blow away. Given who is against it, I’ll be voting to MAINTAIN.

lawfilesext.leg.wa.gov/.../6138-S.E%20SBR%20APS%2015%20E3.pdf

This tax increase should be

[ ] repealed

[X] maintained

Ok, on to the candidates. I’m unhappy to report that of the huge long list of positions on the ballot, only a tiny few have more than a single candidate. I just scrubbed all the one-horse races, and that leaves just the few below.

Langley mayor                       

Tim Callison               timcallison@whidbey.com

His wife currently sits on the city council (she has just announced that she will resign on January 1 if Callison is elected), so he has some idea of how things work and what the issues are. I am a bit nervous about his bigger business background and vision,  among other things, to “plan sustainable growth for residents and business activities.” I wish I had the time to ask him what he means by that.

Interestingly and oddly enough, part of why I now would not endorse Tim Callison is because he does not know enough of local politics to know that associating with or citing me is considered political suicide. Maybe the taboo on WEAN has lessened. What it represents to me is that this is someone who is new enough to the community that he has not learned how it works and the deeper layers of what’s going on.  I’m not sure why he chose to drop my name, but it was a bit of a mis-quote. He cites me as saying that moving Cascade Avenue has made the bluff much more stable. Not so fast there.  What I actually said was that the only way to stabilize the over-steepened bluff would be to cut back all the way to the houses on the other side of Camano Avenue – not a very realistic option.  Which leads me to conclude that maybe Mr Callison does not listen as carefully as he should.

I have heard it said that there are some who endorse Mr Callison because the city council hates Sharon Emerson and they believe she would not be able to govern in the face of such opposition. Not a good reason. I’m sorry to see the council quite that partisan in this matter, but I continue to believe that Sharon Emerson will be the better mayor for keeping what is special about Langley.    

Luckily, I don’t have to vote in Langley. If I did, I would vote for Sharon Emerson.

Sharon Emerson                      sharon@sharon4mayor.com

A long- time resident and business person. Level-headed. Ardently anti-funicular for reasons with which I agree wholeheartedly. She’s not been directly involved in city government before, although she has attended council meetings regularly for at least the last year. She’s a quick study, and lack of experience has not prevented others from being elected. She has been known to have a sharp tongue, which she has been consciously curbing. Good for her. I know and like Sharon, which rather colors my opinion. I think she would do well as mayor. I have heard that the city council is out actively campaigning for her opponent. I hope that they can overcome their partisanship if/when Sharon becomes mayor and work with her for the best of the city.

Again, if I could vote in Langley, it would be for Sharon Emerson.

Oak Harbor     mayor

Jim Campbell              blandjcampbell@aol.com

He was invited to speak to the Oak Harbor Republicans but did not attend. He is endorsed by the right wing tea baggers at Island Politics, which I see as a serious negative. I have seen him in action on the Oak Harbor city council and was seriously underwhelmed. Says he’s running so Severns would not run unopposed. Not the best reason.

Bob Severns                votebobmayor@gmail.com     http://www.votebobmayor.com/

He was invited to speak to the Oak Harbor Republicans but did not attend. He is opposed by the right wing tea baggers at Island Politics, which strikes me as an endorsement. His priorities seem reasonable, given that the current mayor is an egomaniacal ass who has severely damaged the city.

Luckily I don’t have to vote in Oak Harbor. If I did I would most likely vote for Bob Severns, but it would be an ignorant vote.

Hospital District         commissioner 2          

Rob Born, Greenbank, retired attorney          robborn28@yahoo.com

Whidbey General Hospital Blogger –consistently hyper critical of Whidbey General on any and every issue. He is much supported by the ultra-right tea party faction. That alone makes me very nervous.  He’s retired Navy, retired attorney, and all curmudgeon.

I watched Mr Born at a candidate’s night and found him thin-skinned and unconvincing. He challenged Georgia Gardner on the hospital’s accounting, claiming that there was some slight of hand to make the books look better than they were. Ms Gardner responded that she had tried time after time to explain the basics of non-profit accounting to Mr Born but he really didn’t want to hear it. That certainly came across during the candidates’ night. Among other things Born accused unspecified people of “character assassination” and insisted that he would not stand for it. No clue what that was about. During the entire session he came across as very defensive.

Born said that it would be irresponsible not to explore the option of associating with a large hospital chain, that UW and Swedish were not religiously based so might be options. He claimed that he did not favor a merger or sale of the hospital (well that’s a relief) but that there would be benefit from some unspecified form of affiliation.

He claimed that the hospital board was irresponsible in failing to oversee finances properly, claiming that the board had never scrutinized the regular payment vouchers. He promised to be a watchdog. He further claimed that the board was responsible for hiring and re-hiring a bad CEO, and that the (former) CEO’s misdeeds were on their heads. He also claimed that the hospital was running huge deficits and had been for at least the last 3 years and that staff and board – meaning Ms Gardner – were fudging the numbers. That’s a serious accusation.   

And of course he claims that the hospital does its business in secret and he wants to break open that secrecy. This shows, according to all the other candidates, his ignorance of the federal laws which require precisely that secrecy in dealing with patient accounts and medical information.

And then he claimed that the hospital had an unusually high rate of turnover. That is rather rich coming from someone who has been directly responsible for some of that turnover by badgering and badmouthing some of the hospital’s staff.

The session ended with Born claiming that hospital board members had “slung mud” and that Ms Gardner had not disavowed them. He said they had disgraced themselves. The audience was clearly puzzled by all this. He further claimed that he had been heckled, name-called, and suffered a challenge to his bar association membership. He pledged to visit patients every day (this would be a violation of their privacy rights).

I could go on and on and on. This man is worse than a loose cannon. Electing him to the hospital board would cripple the board and drag the hospital down into dysfunction.

Georgia Gardner – incumbent, CPA, former state legislator   gardnergeorgia@msn.com

I don’t believe Ms Gardner is the great white light, but she is definitely a decent human being, competent at her work, and with a primary interest in keeping Whidbey General Hospital solvent and functional. I have not heard any such about her opponent.

During the candidates’ night Ms Gardner made clear that the hospital’s operations and what the board does and does not do are mandated by state law. She gave the board’s job description as selecting and overseeing the CEO, being accountable to the public, meeting once a month to hear reports from each department head, to approve spending, to settle disputes/issues between department heads and the CEO, to plan for the hospital’s future, and above all to meet the hospital’s legal and financial obligations.

In response to Born’s accusation that they did not question the payment vouchers brought to them, she said that each of those had long since been discussed and approved individually, that board action was a final stamp of approval and therefore there was no need for discussion at that stage. Among other things this seems to reflect Born’s lack of understanding of how the system operates.

One of the points which Gardner stressed was the contracting for and implementing of a new electronic records keeping system. She stressed that it was a major outlay, but that it was not a loss but an investment. Federal law now requires electronic record keeping, and it makes plain common sense. It is also hugely expensive if you want to do it right. Whidbey General wanted to do it right. The board did not want to borrow money to implement the system so it came out of general operating funds. That made the balance sheet look very poor for the 3 years it has been in the works. But with the system coming on line it is paid in full. That is a good thing. Mr Born evidently did not understand this purchase, claiming the hospital was running a deficit of $2.5 – 5 million over these 3 years. He did acknowledge that this year (now that the electronic records system is paid for) the hospital is running a surplus.

It was at this point that Ms Garner became just a bit exasperated. Born claimed that the books were being cooked by claiming levy proceeds as income. Ms Gardner said she had been trying to teach Born non-profit accounting, but evidently he was not much of a student. In spite of her explanations and instruction, he continues to insist that there is perfidy in the budget and books.

Born claimed that there were never any dissenting votes on the board and that it represented a clubby little group. He wanted to “mix it up a bit” (his words). Ms Gardner responded that they did indeed engage in a lot of debate, but their focus was on the issues and not on individuals, and that their approach was not confrontation but questioning. She said they all speak up, but they collaborate in reaching solutions.

On the question of staff turnover, Ms Gardner agreed that Whidbey General is 25% above the state average, but that most of that is attributable to the presence of NAS Whidbey. Navy wives come to work at the hospital and 2 or 3 years later they move on when their husband is re-assigned. Also, what few of us knew is that Navy surgeons operate at Whidbey General and are therefore accredited there. When they move on it shows up as staff turnover at Whidbey General.  Born was not willing to accept this explanation, claiming it was an excuse.

Ms Gardner closed by saying that she keeps a very close watch on hospital finances. She said she has a “compliance bible” checklist which she uses to meet every deadline. She is now working with the VA with the intent to provide a local alternative to veterans who presently have to go to the mainland for services.

What it comes down to is that Georgia Gardner is a tried and true hardworking member of the Whidbey General Hospital board who is also an accountant, who keeps careful track of the finances. Rob Born is a rabble rouser and curmudgeon of the far-right tea party persuasion who has some sort of grudge against the hospital. Putting him on the board would be an act of destruction.

I will be voting resoundingly for Georgia Gardner.

Hospital district          commissioner 4

Nancy Fey – incumbent         marnan1385@comcast.net

The candidates’ night session with Nancy Fey and Erika Carnahan was a bit peculiar. Ms Carnahan seems to be a very nice person. She was scared to death to speak in front of a large group, freezing up when she was asked to speak. I felt sorry for her. What made it peculiar is that Ms Carnahan pretty much echoed everything Nancy Fey said. She said she was running to support the hospital – or Nancy. It made me wonder why she was running at all.

Nancy Fey was appointed to fill out a term when the incumbent resigned and has a good sense of how things work. She has worked at Whidbey General for 26 years. She agreed completely with Georgia Gardner on the issue of affiliation. They are both completely opposed, but are willing to discuss partnerships where they may be beneficial.

Its hard to bring up specific issues because Georgia Gardner, Nancy Fey, and Erika Carnahan all agreed on just about every question while Rob Born opposed and disagreed.

Erika Carnahan            elynn1965@hotmail.com

As mentioned above, Ms Carnahan is very new to politics and public speaking. My impression is of a nice person who may make a good board member with some more experience and exposure. Either she has changed her politics radically since filing or the Island  Politics crowd has endorsed her only because she is not the incumbent. Considering that she agreed with the incumbent, Nancy Fey, on every issue at the candidates’ night, I’m inclined toward the “not the incumbent” theory. She has worked in medical administration. The News-Times quoted her as objecting to the complacency of the current board. That was not brought up at the candidates’ night.

I am by no means enamored of the current board of Whidbey General. On the other hand, I’m not ready for a revolution there. I think keeping the incumbent is probably the best move.

I will be voting for Nancy Fey.

And that’s it for this election. Now fill in your ballot and get it returned. Remember to sign and date the outside of the mailing envelope.