Political

On September 17th David Johnson posted a letter to the Orcasonian newspaper titled We are entitled to hear the whole story about McViegh. I support David Johnson’s perspective that examining candidates history is important when choosing who we vote for. I support Stephanie O’Day for County Council position one. Stephanie is an attorney versed in land use regulations. She has knowledge that can only come from being a long time resident involved with our local land use regulations. I believe that’s more important for a council member than budgeting credentials relative to some place far from the San Juan Islands.

THINK TWICE!!

Before voting, everyone should be aware of some facts and a pattern of behavior inherent in Kari McVeigh, as evidenced by the following lawsuit and news article related to TWO back-to-back employment departures from TWO DIFFERENT school districts.

By Charles Prestrud @ Washinton Policy Center

Opponents of I-2117 have recently run a TV ad claiming the initiative would “gut public transit.” Their website goes on to say the initiative would “reduce public transit service.” To ascertain the truth of those claims we need to start by looking at transit funding.

In 2022 transit agencies in Washington took in more than $5 billion. The primary transit revenue sources are sales tax, federal grants, interest on reserves and advertising income. Residents of the Sound Transit district also pay a property tax and motor vehicle excise tax. Most transit agencies also collect fares from customers, well, some customers, but state-wide farebox revenue constitutes less than 10% of total revenue.

So, how much of that $5 billion per year would be lost if voters approve I-2117? None. Zero. This is because I-2117 does not change the existing local taxes that provide the vast majority of transit agency revenue, nor would the initiative reduce federal grants or interest income.

Signature verification has been completed and certified by the Office of the Secretary of State for the following Initiative to the People:

Initiative No. 2066 concerning access to natural gas for Washington homes and businesses.

The signatures have been verified by the Office of the Secretary of State Elections Division using a state-mandated process of examining a 3% random sample of submitted signatures. Sponsors of I-2066 submitted 533,005 signatures in support of the initiative. A review of the random sample of 15,991 signatures found that 12,960 of the sampled signatures were valid.

This letter is addressed to all Islanders who believe that Democracy is a good way to govern. Democracy does not work unless the voters are fully informed before they vote. To that end , I make it habit of "looking under the hood” to see what a proposal offers and what it is going to cost. In 2022 I wrote to all islanders and demonstrated that the library was not being very transparent about the true ultimate costs to the taxpayers for the proposed new library. I expressed the information and my opinion to the then Director of the library. 60% of the voters said NO to the proposal.