Endorsement Reviews: Measures & Initiatives
In the days leading up to the election, we will amalgamate what the four newspapers had to say about the races into one combined blurb for each candidate or initiative because we do not purport to follow city politics closely enough to advise anyone, even ourselves, how to vote. That's why God invented local politics writers.
Direct democracy, olive oil, and man-on-man action. The ancient Greeks had all three (probably simultaneously) and so do we. Play solon for a day when you vote yea or nay on the following measures and initiatives.
Seattle Advisory Measure 1
This measure, in which city voters get the opportunity to volunteer their opinion to Congress about health care, is a “silly” “feel-good” “meaningless distraction” that “will have zero impact” and “makes the [city] council look like it has too much free time.”
King County Proposition No. 1
The money raised by this “modest property tax increase” will pay to provide county services for “veterans” (yay!), and “the homeless, the mentally ill, the unemployed, and the drug addicted” (booooo!). “Its cost is nominal” and though it won’t “solve all problems” “it’s a good step forward.”
Senate Joint Resolution 8207
This does something boring involving the courts. “yes” “yes” “yes” “yes”
I-330
This “insurance-industry giveaway” limits malpractice lawsuit payouts. It has “unconscionable” aspects, “wouldn't solve any problems” and though it “[contains] some good proposals” “there's far more chaff than wheat.”
I-336
This punishes crappy doctors. Though it will “improve patients' rights” and “[doctors] have failed to come up with a convincing argument against it,” some see it as “sour-grapes.”
I-900
The measure “makes a great deal of sense” and is “worth trying.” It would allow state auditors who suspect poor performance at state agencies to “keep probing” and would fund their efforts. But the Legislature has “already agreed on performance audits” (though the current law “is not as strong as I-900 nor as useful.”)
I-901
Would ban smoking in public places. Though it’s part of a “positive trend” and “well-intentioned” it is “overreaching” and, with its requirement that smokers be 25 feet from any door or window, “would essentially ban indoor smoking entirely, except in private homes.”
I-912
The “short-sighted," “irresponsible” measure, supported by "dopes in rural areas," would repeal a gas tax intended to pay for critical road improvements. It would “revoke a hard-won [legislative] compromise” “delay hundreds of projects” and is “akin to what New Orleans did by not shoring up levees.”
