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The first online-only news site in state history to get media credentials to cover the state capitol and Seattle city hall, PubliCola has been called a “must-read” by the Seattle Post Intelligencer and a hot “New Media Mover and Shaker” by Seattle Magazine—which also cited our own Erica C. Barnett as the city's No. 1 news nerd.

PubliColaTV: The Progressive Take on the 2010 Ballot Measures

2010 Election, Politics   August 30, 2010 at 3:19 pm Bryce McKay

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMoY8XAakzA[/youtube]

There are six initiatives and one referendum on the ballot this year, which is a lot for anyone to keep track of. We checked in with Anne Martens, spokeswoman for the Ballot Initiative Network (a progressive group that works on initiatives) for a quickfire ballot measure roundup.

Martens and her organization are obviously progressive, and so they’re working the lefty angle on all of the issues. They’re opposing five initiatives this year:

  • I-1053, reinstating the two-thirds majority required for tax increases;
  • I-1100 & 1105, the liquor privatization initiatives;
  • I-1082, the privatization of Worker’s Comp;
  • and 1107, the repeal of the candy and soda tax.

And they’re championing a couple as well:

  • I-1098, the higher-earners’ income tax,
  • Referendum 52, which would create a competitive grants process for renovating schools in ways that would save energy. (R-52 was criticized widely with the belief that it would harm Washington State’s bond rating, but it has since been tied to the bottled water tax, which means that Washington bonds won’t suffer.)




  • NorthBiker

    really weak. good luck come voting time if this is all we can come up with on these issues. they are are already saying “look what eventually happened to the middle class after the federal income tax (hailed as a higher earner tax only) came into being in 1913″. were done.

  • The Lovely

    Bomb job, Ms. Martens. It’s tough to be the spokesperson for one initiative, let alone the entire ballot.

    “why should government run liquor sales?” how bout, “why should a watch salesman decide how much to spend on schools?”

  • Jarvis

    Soooooooo, who is Anne Martins and who does she work for?

  • Josh Feit

    The excerpt on the post says this:

    “Anne Martens with the Ballot Initiative Network lays out the progressive case on all seven of this year’s ballot measures.”

    We forget, though, that some folks just see the post and not the homepage—where that description was. We’ll add it in.

    Here is BIN’s “about” page.
    http://www.washingtonprogress.org/about.htm

  • Sarajane Siegfriedt

    Progressives care that the proposed income tax on the wealthiest 1% would add $2 billion a year for a trust fund for education and health care, addressing an education funding gap that the state is under court order to fix. No other funding source comes close.

    Progressives care that privatizing state liquor stores would cost the state at least $150 – 275 million for the next five years, but eliminating all state liquor taxes, as I-1105 does, costs $500 to $700 million. Assuming Tim Eyman’s gridlock initiative makes it impossible to pass new liquor taxes, and assuming that Democratic majority shrinks or disappears, no Republicans are going to step forward to help meet his 2/3 requirement to reinstate them.

    Progressives care, and everyone should care, that I-1105, and to a lesser extend I-1100, will the state to eliminate its Basic Health Plan for adults, Adult Day Health, child care for moms on welfare, low-income housing subsidies, supports for the Disability Lifeline and much more. Cities and counties are already cutting prosecutor and public safety line positions. We can’t afford I-1105.

    Progressives care that eliminating the sales tax on candy, soda and bottled water, as I-1107 does, not only costs the state over $100 million a year, but cities and counties another $83 million over five years. Worse, Ref. 52 that would pay for renovating pre-1970s school buildings, making them safer, healthier and more energy-efficient, depends on making the bottled-water tax permanent to fund its 30,000 stimulus jobs in the hardest-hit construction industry.

    Do progressives care that our economy begins to recover, that we maintain basic health services and that we maintain taxes on things that are optional and not life-sustaining? Heck, yes!