Today’s Winners: Shadowy political entities.
Today’s Senate vote on the DISCLOSE act is good news for corporations with an agenda—those that want to fund political causes but don’t want anyone to know about it. The legislation, which was blocked by a Republican filibuster, would have forced the top funders of non-profits that make political advertisements to I.D. themselves in the ad.
So far this election cycle, the amount spent on anti-Democratic messages has dwarfed anti-Republican money by almost 5 to 1. So, it’s also good news for GOP strategists like Karl Rove and ex-Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman, who are using the corporate money to finance that Republican messaging, moving toward the election 2010.
And scary news for Democrats like Sen. Patty Murray, who continues to fall victim to the shadowy-sourced Republican ads.
Today’s Loser: South King County, which will bear the brunt of the cuts Sound Transit CEO Joni Earl proposed today.
We’ll have more on this afternoon’s lengthy Sound Transit board meeting tomorrow, but the upshot is this: In order to address a 15-year revenue shortfall of $3.9 billion, all five of Sound Transit’s geographic “subareas” are facing cuts to service that was promised as part of 2008′s Sound Transit 2 package. However, of all the subareas, South King County will be hit the hardest. That area will lose about 31 percent of its funding over the next 15 years.
As a result, Earl recommended that the agency accelerate the construction of a light rail extension from SeaTac Airport to S. 200th St. in Seatac, but that it suspend work on an additional extension to S. 272nd Street in Federal Way. Additionally, Earl recommended slowing work on projects to improve access to Sounder commuter rail stations in South King County, and to stop work on plans to extend South King Sounder station platforms, which would have allowed Sound Transit to run longer trains.
“I’m very concerned about the cuts that are being proposed here,” said Sound Transit board member Julia Patterson, who represents South King County on the King County Council. “I think we need to be mindful of equity issues. I think that those areas of our region that … are hit the hardest are the areas that are taking the biggest cuts.”
Under a policy known as subarea equity, money raised in a particular subarea has to be spent in that subarea.
