This Sound Transit commercial is set to be released this week. For those not resident in Washington State, Sound Transit is the quasi-public agency which builds and runs the Western Washington bus and rail transit systems that run from Snohomish to Pierce Counties on the West side of the Cascade Mountains. Their head honcho, who was King County Executive for a number of years, was appointed by the Sound Transit Board, ALL of whom he appointed. His current salary is $600,000 per year.
This commercial primarily promotes the Link Light Rail system, which is years behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget. Just recently, they announced that, in spite of the fact that taxpayers from north Snohomish County to Tacoma in Pierce County have been paying property taxes, car tab taxes, AND sales taxes for the Link Light Rail, they are so behind that they are studying simply abandoning destinations that the public was promised (Ballard, West Seattle, Tacoma). Needless to say, the public in those areas is not very happy about receiving no benefit for the thousands of dollars they are paying in taxes, and will continue to pay forever (ST does NOT intend to stop collecting taxes from anyone already paying them).
My sincere thanks to local radio host Ari Hoffman of KVI in Seattle for the following X post thread. Regardless of all the duplication that will appear, I am going to post every segment of his thread for people’s edification. Just be aware that this commercial truly shows what the elites of Washington think of the peons who pay their salaries. The commercial for Light Rail is wondrous in its attempt to get Washington citizens to abandon their individual vehicles and ride the light rail, that doesn’t go where they are going, takes three times as long, and exposes them to drug users and homeless riders who pay no fares (one of the big reasons that ST is over budget is that they refuse to enforce fare collection, and only 61% of riders pay).
Just FYI, last year my car tabs for my 2022 car were over $800. 70% of that fee was Sound Transit taxes.
Washington State government has been literally driving taxpaying corporations out of the state, because they see them as just huge tax piggy banks. Business taxes and regulations are heavily onerous here, including the Gross Receipts Business and Occupation Tax that ALL businesses pay, even ones who have no profits. Rates differ by business area, and it’s very easy for the government to more heavily tax non-favored businesses, like advertising and petroleum refiners and sellers. Get on the wrong side of government, have your B&O tax rate increased. The newly-passed “Millionaires Tax”, meant to hit businesses like Starbucks and Amazon, are causing those companies to leave. With the big payers gone, everyone else gets the brunt.
On this blog, I have been publishing sordid tales of government overreach, legislative hatred of the public, and the refusal of the Governor and Legislature to meet with the local press and citizen journalists. We the public are just the source of their funds to favor illegal immigrants over citizens; street vagrants and drug-users (“homeless”) over taxpayers; and public transit over individuals driving their own vehicles. They have wanted us out of our cars for decades, and they are bringing the hammer down in more ways than one. Our roads are some of the poorest-maintained of any state, our bridges are in bad shape, and we have some of the highest gas prices in America. Our legislators are on the record stating that our opinions don’t matter to them, and we are second-class citizens in our own state. They say to us: “Shut up, peons, and PAY YOUR TAXES”.
We Citizens hear them loud and clear.
Calling-all-RushBabes 