http://vote.wa.gov/Elections/WEI/ResultsByCountyMeasure.aspx?ElectionID=26&RaceID=101797&CountyCode=%20&JurisdictionTypeID=481&RaceTypeCode=M&ViewMode=Results

Sound Transit (A Regional Transit Authority) Proposition No. 1 Mass Transit Expansion King, Pierce, Snohomish
County	Measure	Vote	Vote %
King   Last updated on 11/5  |  2:07 AM Return to top
	Approved	183,797	61.94 %
	Rejected	112,961	38.06 %
	Total Votes	296,758	100.00%
Pierce   Last updated on 11/5  |  9:54 AM Return to top
	Approved	49,671	50.98 %
	Rejected	47,767	49.02 %
	Total Votes	97,438	100.00%
Snohomish   Last updated on 11/4  |  8:05 PM Return to top
	Approved	51,119	55.44 %
	Rejected	41,086	44.56 %
	Total Votes	92,205	100.00%
Total   Last updated on 11/5  |  9:54 AM Return to top
	Approved	284,587	58.51 %
	Rejected	201,814	41.49 %
	Total Votes	486,401	100.00%

http://www.snoco.org/elections/results/ecurrent.htm Last Updated: November 4, 2008 8:02 PM Registration & Turnout 372,636 Voters Vote Count Percent MAIL IN Turnout 169,138 45.39% AVU Turnout 0 0.00% Total 169,138 45.39% SOUND TRANSIT

408/408 100.00%

	Vote Count	Percent
APPROVED	51,119	55.44%
REJECTED	41,086	44.56%
Total	92,205	100.00%

Here’s where to go to get info on how all 3 counties voted on Sound Transit’s Proposition 1 for 2008:

http://vote.wa.gov/Elections/WEI/ResultsMeasure.aspx?ElectionID=26&RaceID=101797

The first results in from King County are: http://your.kingcounty.gov/elections/200811/Respage17.aspx

General Election

KING COUNTY

11/4/2008 8:06:23 PM

Unofficial Cumulative

November 4, 2008

Page 17 of 19

SPECIAL PURPOSE DISTRICT

SOUND TRANSIT (A REGIONAL TRANSIT AUTHORITY)

Ballots Cast/Registered Voters:

101697

/

964635

10.54%

Poll Precincts Counted/Total Poll

0

/

2248

0.00%

Proposition No. 1 - Mass Transit Expansion

APPROVED

57765

61.88%

REJECTED

35586

38.12%

The Seattle Weekly reports that the Washington Poll has released new results from a poll stating:

“Surprisingly, two initiatives that were winning flipped—Eyman’s 985, which had been up two points, is now down fifteen, while Prop 1, sadly, has gone from up seven to down eight, with an increasing number of undecideds. It seems voters have been reading the M.F. Truth.”

Here’s where to find the poll: http://www.washingtonpoll.org/results.html

We’ll see - I wonder whether it will take days for that outcome to become apparent.

Washington State really needs to make the mail-in ballots due by election day.

Endorsement - Sound Transit Prop. 1 Sound Politics, WA - 11 hours ago ... that will serve a nugatory share of the commuting public. Vote YES if you work for Sound Transit or one of its contractors. Or if you're a gullible idiot.

We received an email from Ken & Barbara Miller today with a message which outlines their views on Sound Transit’s Proposition 1 (ST2) to expand light rail. They have sent this message far & wide, to citizens and elected officials.

The Millers are the couple that had their Tacoma property condemned by Sound Transit.

The Millers’ case is the one that prompted the state legislature to draft a new law to (at the very least) notify property owners by registered letter of an agency’s decision to acquire their property.

Sound Transit had buried the decision on their website.

John Ladenburg was Chair of Sound Transit at the time, and has defended Sound Transit’s actions even after the legislature took action to protect Washington property owners by creating a new law. Agencies must now at least send folks a registered letter outlining their decision.

The content of the Millers’ message raises a lot of questions about the use of eminent domain and the behavior of public agencies, and is worth considering, if you are a taxpayer or property owner in Washington State.

Click here for the Weekly Volcano’s article: “Ken and Barbara Miller have been forced to take a bad ride from Sound Transit”.

And HERE –Washington Policy Center’s “A False Sense of Security: The Potential for Eminent Domain Abuse in Washington”.

From Ken & Barbara Miller:

“We urge your no vote on the Sound Transit proposition on the 2008 ballot in the Puget Sound region.

The system is not a practical use of limited transportation funds in this area.  The agency has simply wasted many billions of dollars during the years of the agencies existence in the Puget Sound region!

We are very familiar with the organization known as Sound Transit and have had years of personal experience with those who are promoting the Sound Transit Scheme and all that goes with it.

Our personal experience has stemmed from the treatment received by us related to a long owned family business ownership in South Tacoma.  That property was taken from us needlessly since the agency had many choices for the siting of a parking lot which by the way won’t even be needed for passenger train service for many years to come.

Sound Transit took our property and the compensation finally provided, as we had worried, barely covered the almost 1/2 million dollar legal cost incurred.  Those cost for us were for the nearly 4 years of legal maneuvering by the agency that rose to astronomical levels from the date of initial action filed by Sound Transit against us in July of 2004 ultimately taking our ownership.

Sound Transit is by far the most devious agency in the entire State of Washington.

Sound Transit has little meaningful oversight of their operation whatsoever.  Current members of Sound Transit’s unelected board are hand selected as they have always been for the board positions held and are influenced very little by views of the voters.

It’d be easy to expound for a very long time about our Sound Transit experience now having gone on for many years and taking $100s of thousands of dollars of personal funds we no longer will have.

Agency officials took our land from us and we essentially received no compensation for our ownership .We will therefore not ever have any way to replace our 30 year ownership with another property anywhere let alone a location like we had.   Citizens need to be grateful for what they might have today - it could be taken away tomorrow.

In reality there is no protection whatsoever for those who are subjected to the eminent domain process.  The words “just compensation” are absolutely meaningless. Payment for properties taken are largely whatever the whim of the agency might be.   There is little that can be done in such circumstances.  Judges at all levels do little to protect citizens’ supposed constitutional guarantees.

In our case - at the trial for compensation added to the mix - is the fact that the jury process was severely flawed - the attorney representing us was grossly inadequate at trial - the pro-tem judge presided questionably - the 2 alternate jurors who shouldn’t even have been in final deliberation were left on the jury - one of the alternates jurors was a brother of a seasoned ranking Sound Transit official - that juror somehow became the jury foreman (there is more to the jury foreman tale) - Sound Transit simply overwhelmed the entire  proceeding.

Trial costs to Sound Transit were of no concern - Sound Transit had staff attorneys & legal staff present along with the attorneys & legal assistants from Graham & Dunn. Various outside consultants were on hand to testify. There was biased testimony from some in government  - (the details are just unending).

Sound Transit cares not a wit what happens to citizens who are having private property taken from them.   Sound Transit makes polished public statements about acquisitions of property with various assurances & express promises to help those who fall “victim” to eminent domain actions. Agency policies and assistance are described unendingly by the agency but All of
the mentioned assistance tends to be forgotten and ignored when takings actually take place.

Sound Transit is the most corrupt operation to ever exist in the State of Washington!

The agency appears unstoppable with legal firms, engineers, consultants and many others reaping huge rewards in the Sound Transit scheme.  Those who are recipients of the fabulous riches bestowed upon them by Sound Transit in turn donate large sums to elect officials & re-elect them retaining positions.   Those officials continue supporting ongoing Sound Transit efforts, which continue to plunder taxpayers, property owners and citizens in general.  It is a never-ending, continuous cycle that seems like its unstoppable.

Something must be done to change the un-American conduct exemplified by what takes place in Sound Transit activities in the region.  Little seems to be taking place to promote any sort of change in these ongoing activities that remain rampant in the State of Washington and elsewhere throughout the country.

Thanks,

Ken & Barbara Miller”

Here are our other posts related to this subject:

HERE –Washington Supreme Court Decsions Related to Transportation Agencies & New Candidates

HERE — Sound Transit’s Premature Demolition of 1910 “Hansen House” Precludes Historical Use

HERE – Sound Transit’s behavior in the Miller property condemnation case should give us all pause

Read Mark Fefer’s article HERE:

“Sound Transit, naturally, prefers a different figure. In the campaign brochure mailed to voters, the agency provided a table showing estimated light-rail ridership in 2030 if we build ST2 and if we don’t build ST2. What a surprise—ridership more than doubles if we build it! Which is comically beside the point.

Of course if we expand light rail and eliminate the buses that travel the same routes, the number of people on light rail will increase.

But by that logic we might as well rebuild the old Bubble-ator—the giant plexiglass sphere that used to carry people between floors at the Seattle Center Food Circus (now known as the Center House). I guarantee you that if we rebuild that thing, and get rid of the stairs, Bubble-ator ridership will climb by 100 percent. Or more!

It’s this kind of sophistry that has made me so cynical about the light-rail campaign and its supporters over the years. Obviously light-rail opponents have their agenda too. But they at least seem to have the mindset of accountants, not sales reps.

They’ve also been wise enough to point out the environmental impacts of light-rail construction—which are huge, and will take decades to offset—rather than to pretend that a 55-mile light-rail line can simply descend from green heaven and give us all an instantly feel-good future.

If I thought we’d get a better plan by turning this one down, it would be easy to vote no. But I seriously doubt we will. Politicians will always prefer a bright new futuristic machine to the miseries of congestion pricing, dedicated lanes, traffic-signal changes, and other inconvenient techniques. A shiny bauble is what we’ve been offered, and it seems a whole lot better than nothing. Does anyone doubt we need some kind of major mass-transit expansion? Then again, this one’s being funded by a regressive tax that exploits the poor. Oh, you undecided voters, you flakes in flyover country, you’ve made me one of your own.

Do you know many ballot issues you’ll be facing this November? Twelve: Three statewide initiatives, one regional vote on light rail and eight proposed amendments to the King County Charter (or constitution), some of which matter a lot. How should you vote? Glad you asked.

Seattle P-I Columnist Joel Connelly writes about concern over-taxing people to the point where they can’t afford to live in Seattle:

“Although devoured by the Seattle P-I computer when we switched e-mail systems, the message from an elderly Beacon Hill couple about their tax burdens remains embedded in my mind. They wrote about reaching a point where they can’t afford to stay in their modest home of 40 years, and how nobody in government seems the least bit interested in hearing about it.”

Glad to see that someone is figuring out that taxpayers from both major parties, Democrats & Republicans, as well as Independents,  have serious challenges in their efforts to save for retirement, pay for medical care, send their children to college, and take care of their parents, along with the relentless ASKS from local elected officials, cities, counties, and agencies. Joel’s response?

“In short, just say no.”

More and more people are figuring out that  elected officials, cities, & counties separate out what they think is palatable to the taxpayers- parks, libraries, fire and police services- so that they can happily spend on non-essentials in the general fund on items they know the public WOULD NOT vote to approve.

Then there is the question of: what are we paying for?

Crosscut’s Ted Van Dyk wrote October 21, 2008 about Sound Transit’s transfer of taxpayer funds for voter “education” services (click here):

“State Auditor Brian Sonntag is investigating payments of taxpayer funds by the City of Seattle (authorized by Mayor and Sound Transit Board Chair Greg Nickels) to the Sound Transit-supporting Transportation Choices Coalition, which is campaigning for the light rail proposal.”

Now, here’s the top story from King 5 news alleging: “Did Bellevue break the law in push to pass parks levy?”

“But one thing cities can’t do is use tax dollars to help convince voters to say yes. It’s against state law. Yet the KING 5 Investigators have uncovered evidence that Bellevue has done exactly that in its determination to get a new parks levy passed.”

See the King 5 story on the Bellevue parks bond at: http://www.king5.com/topstories/stories/NW_102008INV_bellevue_parks_levy_SW.13007a1d8.html

How does the cumulative number of tax proposals  relate to transportation planning in the Puget Sound region? Here are Joel’s thoughts:

“There’s one more reason for the natives to be restless — the current financial crisis. Could we not curb urban vision until financial markets are again stable, and we find out how bad the stable smells?

Since World War II ended the Great Depression, Seattle has been a middle-class city. We’ve avoided an affliction of the used-up portions of America, cities as domains of the very rich and the very poor.

The Beacon Hill couple’s message is somewhere in cyberspace. I would hate to see them ejected from a city they love.”

Click to see RTF’s previous posts on this subject HERE. And on future infrastructure ASKS: HERE.

Our public officials are coming back with palms open just two years after the people of Seattle were hit up for $365 million in the "Bridging the Gap" street and bridge repair levy.