“Voters have forgiven us for past troubles:” Sound Transit CEO. That’s the headline of a story on MyNorthwest.com.
The CEO is reacting to the latest vote in favor of Sound Transit 3, the $54bn project, $27bn tax plan over the next 25 years.
The CEO needs to take another look.
Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt has been nominated to head the Environmental Protection Agency. Pruitt has a record of fighting EPA regulations. The EPA adopts regs for clean water and protecting threatened/endangered species–like the Kokanee salmon in Lake Sammamish.
Scott Pruitt for director of the Environmental Protection Agency.
Ryan Zinke for Secretary of Interior.
Rick Perry for Secretary of, umm, ahh, Oops.
These are President-Elect Donald Trump’s choices for environmental departments. In the case of Perry, the Department of Energy, the agency he wanted close but for which he famously forgot and said Oops in his 2012 run for president. Energy has no small impact on the environment.
Pruitt, the attorney general of Oklahoma, fought EPA regulations for years. Zinke, a first-term Congressman from Montana, received just s 3% rating from the League of Conservation Voters.
And now they will be in charge of clean water and endangered/threatened species regulations.
There are direct, local implications.
Sammamish residents narrowly defeated Sound Transit 3. The greater Klahanie area supported the $54bn mass transit program by votes although seven of the 13 precincts opposed it. Two precincts in the far northeast part of the City that are not colored are outside the Sound Transit taxing district. Click on the image to enlarge, then click on it again. Map and analysis by Sammamish Comment.
Sammamish voters defeated Sound Transit 3, an analysis of the final precinct vote results revealed. This mirrors the trend at the mid-point in the vote counting.
ST3 was narrowly defeated, 51.2% to 48.8%, about the same as the mid-point analysis, in final precinct data released by King County Elections Nov. 30.
The great Klahanie area supported ST3 51.2% to 48.8%, although the results were split: six of the 13 precincts voted against ST3.
The portion of Sammamish in the 41st Legislative District (the southern half of the City, delineated by SE8th St.) rejected ST3 by 53% to 47%. The portion in the 45th LD (the northern half) rejected ST3 by 50.36% to 49.63%, with just 46 votes between the Approve and Reject tallies.
Sammamish Comment 