Category Archives: Issaquah

Trump’s environmental choices prompt questions locally

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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.

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.

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ST3 failing 51.69% to 48.31% in Sammamish after first week of vote count

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Analysis of one week’s worth of voting results from Sammamish shows Sound Transit 3 losing here by a 51.69% to 48.30% margin.

Vote counting continues to Nov. 29, when the election results are certified.

Sound Transit 3 is the $54bn mass transit plan that includes $27bn in tax hikes over 25 years.

Sammamish gets reduced bus service out of the plan and a prospective park and ride at the north end.

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Sound Transit 3: Vote No

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Sammamish voters should Vote No on the $54 billion plan for Sound Transit 3. This is a $27 billion tax plan over 25 years.

For this, Sammamish gets degraded bus service and prospectively a new park-and-ride on the North End. The average Sammamish household will pay an estimated $1,100 a year in Sound Transit taxes. With about 20,000 households, this is $550 million over the 25 years. For a park-and-ride. And worse service.

Even more notable–and alarming: no project outlined in ST3 is guaranteed. Not a single one. Voters could approve the $27bn in new taxes and none of these projects is a sure bet. This is why The Comment says the park-and-ride for Sammamish is only “prospective.”

One thing that is not prospective but which is guaranteed: if ST3 passes, citizens in its taxing district, including Sammamish, will have no say at all in future tax packages. ST3 takes away voter approval for future taxes and puts it squarely in an unelected board appointed by elected politicians. Unlike the tax packages for ST1 and ST2, there is no sunset for ST3 taxes.

This is a bad deal in so many ways.

The Comment’s position on ST3 is well known to long-time readers of this column, so this recommendation comes as no surprise.

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Shirking their civic duty

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The Sammamish Review and Issaquah/Sammamish Reporter shirk their civic and Fourth Estate duties.

Neither makes endorsements in elections.

The Review used to, but stopped last year in advance of the Sammamish City Council races. The Reporter never has.

There was no explanation from The Review for its reversal. The Reporter said people can make their own decisions.

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ST3 opposition is the right move by Sammamish

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Valderrama

Deputy Mayor Ramiro Valderrama led the opposition to Sound Transit 3.

The Sammamish City Council’s vote Tuesday night to oppose Sound Transit 3 was the right choice for the City. The vote was 5-2.

ST3 takes bus service away from Sammamish but offers a park-and-ride for the north end, an obvious contradiction. Even the PNR is not a firm offer.

Taxpayers would fork out between $500m-$550m in taxes over 25 years for this.

Issaquah and Redmond get light rail extensions. But the Issaquah light rail goes to downtown Bellevue and south Kirkland, not Seattle. The rail station is projected to be at roughly I-90 and SR900, behind the QFC grocery store (presumably in the I-90 median.) It needs to go to Issaquah Highlands.

If Sammamish residents want to commute to Seattle by light rail, the choices would be to go to the QFC terminal, either by car or bus, then to Bellevue and connect to Seattle; or go to the potential north Park and Ride (if it happens), then to Redmond, through downtown Bellevue and on to Seattle.

Fat chance.

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