The budget mavens take hold at Seattle Schools

Read this interesting story about the Seattle School Board. You'll find the new language of big-company management being spoken by the new boardmembers, all of whom promised to bring that perspective to the troubled district. The four new members, Peter Maier (a consumer lawyer), Steve Sundquist (formerly with Russell Investment Group), Sherry Carr (finance manager at Boeing), and Harium Martin-Morris (also a Boeing executive), all ran on the same basic platform: it takes experience with big business to handle a huge budget like the School District's. This experienced team was cast in the role by an informal coalition of school activists, with some helpful guidance from the Mayor's office.

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From Jim Crow to John Lovick

Snohomish County's new elected sheriff is African-American, which is worth noting, hopefully, only for a moment.

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Port in a storm of its own making

The state Auditor's new report on the Port of Seattle finds rats in the rat's nest of local governments.

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Beyond Proposition 1: A new consensus is emerging

A group headed by Norm Rice and John Stanton is gathering allies for a more rational and practical approach to the region's transit needs. Both supporters and opponents of the failed Proposition 1 are part of the effort.

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Sizing up the Proposition 1 vote, precinct by precinct

Voters were resisting a plan that was Seattle-centric and premised on the expectation that most people would become affluent professionals working in dense urban settings. This skeptic of rail transit also suggests how to recraft the proposal.

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Richard Conlin is the likely next president of the Seattle City Council

It's the post he thought he had in 2006. This time, with no active rivals, it's likely his.

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The political legacy of Turk the Magic Genie

He's the latest of a long line of characters who have run for office. Turk lost up in Snohomish County. But some of the Northwest's clown princes have actually gotten elected. And some of them have served the people very well. No joke.

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Tax-reduction redux

Once again, Washington lawmakers are about to make law from flaw, correcting what Tim Eyman got wrong but embracing what voters clearly want: a crimp on taxation.

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Is Tim Eyman ripe for the Oklahoma treatment?

Given the rivalry with Oklahoma City over the Sonics, we're not too likely to emulate politics from Oklahoma, but here's one political ploy that may be worth borrowing, particularly now that Tim Eyman, the initiative king, is riding high again. Attention John Ladenburg, Pierce County Executive who is gearing up to challenge Rob McKenna for Attorney General in 2008. Here's an Oklahoma six-shooter.

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The unseemly scramble for freed-up taxes, post-Proposition 1

Defeat Proposition 1, as happened last week, and you leave a lot of taxing authority on the table. Not surprisingly, local governments are pouncing. Their greediness perhaps got out of hand this week, with the Metropolitan King County Council launching a county ferry system, jacking up bus fares, and wading into programs to rebuild levees and help mental health. In what's called "Tax Hike Tuesday," the Port of Seattle also got into the frenzy, approving a $78 million property tax levy, in a kind of premature celebration of the likely departure of its one anti-tax commissioner, Alec Fisken, who appears to have been defeated. Grab it now, was the mantra.

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Gov to Seattle: You dithered away your chance

That was fast. Just a week after the voters nixed Proposition 1 for roads and transit, Gov. Chris Gregoire announces she's taking control of 520 bridge planning. Seattle is about to pay a price for its dithering -- loss of local control. A similar theme was sounded in Bill Virgin's column in today's P-I, suggesting a divestiture of authority for Sound Transit, handing over the controls for Sounder Commuter Rail to Amtrak and bringing on some private transit services. Is the corpse about to be carved up?

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The yearning for a strongman

Seattle's post-election blues rekindle a desire for bigger government, run by a big boss. But we've done very well without either, thank you.

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Why voters expelled the Seattle School Board class of 2003

Riding in on overreaction to a financial crisis, these reformers were so wrapped up in their various political agendas that they lost sight of the basics of educating kids. They paid a price in this week's election.

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Let's hear it for election 'malaise'

Not everyone is glum about the outcome of Tuesday's election, but you would hardly know that from some of the analysis. John Arthur Wilson is right, I believe, that there is no sign of a large populist uprising out there, but I wouldn't, as he says, say the election reflected "disillusionment." You know, it is possible that a "no" vote on a bad ballot measure, like Prop. 1, is a positive thing.

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How to fund transportation without raising taxes

David Brewster makes a good catch on the "private entities" reference in Gov. Christine Gregoire's comments on life after Prop 1. In talking with both House Speaker Frank Chopp and King County Executive Ron Sims, they have both assured that they are opposed to privatization of road projects — and Chopp was the hero of anti-privatizers on the new Tacoma Narrows Bridge project. But many regional transportation wonks aren't convinced Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) are a bad idea.

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Not anger, disillusionment: deciphering the voters

Polls indicate a surge of resignation about government following the Hurricane Katrina non-performance. That, more than populist rage, seemed to be driving the recent election. To fix it, better to start outperforming expectations.

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Ballot measures update: I-960 and R-4204

After a day on post-election clean-up, I can provide a couple of updates on two of Washington's statewide ballot measures.

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The last election day

When I walked out of my old polling place Tuesday morning, Nov. 6, I felt depressed. Not just because there were so many complex ballot issues (all those constitutional amendments with virtually no public discussion) or because, for the first time that I could remember, I didn't see Bonnie Shride, a longtime poll worker who died earlier this year. No, as I walked out I realized that I had just participated in my last real election day. I started going to the polls with my mother when I was a little kid. I’ve always valued the ritual. I know people say we don’t have time for these little rituals any more. Give me a break. This is a society that has elevated Super Bowl Sunday to a national event, a society in which adolescents rent limos for high school dances. We have plenty of rituals. Voting just happens to be one on which we no longer want to waste our time.

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The people didn't really speak, given the low turnout

Here's a bracing corrective from reader Patrick Higgins, arguing that "the people" didn't really speak, as we pundits like to say, since the large majority of voters stayed silent. Mr. Higgins, you have the microphone:

Before we all get too far along with our pronouncements about what "the voters" of Washington have just said, let's be honest about the numbers when we're assessing election results and trying to determine what "the people" want.

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Post Prop 1: Let the small ideas bloom

One immediate reaction to the defeat of Proposition 1, the roads and transit package the voters thumped yesterday, is to fall back to The Portland Way. Build lots of small fixes, as opportunities arise, rather than scaring the voters with a mega-package. It may be a little Rube Goldberg-like, but it gradually gets the job done. Like what? Well, here are a set of ideas sent along by a reader, Greg Coe. See what you think, and send along your own pet (small) projects.

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