Columnist Paul Harvey always added, “And now, for the rest of the story.”
A multitude of changes have occurred over the past few years in our County because of economic conditions and decisions made to provide for our community’s needs. With a proven record of serving our country in Vietnam as a decorated combat infantryman, eight years in the Legislature, nearly four years as your County Commissioner, the responsibility of a business owner providing for 35 families, being a husband, father, grandpa and great grandpa; I know where real quality of life is and how to keep this County a great place to live and raise our families.
Here are some real facts. In many cases of the past, the County super-sized some of the mandates that came down to the County from the State, adding unnecessary requirements and expenditures. That was wrong.
As your State Representative I worked to keep mandates off local governments but Clark County was one of those that added to these requirements from the State and we are now paying for it.
For example, when the State mandated we have the position of county Fire Marshall, the County came up with all kinds of regulations, many more than needed or required by the State.
When the State required safe roads, the County saw them one better and unnecessarily limited access and placed barriers. (Been to Costco on Andresen lately?) Thirty to fifty years of training County employees to regulate for safety, health, buildings and more has created outrageously expensive and intrusive regulations and we are stuck paying for it all.
The last three and a half years have been spent training employees to strive for innovation, to find more efficient operations and not to replace or buy anything that can still be used effectively; all the while dealing with a depressed economy that hurts us all here. We have demanded those working for us to do more, with less, and do it better, faster and cheaper.
This Board of Commissioners has balanced two supplemental budgets and one biennial budget with a miniscule increase of property taxes, while reducing fees, and while dealing with sixteen collective bargaining unions. We have negotiated wage freezes and reduced your burden for healthcare premiums by requiring public employees to pay more for their insurance.
Recognizing that small business will lead us out of the horrific economy we’re all in, we’ve held earnest discussions with many in the small business arena, asking them which rules and programs are overly intrusive and what we can do to help. We‘ve also visited the financial institutions to hear of their hang-ups. In the past, the Economic Development organizations ignored local businesses and thought all jobs came from across the big pond and that was a huge mistake. We have been making those changes by listening and learning from those surviving businesses.
Let me make it clear: I have been in complete opposition to replacing the I-5 Bridge, total opposition to light rail and absolute, unshakable opposition to the lifelong, multi-thousand dollar tolls that 65,000 or more commuters and their families will have to pay for a bridge that will do nothing to address congestion or freight mobility except to put this county into lifelong debt.
I have advocated additional bridges for years. We cannot depend on those who can’t even get the bridge height right to make these decisions for us. This boondoggle of a project to bring light rail in here and build a new I-5 bridge that by Washington Department of Transportation’s own definition won’t remove congestion has hemorrhaged our tax dollars enough and needs to stop now. I have been involved with the I-5 corridor as a Legislator since 1998 and have watched this agenda driven project move forward on the backs of the taxpayers. The proposed toll will cost the average person going to work approx. $1300 per year and will continue under the new tolling laws forever. Maintenance will continue at an ever-increasing cost, coming out the pockets of families and the small businesses in the area who depend on that income.
