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Would you like to pay a 6% tax (on top of sales tax) for the privilege of buying a gas powered lawn mower (or any other gas powered ’small-scale equipment’)? The cost of the bill to consumers in WA? $562,400,000 over the next 10 years.

I’m asking this question as someone who voluntarily purchases electrical power tools whenever it’s practical, mostly because I don’t like messing with gas and oil, but also because I like the lighter weight of corded electric lawn and garden power tools. The additional tax doesn’t bother me personally since I’ll probably never have to pay it. However, taxes in general bother me, except those that are necessary. This one isn’t.

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The ‘Little Seattle’ pipe-dream

In the November 2007 issue of Seattle Business Monthly Todd Matthews begins by describing the stagnated high-rise (and mid-rise) office space construction market in Tacoma. He finishes by saying of Tacoma:

“In fact, this regional hub, military center and major port is a study in contradictions.”

I agree with his assessment, because in it he points to not only the reason for the failures of attracting commerce to Tacoma, but also the solution.
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In governor Gregoire’s State of the State address on Tuesday night she mentioned that Forbes magazine ranked Washington the forth best state in the U.S. in which to do business. (h/t Business Examiner Daily and AWB)

“Forbes magazine, the flagship of American business media, recently highlighted how we are breaking down barriers by cutting red tape and paperwork, starting one-stop licensing, and providing small business help.”

“That’s just one of the reasons Forbes now ranks us among the five best states to do business in the country!”

However, this doesn’t tell the whole story.
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Last week I read this in the Business Examiner Daily:

“This discussion arrives, ironically, on the heels of a year-long effort led by the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber to create just such an environment using models popularized by economic pundit Richard Florida.”

Having never heard the name I decided to find out a little about this guy and his ‘models’. Since his ideas may be used in shaping our city government’s policies, it’s important to me to be an informed voter. I haven’t done thorough research (that would require reading his books and looking into his seminars) what I’m commenting on here is only the questions that came to mind as I looked into all of this.

Are his ideas based in sound scientific and statistical analysis of the subject?
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Losing Russell’s Corporate Offices: Impact to the downtown economy

There are several factors that I can see impacting downtown Tacoma. I’m not an economist nor do I know who Russell does business with, so this piece is not intended to be a thorough examination of the issue. What I’d like to do is to put the matter into a different perspective as an alternative to the ‘failure is not an option‘ mentality that seems to be prevalent in downtown Tacoma and city government.

Breaking the issue down:
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To understand the potential impact of Russell leaving we really have to break it up into two clearly separate parts:

• The impact of Russell employees pulling up stakes and moving away;
• The impact of the Russell corporate offices moving out of downtown Tacoma.

In this post we’ll look at the first issue:

Losing Russell Employees
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Update: Justice Department investigating Port of Seattle

In light of recent news about how the Port of Seattle is being run, I’m not optimistic about a move prompted by a legislator from Fall City (obviously an interested party) to merge the Port of Tacoma, the Port of Seattle and the Port of Everett.

The recent news I’m referring to is the release of an audit from the State Auditor’s Office in which he reports on serious spending problems by the Port of Seattle. Bear in mind that this audit only looks at construction management (the largest category in their budget, but not the only category). The bean counters in the auditor’s office came up with over $97 million in wasted spending. Here’s a link to a partial HTML version. It’s enough to get anyone’s blood boiling.
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You have to give him props for being consistent. Tim Eyman (and friends) are sponsoring a new initiative in 2008.

From Tim Eyman’s Web site (Voters Want More Choices):

“Not surprisingly, the focus of ReduceCongestion.org is reducing traffic congestion. The measure:

* Opens carpool lanes to everyone during non-peak hours (midday and evenings on weekdays and all day and all night on weekends — peak hours defined as Mon-Fri 6-9 am, 3-6 pm) — which reduces traffic congestion and increases traffic flow;

* Requires cities and counties to synchronize traffic lights on heavily-traveled arterials — which reduces traffic congestion and increases traffic flow; and

* Increases funding for emergency roadside assistance (to clear out accidents faster) — which reduces traffic congestion and increases traffic flow.”

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Consider this a formal endorsement for Fred Thompson for President in 2008.

The reasons that I’m endorsing Fred are simple:

• He’s established himself and proven himself as a conservative.
• He’s the only statesman in the race.
• He’s behaving himself like a grown-up.
• He has more foreign policy experience than anyone else (with the possible exception of McCain, which is based mainly on his military service, who isn’t really a conservative.)
• His ‘negatives’, when fully understood, are not of major concern to me.

More later.

Crosscut.com has an article about the unintended consequences of urban planning. Based on statistics released by Canada, the article contrasts the surveys of livability and the satisfaction of residents. The results aren’t really surprising for me.

“Cities that rank high in international surveys of livability, such as Vancouver and Victoria and Toronto, score poorly with their local residents, when ranked forsatisfication among residents.”

The reason it’s not surprising is that the ‘livability’ of a city is measured by things that outsiders look at, while satisfaction is measured by the people who actually live there.
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