Times/News

Unfortunately, it seems that ... our elected officials do NOT represent "the people" once they are in office. Instead, they represent the government. While they are salivating over millions of new tax dollars, the people whose money generates those tax dollars are being ignored.

Jackie Murray in

the Coeur d'Alene Press

The system of private property is the most important guaranty of freedom, not only for those who own property, but scarcely less for those who do not.

Frederick A. von Hyack

Nobel Laureate of Economics

Author, "The Road to Serfdom"

Like a boxer hammering his opponent with a crushing left-right combination, "red" voters in "blue" King County - even in the darkly shaded 33rd and 34th legislative districts - can strike a blow at runaway government this year.

In so doing, they will demonstrate an unshakable confidence in the people, the men and women who make our state - and our country - work.

They will also send an unmistakable message to the MSM ("Main Stream Media") and the elites in government, labor and big business who are its constituency that the people no longer will tolerate business as usual.

This flurry of punches is represented by Initiatives 900 and 912. Meanwhile, Normandy Park is fighting an unfavorable growth-management decision.

If approved, I-900 will require the state auditor to conduct performance audits of state and local government agencies in addition to reviews of financial records.

It's on the November general election ballot only because too few Washington legislators were willing to grant this kind of accountability for those who pay the bills - the taxpayers - so the people will know if their money is being spent efficiently.

I-912, which even some opponents concede is likely to win by a sizable margin, targets for repeal the 9-cent increase in the state's gasoline tax.

Nevertheless, its opponents are doing their best to convince the people that if this 33 percent hike in the gas tax - opposed in 2004 by candidate Gregoire but signed into law this year by Gov. Gregoire - is repealed, Washington will teeter on the brink of economic ruin.

What the MSM and their ilk neglect to note is that only the gasoline tax would be repealed. Other taxes and fees that were part of this legislation will still generate additional billions for transportation projects.

No matter what claims are made by those who want us to pay higher gas taxes even as the price of gasoline skyrockets, many of those who pay the bill are profoundly concerned about how their money is being spent.

The bottom line for them is not a refusal to pay taxes for good projects to meet demonstrated needs; it is a demand by a long-silent majority for sound revenue management.

I-912 is also the voters' way of reminding their legislators just who works for whom. These lawmakers, after all, snubbed the people by declaring an emergency in passing the gas-tax hike when there was none, thus depriving voters of their constitutional right to a referendum on this issue.

Even as concerned voters are striking back at tax-and-spend policies with these initiatives, Normandy Park is appealing a recent decision of the Central Puget Sound Growth Management Hearing Board.

Normandy Park's action brings home to the Highline area the ongoing fight for property rights that has long been waged in East King County.

The three-member hearing board declared that Normandy Park can't allow less than four dwelling units per acre.

This flawed growth management process, if not overturned, will change the character of Normandy Park through an arbitrary decision about what urban densities should be for all cities in the Puget Sound region.

Government run amok like this, thus disregarding the people, is why I-900 and I-912 are on the ballot. And it's why there's a groundswell that soon may turn into a property rights revolt in both this county and the state.