Is Washington State really a democracy?

[barbaraann]

As a resident of Washington State, I'm starting to wonder. Our state and local governments seem to exist only to serve the billionaires, millionaires, and large corporations. Boeing recently received BILLIONS of dollars in tax breaks and promises of all sorts of other government giveaways based only on the HOPE that they would build the 7E7 here. The document that covers the deal is about an inch thick and the state official who worked on it is now going to work for Boeing. We have a tax incentive program for R&D that goes to corporations but the actual names of the corporations are SECRET because, according to the state, the information has to be confidential to protect their businesses.

Our wealthiest residents buy waterfront homes and then proceed to buy all of the homes around them. They live separate, privileged lives and do not have to deal with the basic services we ordinary residents have to deal with--rotten public schools, just for one example.

Even though there is great private wealth in Washington State, our public services are starved for resources. Gates, Allen, etc. donate money for such things as the hideous Experience Music Project or a charter schools initiative that are only for their own pocketbooks or pleasure.

Oh, I could go on forever, but I'm just wondering if any other WA residents think our government is the worst in the country as far as meeting the needs of ordinary people. We have two beautiful, brand spanking new stadiums but no money to repair plumbing in schools with dangerous levels of lead in the drinking water. It just doesn't seem like democracy to me. It seems like taxation without representation.

[Snow]

1. Sounds like the rest of the country to me......

LA'a not so bad, but in Nebraska, the shameless whoring the local power structure would do to lure industry, any industry to nebraska was painful to watch. "Sure, we'll pay you to come here, you can dump all the pollutants you want, pay everyone minumum wage with no benefits, we'll give you reverse taxes, just pleeeese come here." I never could figure out what that was about. Usually the businesse ended up building elsewhere, but when they did build in nebraska, hooo, boy, we got some real winners. You should see the International Beef Packers plant in Lexington, Nebraska.

[fortyfeetunder]

2. We're not unique

read the local rags in other states and you will find some behemoth corporate entity who commands taxpayer dollars....

Good example is Mississipi....schools and social welfare are in the bottom 5 of the country consistently but they have all those State of the art automotive manufacturing plants.

[barbaraann]

13. I think what's unique is the enormity of our private wealth here.

I believe we have the highest percentage of billionaires in the US. The private wealth is almost beyond grasping.

[Zomby Woof]

3. I said goodbye to WA for many of those reasons

I used to be proud to call it home for many years, but it was an unrequited love, especially the last 2 years there.

Tim Eyman hijacked the government, with a willingly ignorant populace that assented to his smarmy frat-boy manipulative faux-populist agenda. The governor is a good man, but weak, the 2 U.S. Senators are the spineless variety of Democrats (Cantwell is a product of that high-tech privileged environment), the weather is too fucking gloomy, it's too fucking expensive, it's too crowded, traffic and transportation are a bust, and all that natural beauty has been compromised by suburban sprawl and congestion.

When my car crossed the state border last summer, I couldn't step on the pedal hard enough. A sense of relief swept over me.

Washington state is a shell of what it once was, and IS every bit as troubled as you described.

[Andy_Stephenson]

5. Well I am stirring things up....

We must take our country back...one state at a time if need be.

[Pobeka]

7. Good for you!

There are still many redeeming qualities here in Washington. I don't think we have a monopoly on greed. My daughters are lucky enough to attend a school where discrimination is not built into the culture -- we have children of Afro-American,Japanese,Native-American,Chinese,Korean descent at our bus-stop!

Fight the battles in front of you, if you have the means and the motivation I say!

[Kitsune]

10. Ugh, Tim Eyeman...

If ever there was a human being who needs a serious beatdown, it is he. His idiot OMFG TAXS BAD initiatives... *shudder* We pass those, and then we pass initiatives calling for ceilings on class sizes. Uhm...hello? If you don't pay taxes, you're going to get shitty service. And people wonder why I-5 is one big pothole...

Washington does have issues, yeah, but I'm not quite ready to bail on 'er just yet, for the simple reason that every time I go anywhere else in this country but the Puget Sound region I'm reminded of why I still live here; I can't stand it anywhere else.

Didn't Tim Eyeman get indicted for embezzlement or something? Using initiative campaign donations to buy himself a boat or somesuch?

[Comadreja]

11. Yep

Eyeman ripped off his supporters, but he's got some deep pocket out-of-state GOP paymasters.

[barbaraann]

14. I haven't been here too long, but I do have a feeling for what

it used to be like and know you are right about WA being a shell of what it once was. :(

[Andy_Stephenson]

4. You think the Boeing thing is bad..check out the Secretary of States offic

We need to be filing Ethics complaints and raising a ruckus. There is a revolving door between industry and government service in our state.

[barbaraann]

15. You are so right. It's too bad the fight against Bush takes so

much energy that there isn't much left to fight here at home.

[donsu]

6. we have Jeb squatting in the panhandle of Fl.

his criminal stain flows down the entire state and tries to nudge Cuba

[barbaraann]

16. Good point.

Hmmm....maybe Florida is worse.

[azrak]

8. Of course it is

But less than 45% of the population votes. Bill Gates and Tim Allen were both educated in Washington public schools. If you think we are bad move to another state, Idaho? 86% Repuke Oregon? You can't pump your own gas. I have friends in both places. I personally think our biggest problem in this state is we have been Californicated. I am a life long Washington resident with a short time teaching in North Carolina and there isn't enough disk space for me to tell you how BAD it is there.

[barbaraann]

12. Gates and Allen went to a private school.

And regarding the percentage of people who vote, I keep asking: Why don't the food pantries register people to vote?

Also, Microsoft isn't importing very many Californians any more; they are outsourcing to other countries and hiring foreign nationals.

And I might just move to Idaho or Oregon. :-)

[Comadreja]

9. WA Basic Health

I came here as a refugee from Texas, lured by the state's Basic Health program. Thanks to eyeman and Bush, my out-of-pocket expenses have doubled, but it's still a better deal than most states offer.