On this supposedly quiet Sunday afternoon in Bellingham, the world beyond us is in severe turmoil. Some of the world’s biggest bankers are in frantic meetings in New York all afternoon working with t
Mayor Dan Pike sat down recently with Sheri Ward, the editor of our local Whatcom Independent weekly newspaper. She had a list of very topical questions regarding his first three months as our
In 1969, Scott Stodola and Kendall Frazier founded the Bellingham Cooperative School. The School was housed in a variety of locations, including Fairhaven College and the golf course club hous
We will soon see our county government’s true colors flying. Will it be appropriate growth management, or them managing to get around it? Just how far will they push sprawl?
This week’s issue of the Whatcom Independent has a front page story on the Bellingham Police targeting WWU students who park their cars overnight - or technically 24 hours - at the curb on city
I recently met with local and state officers from the Washington State Grange. These remarkably grass-rooted, family-oriented organizations can be formed with as few as 13 members. At least f
A few decades ago two governments pursued vastly different strategies to manage transportation. Seattle invested huge money in new highways, spending billions of dollars. Vancouver, BC invested in a
You don’t need to be Nostradamus to make this prediction: Bellingham city officials are about to waste precious staff time and taxpayer resources preparing an environmental impact statem
It looks like another legislative session and another missed opportunity to deal with transportation problems in the state, especially around Seattle. Both political parties seem to ignore some of th
Yesterday the city council tabled the library bond issue. In its present form, it is probably permanently gone. The project was a concoction from former mayor Mark and was intended to provide a park
Unlike graffiti, it’s easy to avoid the unclaimed posts on what serves as the Herald’s exchange of political thought, and even more anonymous sites passing themselves off as political commentary. Tha
TBL, or Triple Bottom Line, is a nifty concept that says we want to be evaluating and measuring projects on the basis not only of economic, but environmental and societal values as well. TBL i
In the ongoing discussion over land use, no one has brought up what potential impact the financing of city and county government has in the land use decision making process. The fact is that tax reve
With all due reverence for Messrs Jefferson and Reagan, a government that governs less is not always a government that governs best. Consider Ecology’s performance the last twenty some years. And loo
What are we thinking? Or do we think at all? I drove to Portland this weekend to visit my daughter. Now I admit to being one of those hyper-mileage nuts. I own a hybrid and averaged 47 mpg. That’
After an extended hiatus, the battle over Chuckanut Ridge has begun to heat up again. In one corner: landowners Horizon Bank and David Edelstein. In the other corner: thousands of local resid
Karen Frakes is legal advisor to the Whatcom County Council,.though I will leave it to you to decide who she really represents. She’s a deputy in Dave McEachran’s office.
I have to laugh, although in no way does it mean I am laughing at the state and county Republican Party, who I do respect and support. At a national level, however, the Republican Party has lost all
Allowing residential development on farmlands is turning straw into gold. Like most land use decisions, it is distributing wealth. So it is very much of interest who is granted this power, and how t
Writer's notes: The candidates for State Representative in the 40th District Position 1 are: Dusty Gulleson (prefers Republican Party,) Chuck Carrell (prefers Republican Party,) Doug Revelle (prefers Happiness Party,) Mike Newman (prefers Republican Party,) Kristine Lytton (prefers Democratic Party,) Tom Pasma (prefers Democratic Party,) Thomas Boucher (prefers Democratic Party,) Justin Van Dyk (prefers Democratic Party,) and Donna R. Miller (prefers Republican Party.)
What follows are the two responses to questions I submitted to Chuck last Mon, Aug 2.
Why should I vote for you?
"I’m running this year because the Legislature and Governor continued their out of control spending habits despite our troubled economy, and we need to stop it.
The only way it will stop is to start electing strong leadership to the Legislature that can make the hard choices that will be needed.
I will not support any new taxes unless they will completely eliminate an existing tax and make the amount less overall to the people they affect.
I think people are taxed to their limit right now and the real long term solution is to have the state and local governments cut their spending and get back to the essential functions of what state government is supposed to do.
I will not accept money from, or be a representative for, any PAC or special interest group. That’s important when figuring out where to trim at least $3 billion dollars from our state’s budget next session.
When making cuts, these candidates will feel obligated to keep unnecessary programs due to the financial aid they received during their campaigns. The problem was highlighted this year, and electing those types of candidates will only bring the same issue to the next Legislative session."
What is important to you?
"The most important thing to me this next Legislative session is getting our fiscal house in order.
We need to simplify the tax structure and then get an accurate assessment of what the state budget will be.
Then we need to REALISTICALLY balance the budget. This means that we fund our most important things such as education and public safety first and then continue down until everything is funded or there is no more state money left.
When the state budget is down to zero then we stop funding programs. No matter how badly we want to fund a program, if the state budget is spent then they will have to get their funding someplace else besides state government.
Even within our top priorities we need to look at how to consolidate these agencies and programs to make them more efficient. We also need to look at reducing the middle management in these agencies and what I term “inner bureaucracies.”
Years of these types of hiring practices by state and local government has created an enormous drain on our resources and is not sustainable. Nor can we rely on Federal grants like we did this year to balance the budget."
