Today’s Herald features a local story entitled, “Mayor taking tougher stance with Port on waterfront”. It’s high time someone started considering the City’s interests in this fiasco!<br
I’m amazed at the response our Administration and Congress have taken toward news that the economy might be in trouble. Their idea is to write a bunch of checks to spur consumer spending. Tha
Isn’t it fair to ask the city council to establish and consistently follow a procedure for when public comment will be allowed? Is it good open government to say beforehand that no public commen
I took a little heat from one of our new councilmembers, who took issue with yesterday’s piece, “Continuing Parlor Tricks”. Therein, I used a bad choice of words, suggesting final action might
The Herald’s utility as an organ for community information is sometimes sorely tested - especially when things get controversial or confusing. Of course, it’s not that they don’t want citizens
Almost everyone of us has been significantly touched by the revolution of digitized information and the internet. And if you want to see what’s happening to electronic libraries, go to the Library of
When Environmental Impact Statements (EIS) are prepared, more than one development model might be evaluated. But a no-action alternative is always required as a baseline reference. Convention
A couple of days ago Sam Taylor had an article in the Bellingham Herald and subsequent blog on the subject of public campaign finance. The state house voted to allow communities to finance local elec
Yesterday we all received our ballots for the presidential primary election. We are expected to fill them out and mail them in by February 19. The instructions are complicated and confusing - as see
The economy has become the new crisis. Congress is working urgently to pass an economic stimulus package to renew confidence in the system. This allows a dialogue to open up around how economic grow
You were earlier given good reasons to reconsider the Planning Committee’s recommendation to expand the Bellingham UGA by Mr. Horowitz. Allow me to give you some more p
Now that Bellingham has adopted a resolution signaling its desire to work with the County on the size of its UGA, the County has a tremendous opportunity to ensure t
Tomorrow the Bellingham Library Board of Trustees meets and will probably produce a plan for a new grand downtown library building and a bond issue of between 20 to 60 million dollars to pay fo
After many years of discussion over growth management issues, it seems little progress has been made towards implementing the plan. Few seem to disagree that most of the growth needs to be higher den
Below is a link to an opinion piece in today’s Los Angeles Times. It is written by a liberal - obviously a Democrat - and one who has supported the Clintons all these years. I also have supported th
Once you put water and sewer lines in, growth is inevitable. To all those who are late coming to the party, opposition to the unlawful expansion of these services by water districts and our county gov
Although technically immigration is a national issue, there are implications for Whatcom County due to the heavy agricultural base and proximity to the border. The League of Women Voters hosted a for
Friday afternoon, Whatcom County Superior Court Judge Ira Uhrig refused to dismiss the challenge to a conditional use permit that would have allowed the extension of water services outside of the urba
Lynden’s sales tax revenue has been declining for a few years, but now it appears that the city is prepared to do something about it (by the way, Ferndale and Blaine are facing the same issue).
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."
