Here are the good, the bad and the ugly

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Washington's three ballot initiatives can be characterized as the good, the bad and the ugly.

The good is I-937, which requires the state's largest 17 electricity providers to meet energy conservation goals and have 15 percent of their power supply generated from renewable resources by 2020.

Like all initiatives, I-937 takes a simplistic approach to a complex issue. But our nation's current energy policies are sending us down the road to ruin. Left to their own devices, utilities have not made the tough decisions we need to conserve power and switch to newer, less-polluting technologies.

I-937 is a small step in the right direction.

The bad is I-920, which would make Washington's already unfair tax system even more weighted toward the rich at the expense of everyone else.

A vote for I-920 would ax $184.5 million in revenue over the next two fiscal years, money earmarked for public schools and colleges.

With a heavy reliance on the sales tax, Washington's tax system is among the most regressive in the nation, with poorer people paying a far greater percentage of their income in taxes than wealthy people do. Only affecting one-half of 1 percent of Washington estates and specifically exempting farmland, the estate tax is a way for the state's wealthiest people to repay some of their debt for opportunities they've enjoyed by living in the Evergreen State.

The ugly is I-933, a disturbingly brazen effort to destroy Washington's already loose controls on property development. Forecast by the state to cost cities, counties and the state up to $9 billion in the next six years, I-933 would unleash a free-for-all of irresponsible subdividing, building, logging and mining.

It also would spur a nasty and costly rash of lawsuits, as Washington walks away from a regulatory system that works well for most people most of the time.