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Washington State Liquor Control Board – Burning Money

With all the talk about making liquor sales private and them losing money, Washington State Liquor Control Board is now building more luxurious liquor stores.  45% larger than the normal liquor stores they also include in  televisions (broadcasting messages) and a very nice wine tasting bar.  The new liquor stores are very much luxurious.  The stores also feature twice as much liquor which is about 2000 options. 

Don’t believe us?  Got check it out today it is located at:
4100 S.W. Alaska Street

Here is the problem with the Washington State Liquor Control Board and the business they are in. First, they continue to lose money which makes sense because every business the Government tries to run – loses money. That is a given. Second problem with the Washington State Liquor Control Board is that they should only be in control of safety issues and regulations only. They shouldn’t be in the retail business. We need to liquidate the Government’s involvement in a lot of things and anything they do that loses money, over spends, and could be managed and ran better privately should be done as fast as possible. There is no reason to continue on this path. It’s a complete failure not to privatize the retail portion of liquor distribution.

Bridging the Gap Levy & The South Seattle Community College

The day the city council passed an emergency $20.00 car tab fee and the county council voted to put the $60.00 car tab fee on this falls election I emailed every Seattle council member. I got one reply from Sally Bagshaws aide. It shows they just steam roll ahead, spend every dime they can get their hands on whether times are good or bad. I am copying the only reply I had explaining to me how all of this work they are doing had nothing to do with raising the car tab fee. I am not faulting the little aide who’s job is to keep us “complainers” at bay. My point is and was at this point in time McGinn is saying they have no funds for basic maintenance of roads and the schools are even more flat broke. I pointed out that they are spending millions right here in Georgetown (see the Georgetown construction here) that could or should have been put off a long way in the future if they really were strapped for money. They are seriously digging up Corson Ave. I mean digging a couple feet deep, hauling the concrete away and now bringing more concrete in. I mean really rebuilding this road that did not have a pot hole or anything else wrong with it. There is pictures on this website of some of the work.

Friday they brought in a huge excavator and are doing major digging directly across from my house at the South Seattle Community College. The email from the city council is copied below. The Bridging the Gap Levy was passed for the purpose of street maintenance and other emergency work, not to tear up a whole perfectly good streets and leave other things that really need done.

Now all of a sudden they raised the car tab fee to save transit. Buses are running half empty. Drivers are paid the 3rd highest in the nation. They are constantly building big transit stations and on and on. This mess here in Georgetown will not improve driver, pedestrian and bicycle safety one iota.  I read in the paper that the average legislative aide has a salary of $53,400 for a full time worker. Never in your dreams will you find out how many aides we are paying salary’s to like that. These little aides would never in this lifetime understand the problem because they are part of the problem. They are overpaid compared to the private sector and get health insurance  etc, all paid for by our car tab fees, and the Bridging The Gap Levy.

We can’t keep throwing money down the drain.  Both of these projects were not required.  We have roads that are in bigger trouble and that is what the Bridging The Gap Levy was for.  It was voted on to be spent on projects without even a pot hole just to keep workers busy.  If the roads don’t need repair and we have workers sitting around for months then it’s time to get rid of some workers so the balance of supply and demand equals.  It’s the same with any business right?  Times are tough for everyone but that doesn’t mean we just throw money away on “projects”.   

Below is the first email I sent to all the Seattle Councilmembers:

Shame on you guys. You are not short of money at all. You take in billions for roads. You get revenue from buses, lite rail, sounder. $8.00 an hour for parking. Revenue from tabs and registration. 10% from everything we buy. Drivers license, traffic cams and speeding tickets and on and on and on. but its not enough. The transportation dept is totally out of control. Look what they pay their top dog. They are not doing basic maintenance like they should when things are tight like  you say they are. They have re-did East Marginal way, and Ellis Ave and now have Corson Ave shut down, this is the second month. It did not even have a pot hole. Now they fenced in the school across the street from my house and are digging up the beautiful landscaping they just spent a fortune on. I know you will say, the city kicks in such and such, the state kicks in such and such, then thanks to Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell and Jim McDermott you can always go to the Feds. Shame, you know that it comes out of productive workers pockets. All the same pocket. You think we don’t know but we do. If you are so broke why are you(or some other big spender) doing all this work in Georgetown? The state(we the people) owns the property across the street but you will say it’s the schools money. Attaching a picture I took this morning showing a huge digger in there. The place was beautiful and if the city is broke why are you allowing this to happen. You can see the barrels on Corson. Our street has been shut down for a month and they just changed the signs to say it will be closed until 9/17/11. No parking. I cant even have a cab stop for me, or have anyone stop to deliver anything. You know you cant afford to build the tunnel now too, but you will start it no matter what. Where is Tim Eyman when we need him. He will surface soon I hope. 

Lilly

It appears Holly Krejci answers all the emails when you email all the Seattle Councilmembers in one email. Here is her response:

Hi Lilly,

Thanks for the note.  The City of Seattle is investing in Georgetown roads via Bridging the Gap Levy dollars.  Corson, Ellis, East Marginal South and Airport Way South are being either repaired, restriped and/or repaved as a effort to improve arterial streets throughout the city.  These investments will improve driver, pedestrian and bicycle safety in neighborhoods.  For more information about the Georgetown projects, go to http://www.seattle.gov/transportation/pave_georgetown_streets.htm.

 With regard to the photo you attached, South Seattle Community College has had plans for quite some time to build a new building on that parcel.  It appears that they have started construction on it.  You should also be aware that the greenspace directly in front of your home is slated to become a parking lot.  If you have questions about either of these projects, you should contact Joe Hauth at the college – 206-764-5838 or joseph.hauth@seattlecolleges.edu

Best,
Holly

Well that was no help except for explaining another wasted program and more wasted money.  I figure I better email this Joe Hauth guy at the College and see what going on.  Maybe he can help provide more information.

Hello:

I was surprised to see a huge project being started the same day the city said they have no funds and slapped another car tab fee  but of course they are tearing up Corson when it doesn’t even have a pot hole. Anyway, I would much appreciate it if you could tell me who is paying for the work. I understand the field that you spent a fortune landscaping will be a parking lot. Who pays the property taxes on that property? They have raised my property tax so much I may not be able to even stay in my home so I am beginning to question a few things. If the city, county and state are broke, how can you be doing such an expensive project? Please enlighten me. The city council said to ask you.

Thank you so much,

Lilly

And here is the reply email below:

George Frost asked me to contact you in order to answer your questions about the funding source, scope and timing of the work on Corson Ave S. I am the communications contact for the project and work with the contractor on a daily basis. Your email asks a number of questions and I think it would be more fruitful if I could answer them for you in person or via a phone call. Please call me at your convenience to set up a meeting.
Sincerely
Bob Derry – CCO
Georgetown Streets Paving Program
206-250-2865

My goodness how many people do I need to contact before getting an answer? Who makes the decisions around here and does anyone actually answer any questions about their own projects anymore? I am unfortunately not able to hear well enough to talk over the phone or in person so I left it alone at this point. I wanted it in writing anyway. But he seems to be caught up by my questions that have no logical answer. They are so used to telling us “we are helping you”, “it doesn’t cost you a thing” that when they get painted into a corner they do the wise thing,  just wont answer.

Seattle DSHS…Hurting Or Helping Society

The Seattle Times had a picture of Gerry Ketchum, a Work First program supervision looking at the empty cubicles in his Belltown offices. He looks so lonesome. Maybe they can tape in some music like, “Are you lonesome tonight or something”. He says its like a ghost town and he just stops and wonders where all these people went. Well for sure they went on unemployment for the next year or so and they are not hurting. Obviously the world is still turning and the sun still keeps coming up so we will survive . He should realize DSHS has gotten so big that no one is accountable to anyone and it’s time to revamp the whole DSHS Agency.

I do not have a dog in this fight. I have never applied for welfare or food stamps. But when you look at people who you know that are on welfare and in subsidized housing it hurts. They are doing way better than I am in my old house and I worked all my life. That’s upside down to my way of thinking. You look at the gangs of young people hanging out everyplace and they certainly are not looking for a job. Who would hire them with their hat on sideways, pants on the floor, and ring in their nose. I live right beside a “welfare house” apartment. The residents are drunks and druggies and fairly young. They should not get a “stay at home check” so they can party 24/7. It’s a terrible dead end life but Seattle DSHS is making it possible. If these people had to get up every morning and go to a cafeteria type place for their breakfast, they would be way better off. Serve them up a good one. Make them help with clean up. Then they can go where ever they want until lunch and can come back and eat again. Have a dormitory type place where they can go sleep. The only requirement is they must be drug and alcohol free. You don’t help these addicts by giving them money. You do not feed their children. You simply are enablers.

The State has laid off 13% of their workers and said that was 4,700 job cuts. If that is the case then they had 36,153 workers. When you consider that only a few of these workers actually do something like repair offices or haul something the big majority just sits and decided who to hand taxpayers money to.  From many many stories the Seattle DSHS Agency is not following through on cases, and handing out money that can’t be accounted for, kids are being left in danger and more and more people are given checks and subsidized housing, with almost no questions asked. Look at the latest nightmare that DSHS created and now taxpayers will have to pay the damages, not the workers that caused it. (Read Here) It’s a horrible story about DSHS placing children in bad environments.  Wouldn’t you think the safest and most common sense approach would be a another family member (Grandma or Aunt Mary in Florida).  I know DSHS hears some terrible stories but every family has a good citizen and/or a couple happily married who would accept their own blood.   Did you know DSHS gets paid per investigated complaint and/or action?  Take note, DSHS is a messy Agency that needs a lot of work and as long as they are paid for complaints and doing action they will never care about the outcome.  It’s will always be in the best interest to find fault and spend our money on worthless programs that do nothing to correct society problems.

Free Lunch Families Get More Perks With Comcast Internet Essentials

Low Income Internet Seattle - Internet Essentials Program

Yes, Virginia, there really is a Santa Claus, but his name has been changed to “government handouts”. Children who qualify for a free lunch already were insured a free college education even though their grade point average was just above flunking. It had to be a 2.0, which would not give any kid much incentive to study hard because you could get that grade without opening your book and going with a multiple-choice answer. You would have a 50/50 chance of guessing right. That sure would not make you college material. That is not what this article is about.

They get new perks now. They would qualify for Internet Essentials. They would only pay $9.95 for Internet service, and could buy a new computer for $149.99. WOW. That is really a deal and all your have to do to qualify is (I would have to guess here) be on welfare. The state or federal government does not have a money tree. They take it away from the private sector workers, skim off a huge amount for administering these programs to give away all this STUFF. You and I will see our Comcast bills go up. Sometime this mess must stop but the country is broke and still giving things to families who may be drug users, drunks, or whatever and encouraging them to stay dependant on government hand outs. It’s a real vote getter. I am not against a kid getting a free lunch. Don’t want to see anyone hungry, but there has to be an incentive to try to better yourself, not just demand more “services” from the government.

Here is the PDF about the program:

Update: This program is still active through the city or housing authority for those who need it. This is a nationwide program and as of 2019, comcast stated it is being used in about 7 million households. The real question, however, is it really helping or hurting?

Here are more resources if you need help getting online and you’re low income:

Here are some avenues through which low-income residents in Seattle could potentially access discounted internet:

  1. National Programs:
    • Comcast Internet Essentials: Comcast offers Internet Essentials, which is a low-cost home internet service for qualifying households. This program provides affordable internet for eligible low-income households at reduced prices.
    • AT&T Access: AT&T also offers a similar low-cost internet service for qualifying low-income households.
  2. Local Programs and Initiatives:
    • The City of Seattle might have specific programs or partnerships with local ISPs to provide discounted internet services for its residents. It’s recommended to check with the city’s official website or the local public library for up-to-date information.
  3. Non-Profit Organizations:
    • Some non-profit organizations might offer programs or grants for low-income individuals or families to get discounted internet services.
  4. Federal Assistance:
    • The Emergency Broadband Benefit (EBB) program, which was introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic, provides a temporary discount on monthly broadband bills for qualifying low-income households. While this might be a temporary measure, it’s worthwhile for residents to check if they qualify.

For the most current information and to see if new programs have been introduced after 2022, it’s a good idea for residents to check directly with the City of Seattle’s official resources, local ISPs, and the FCC’s website.

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Stick A Fork In The Super Committee – It’s Over

Like most things in Washington – they fail.  The 12 member group “Super Commitee” formed after the debt ceiling crisis to greatly reduce our debt by November has officially failed.  In fact, you can stick a fork in this “Super Committee” because it’s over.  The failure wasn’t due to it’s members (both Republicans & Democrats) but due to bribes kickbacks the members are now getting to only enhance their own political agendas.  The problem is a procedural issue where this type of behavior is still allowed in our system. 

If you don’t know the theory it’s simple actually.  The group members sit around a table to discuss debt reduction and cutting programs for spending.  Companies and special groups in the public gives these members cash/contributions to help them with their campaigns and by doing so the political member supports them (by not messing with them – or cutting them).  In short, they “buy influence” in the group.  I call this corruption while others argue it’s legal. 

These kickbacks must stop after people are elected.  I understand running for a position and getting elected is expensive.  You’ll need private funding for this and your political views to the public represent the groups that are investing in you getting elected.  The public votes and if they like what you’re saying and the groups you represent then you get elected (that is fair).  Once elected, however, you represent the people and shouldn’t be able to accept bribes kickbacks anymore.  How can we have elected officials in office who with just a little bit of money will change their mind about topics and/or vote accordingly by persuasion.  It’s not about the people’s wants or needs then. 

The “buy influence” corruption must end after someone is elected.  It’s unfair to the public and these officials belong in jail.

 

Georgetown Corson Ave Construction Update

Seattle Construction Area Photo

The road construction project continues in Georgetown on Corson Ave.  A project that could have been pushed a few years is now more tax money wasted.  With all the public transit in trouble, you would think we could have transitioned some of this money (perhaps a million) to help people get to work and continue to ride the bus.   I guess paving a road is more important then keeping people working and getting them to work on time (without cutting more routes).  Not only are we wasting money for this paving project that could have been used better elsewhere we are also wasting additional police resources who will be sitting around (playing on the Internet in their cars) at the construction project to help watch flaggers direct vehicles around the area. 

The Georgetown Corson Ave construction project is about to start.
There goes Corson Ave, Seattle
They paved it but still dirty
It’s time for more cleanup and starting on the other side of the street.

To continue on this topic, Georgetown’s Corson Ave was shut down for several months while they made it “more safe”.   Above and below, you’ll see some of the construction photos. We have several more now available.  This has to be one of the worst road jobs I have ever seen.  They didn’t even pave the road!  Now it is has a bunch of patches all over the place. 

Here are the final photos of the Corson Ave Street construction project. 2011

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UW Football Coach Is the Highest Paid State Worker At $1.98 million

Well that pretty well tells us where there priorities are. Steve Sarkisian, football coach at the UW was paid $1.98 million last year (gross pay).  The second highest paid state worker was the UW Basketball coach, Lorenzo Romar at $1.14 million. Think about that for a minute. These were numbers published in the Times which were obtained from the Office of Financial Management . I am going to just stop with those two to get the point across that I am trying to make. The webs of lies, and twists and turns and bass-ackwards talk when talking budgets or expenses just makes your heads roll. I have to ask some questions here. Who signs those two bozo’s pay checks? If they are classed as state workers, then they must work for the state. If the state signs their paycheck how can they say they are not paid by the taxpayers or tuition? If the athletic program generates its own money it should not even be a part of the University. They should have a sports university, completely separate. They should build their own buildings, purchase land for their stadiums and sports fields. They will screw this up somehow by saying they are giving free tuition to the sports players. But look at the reputation the sports players have. The UW recruits these so called jocks, they do not care if they can read or write. They help them cheat to get in and when the recruits feel so important they drive drunk or rape underage girls or even go on to be a pimp Romar would try to cover it up. It’s plain sick.

I know you might not agree with me, but I think sports have gone completely haywire. It is not the most important profession in the world. It pays the best, and ruins more young lives than it helps. The kids are so intent on a sports scholarship they don’t bother to learn how to make any other living. When they fail to get to be a player they don’t know how to do anything. You would think a public university where parents pay high tuition so their children can be doctors, lawyers, teachers, engineers would be rewarded more than a kid that can kick a ball or do hoops. It is not fair to taxpayers or hard working parents paying tuition to be paying so much overhead. Geez it’s bad enough to pay the UW President Young an obscene salary and furnish him a mansion but his pay is peanuts compared to the Coach’s.

Hope this article generates enough interest or anger to make others ask some questions about the expenses at the UW. Do they say out of one side of their mouth their pay does not come from taxes or tuitions but still factor it in when the Office of Financial Management figures their costs? Sports figures have ruined the lives of so many. They get more money than they will ever need and just go crazy. There are not many Jim Zorns and Steve Largents who can actually handle money. Now on a different spin that is not about money. If you look at the necessities of life. What sort of people do we need? I will list a few in the order of what I call importance. First and foremost you need a farmer to grow your food. You need a man that can dig wells or figure out how to get water to you. You need engineers and architects to build houses and bridges etc. I could go on and fill pages of what kind of people we really need to make our life even livable but you know what, a football or basketball coach is the least needed thing in the scheme of things. They can generate a lot of money and maybe feel important but when push comes to shove I would have to make this comparison. In the garden of life everything has a purpose. Honey bees might sting but they need to pollinate the blossoms where as I cannot figure out in the scheme of things the slug contributes anything to make our lives better. I put the sports and their obscene money making schemes right with the slugs. I think sports are great if they really are sports and entertainment, but these are just money making schemes for billionaire sports owners. I don’t think anyone that is called a state employee should be making more than $200,000 a year tops. This article will not agree with a lot of peoples thinking but hope that if their house falls down in a flood or earthquake they have a coach’s phone number handy to call and not call 911 for police or fireman. LLL

Queen Anne Farmers Market Today (Thursday)

It’s Thursday today, and honestly it’s pretty slow.  Well pack up the kids or take a late lunch break to visit the Queen Anne Farmers Market.  The Queen Anne Farmers Market opens at 3pm and goes until 7:30pm tonight.  The market offers a wide selection of food, plants, and entertainment to keep you busy.  More importantly you’ll experience a little sunshine, breath some fresh air, and get out of the house.  The Queen Anne Farmers Market features about 40 farmers/vendors selling their freshes supply available.  Make a trip to 1 Crockett St in Seattle and experience some of the freshes food in town.

Queen Anne Farmers Market
Queen Anne Farmers Market

Transportation Funding Package

Hold on to your wallets. Seattle has created a “Seattle Transportation Benefit District”. This will consist of 9 Seattle city council members. One thing they are tinkering with is raising car tab fees. It will be divided up as follows.

  • an $80 vehicle license fee, with:
  • 50% of the revenue would go to transit
  • 30% of the revenue would go to street maintenance
  • 20% of the revenue would go to pedestrian, neighborhood, and bicycle improvements.

This message came out in “The Reader” that Mayor Mike McGinn sends out which is very informative but which I seldom agree with. The Mayor is blaming the recession AND the Eyman initiatives for all the money problems. He says he has no money for basic street maintenance. How can that be? Look all over the city at the projects going on. These are not basic maintenance. They have torn up my whole street and re-doing it when it did not even have a pot hole. They must have a list or plan to tear up a street every few years or who knows if they even have a plan. But the money the transportation department squanders would pave a yellow brick road most anyplace. Instead it just raises our property tax, car license fees and anything else they can sqeak through without a vote. Look what the city council did with the tunnel that no one wants, no one can afford, and will be so dangerous only a fool would go in it. Not sure if they are putting a bike lane in it for the Mayor or not.

When you count on the government to fix the problem that the government created, it will never work. I am not against future planning, I am not against rebuilding things that need rebuilding but we have a bunch of buffo’s that seem to just sit and make a plan and then tell us “worker bees” we are going to get a new road, a new bridge, a new tunnel and it wont cost us a thing. The city will pay and X amount, the state will kick in a few millions, then the good old Federal Government will surely write a check for the rest. They have not told most of the sheep out here that the money tree is really their own pocket. They count on you being so busy with going to work, and your family that you just pay your taxes and stay quiet. BUT right now people have lost their jobs, taxes are maxed but the planners are still planning away.

We need 9 council members that think like Tim Eyman and Elizabeth Campbell and there would be some changes in the city’s spending. The transit drivers are the third highest paid in the nation. That should change. The salaries they pay the people in the transportation department are obscene. Top dog at DOT has a salary of $600,000 and picture what the whole department squanders away. The more they raise the taxes the more raises and bonuses they will get. They muddle it by saying that appropriations committee set the funds aside, or they have to spend millions of city/state dollars to get federal funds but you never hear a thing about government efficiency.

“The Reader” said the Mayor and City Council members want to hear from you. Please contact them. Their addresses are on our website for your convenience here. If enough people start to complain someone will hear about it. Right now any letter I have written to the council members or my congressman had resulted in a boiler plate answer, one size fits all. I could have written a letter saying the “neighbors hamster peed on my lawn”, or tell them to put aside their “funding packages until the recession is over’, and I would have gotten the same answer from them. I want to give credit where credit is due. Mayor McGinn sends a boiler plate letter first but you do get a personal e mail that mentions what you had written him about.

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