Spokane7
65°
October 13, 2010 in Opinion
Editorial: Safety, jobs referendum a bad path to good end
From its inception, Referendum 52 has suffered from severe identity crisis.
The Legislature called it the “Jobs Bill” and claimed it would put people to work “in every corner of the state.”
The final bill report written by the lawmakers’ own staff described the ballot measure as a method for “funding construction of energy cost saving improvements to public facilities.”
Now, advocates leading the campaign for voter approval on Nov. 2 emphasize neither jobs nor energy efficiency, but rather student health and safety. Retrofitting that would occur with $505 million in bonds to be issued under Referendum 52, they note, would remove such contaminants as lead, mold, asbestos and CO2 from aging schools, including K-12, college and university buildings.
Even settling on an acceptable ballot title for so unfocused a measure took a judge’s intervention. Referendum 52 couldn’t be called a jobs bill because it specifies no goals or requirements for job creation, ruled Thurston County Superior Court Judge Carol Murphy. And, she said, the title must explain something the original neglected to mention: The measure would extend a sales tax on bottled water, now scheduled to expire in 2013.
Referendum 52 sets laudable goals. What’s not to like about job creation, energy savings and health and safety improvements? But those lofty promises lie at the end of a circuitous and questionable path.
If the measure passes, the state will be authorized to issue $505 million in bonds over the next five years. The money would go to educational institutions through a competitive grant process in which funded projects would have to achieve sufficient savings to pay for the costs.
That sounds hard to pass up, assuming the efficiency estimates are accurate, which they often aren’t. But it’s more complicated than that.
The general obligation bonds would be amortized over 29 years and the debt service during that period would cost the state $937 million. That’s a lot of bottled water, and that designated funding source would dry up if voters approve Initiative 1107, which would repeal the bottled water tax. If so, the repayments will have to come out of the already stressed state general fund.
In the end, state taxpayers would pay off the nearly $1 billion while the schools and colleges could divert their energy savings to cover other budget items. There’s no reason to believe any of the offsetting efficiencies would go back to taxpayers.
In the meantime, the state will be saddled for three decades with the repayment – not to mention more than $10 million it’s been estimated it will cost for various administrative activities during the five years that the bonds are being issued.
No one will quarrel with the various objectives that have been identified with this measure. But to justify such a long-term commitment of tax dollars, a more focused and clear-cut vehicle is needed.
To respond online, click on Opinion under the Topics menu at www.spokesman.com.
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hawken on October 13 at 7:24 a.m.
Well… who would have “thunk?”…
Another dishonest “shell game” on tax payers with Ref 52….
Plus, a judge had to intervene telling them that calling it a “Jobs Bill” was misrepresentation! Lies, lies, and more lies!
I’m telling you folks, we have far to many big government, tax and spend, liberal Dems in the house, senate and governor’s office.
Yes…. and Washington DC as well.
Vote Bumgardner and Rossi in November
mmspowaus on October 13 at 9:16 a.m.
Dump the incumbents who wrote this mooncalf legislation!
Tell your neighbors, tell your friends and family and vote them OUT.
The democrats have been in control for over thirty YEARS…and look at us.
We are over 3.5 BILLION dollars in debt….
Send the message that will echo all the way to Olympia and beyond.
We demand better government. This will also serve to tell the new legislators that if they don’t perform, we will vote them out as well.