Last night State Senator Don Benton, R, Clark County was on the show (here) to explain how State Senator Pridemore, D, Clark County is attempting to pass a special law to supposedly put to a “vote of the [hand selected] people” (whom the C Trans Board gets to select) a doubling of the C Trans portion of the sales tax. This is in order to support light rail. In case you failed to notice, light rail doesn’t go to Clark County. Yet. They’re setting the table, of course, for the new light rail bridge they refer to as, “Columbia River Crossing,” or CRC. (check back here for the interview with Don Benton)
Benton has on the docket another bill which would allow the ENTIRE CLARK COUNTY residents to vote on the CRC before it can be built.
The exchange with Benton on KPAM 860 resulted in this letter sent by a 5th Listener to Senator Pridemore.
It’s most excellent. Take inspiration and write your own to Senator Pridemore. Here is his contact info:
By Phone: Olympia Office: (360) 786-7696, District Voicemail: (360) 571-2732 E-mail:
mailto:pridemore.craig@leg.wa.gov Sen. Craig Pridemore PO Box 40449 Olympia, WA 98504-0449 Staff Contact: Alison Mielke, Legislative Assistant (360) 786-7696 or
mielke.alison@leg.wa.gov
2-19-09
18:25
Senator Pridemore,
I have at this moment been listening to “The Victoria Taft Show” on KPAM radio. Senator Don Benton was her guest. Senator Benton was discussing the details of your SB 5540. Frankly, I am outraged that you would attempt to fleece your constituents by the mean-spirited, subterranean method of Gerrymandering the voting district so as to ease the passage of light rail into Clark County.
About two years ago, the issue of light rail extending from Portland into Clark County was settled by an open vote, with, as Senator Benton explained, 37K votes against, and only 18K votes in favor of the measure. What is there that you do not understand about “The will of the People”?
For shame on you for making such an outrageous proposal. The Gerrymandering you propose would result in a very small number of people in Clark County deciding to double the Sales Tax rate for all County residents, and the cost of bringing light rail into Clark County, as Senator Benton further explained, will be so expensive that there would be no money available to build any new roads in Clark County for the next one hundred years. Furthermore, light rail only replaces one-third of one freeway lane, and as Senator Benton also pointed out, light rail has been proven nationwide to remove only about 2% of motor vehicle traffic from the highways where it operates.
Above all, we the residents of Clark County do not want the crime and the trash that is shown to us every day in the media to frequent light rail in search of trouble.
Remove SB5540 from the docket. It is dangerous, expensive, unnecessary, and violates the already-expressed will of the people. Above all, it demonstrates to us that you will use any and every ugly, nefarious, underhanded, scurrilous method necessary, regardless of the ultimate cost to us, to shove something down our throats that we have already said we do not want, simply to satisfy your political ambitions and the illegal, usurious, greedy desires of your Party to usurp our freedom, our rights, and our will.
Ditto for SB6900, and especially for that communistic piece of trash called SB5687.
Rest assured, that whether or not any of the above Bills pass, I will be extremely active to see you unseated forever from your office as the State Senator from District 49.