Every once in awhile, a well-meaning elected official steps on a political banana peel. His embarrassment grows when the politician realizes he had placed the peel in his own path.
Steve Stuart stepped on a banana peel at Skyview High School last week. Kevin Van De Wege stepped on a banana peel in Olympia recently. In both instances, the wounds were self-inflicted. We suspect both men have learned from their accidents and forged ahead on more solid footing.
Stuart was on a roll at Skyview as the Clark County commissioner delivered his State of the County address before a large crowd. But as he discussed funding for a new Interstate 5 Bridge, suddenly he stepped on this peel: “I will fight for the state of Oregon to allow (Clark County) residents — who already pay more than $150 million a year in income taxes to the state — to write the tolls off on their Oregon income tax. It’s the least Oregon can do … .”
And those Oregon legislators will do this out of the goodness of their hearts, Steve? You gotta be kidding! Here are two cold, hard facts about the Oregon state income tax that many Washingtonians don’t understand:
Yes, its cruel and unusual for Oregon to make Washington residents who work in Oregon pay that state’s income tax. It’s downright abominable. How dare they!
There’s little hope this inequity will ever change. Cash-strapped legislators in Salem aren’t about to cut off a revenue stream that is extracted from people who never vote in Oregon elections. As Stuart noted, it’s more than $150 million. On the eastern side of the state, Idaho snatches more than $18 million from Washingtonians. These are twin manifestations of a scheme that beguiles many politicians: taking money from people who are not your constituents.
Stuart knows this, and if he has learned from the banana peel, he will focus on other methods of local funding for the bridge.
If he needs a reminder, listen to Oregon House Speaker Dave Hunt, who calls Stuart’s suggestion a “ridiculous proposal” that “is DOA.” In an e-mail to The Columbian, Hunt stated: “As both our states grapple with several financial issues, we need to be careful not to pit neighbor versus neighbor. That’s what (Stuart’s) proposal does, by attempting to force Oregon into giving up a revenue stream that will force more economic distress on our citizens while providing a tax break for Washington citizens.”
To his credit, Stuart is smart to look for some kind of break for frequent commuters when it comes to bridge tolls. That break could come from employers in Oregon who want to compete for Washington’s workers, or it could come through some kind of electronic wizardry of tolling technology. But it’s certainly not going to come from the Oregon Legislature.
As for Van De Wege’s self-placed banana peel, it was an absurd bill the Democratic legislator from Sequim introduced to repeal the Columbia River Gorge Compact. That would save the state about $300,000 over 18 months and shut down the Columbia River Gorge Commission, which receives funding from both states.
Few acts of government have been more successful than the Gorge Compact ratified in 1987, during the Reagan Administration. And few agencies offer more valuable protection than the Gorge Commission. Van De Wege admitted in a recent Columbian story: “I think this bill is not going to be signed the way it is.” Then why introduce it? “What it may finally look like is for us to recommend that the governor do some negotiating” over the terms of the compact. That’s a far cry from the official Bill Analysis of HB 3132: “Eliminates the Columbia River Gorge Compact.”
Steve, Kevin, get back up, brush yourselves off and go back to work. And watch your step.
