Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Seattle Times: Nickels seeks tax boost for affordable housing in Seattle

On Monday I sent the governor my plea for inclusion of SB 6116 in the special session that will be called after a cooling off period, and some negotiations between interested parties.
Great!
The next day, Tuesday, the SeattlePI.com runs a story on SB 6116 not passing.

Welcome to Wednesday, and this in the Seattle Times, Nickels seeks tax boost for affordable housing in Seattle.
Naturally, the natives are restless, even revolting (in all its definitions).

So, let's cut to the chase, shall we?

Dear Mr. Mayor,
Say something to relieve these poor souls of this burden, find a way to do the right thing, the right way, in public, for once on this bill and issue (low-income housing, what did you think I was referring to?).

Have a great day,
Mr Baker

Begin forwarded message:

From: Mr Baker <communicate.with.mike (at) gmail.com>
Date: April 29, 2009 11:30:50 AM PDT
To: "nick.licata (at) seattle.gov" <nick.licata (at) seattle.gov>
Cc: "Sen. Murray" <Murray.Edward (at) leg.wa.gov>, "Hunter, Rep. Ross" <hunter.ross (at) leg.wa.gov>, "byoung (at) Seattletimes.com" <byoung (at) Seattletimes.com>
Subject: Nickels seeks tax boost for affordable housing in Seattle

Mr. Licata,
I have a great idea for the City of Seattle. How about the mayor and city council make a public effort to get Ed Murray's SB 6116 into the Special Session as a way to fund afordable housing for Seattle and the entire county.
This would not be subject to a city or county vote. And, raising property-tax levy right now would get crushed at the polls.

Ref:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2009144690_webhousinglevy29m.html


Thanks for your time,
Mike Baker
Seattle
Sent from my iPhone

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Give 'em hell Mike!

Mr Baker said...

I then emailed a link to this story and the message to Mr. Mayor.

Do the right thing.

Anonymous said...

mr b - did you see the gov on tvw today? doesnt' look promising for 6116 to make it into a special session. she is even giving up her own pet legislation that suffered the same fate (not brought to the floor for a vote)

Mr Baker said...

As long as I can get buried with my pets. . .

Low-income housing is not a pet project in this economy.
While they at it, swipe the convention center cash and start on that housing today.

Anonymous said...

actually, her pet project was some sort of energy issue, not low income house. my point, though, was that she has made it clear that the scope of any session is going to be really narrow.

Mr Baker said...

yes, I know, I just ignored your point just like I am ignoring her point (no disrespect).
She does not want every special interest group and citizen pounding her with requests.
That is fair.

The tax-light school districts want my tax money, btw, and I kind of have a problem giving away tax money to republicans that are blocking a bill for low-income housing, make no mistake, the giving county is King County. I'll guess that King County dems will want something in return.
Otherwise, Ritzville can pull themselves up by Ronald Regan's bootstraps.

Republicans forced this by endless floor debate in the house on the bill they say they do not want to have a special session over, though they were almost crying while on the floor in debate.

Anonymous said...

This is an admittedly naiive, and dumb question but I'm going to ask it anyway: What is Governor Gregoire's official stance on Key Arena now? It pretty much goes without saying since she got re-elected that it is of little concern to her. Of course it's the budget--Duh.

Mr Baker said...

Today's Seattle Times has the mayor asking for the fees commnity centers use, I wonder if any of them are heritage centers, part of 6116 thatdid not pass.

Oh, back to your question, she has not offered a current position. Special Session details may be known tomorrow, maybe.