I never thought I'd see the day when Bill Fromhold lied: Local Dems again push for C-Tran ability to levy tax for light rail

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Local democrats seem particularly keen on jamming an unwanted, unneeded and massive waste of money and increased costs down our collective throats known as the I-5 Bridge Replacement/Loot rail project.

It's bad enough that they desperately want to be able to engage in their political pay backs and pay offs without asking us if we want this huge pile of crap dumped in our laps.

But our leftist legislators are so in the tank that they refuse to take any action to ASK us if WE want this garbage. And we all know why.

Bill Fromhold is a former legislator from the Soviet Socialist Republic of the 49th District. This district will act as the first stage terminus of this public policy abortion known as loot rail. Bill has had a long career in government, and left the legislature in part to administer a fund designed to, effectively, increase teaching competency in this state.

He was screwed out of that gig by the WEA, so he needed another job. Ultimately, he's landed a gig as chief liar for the Columbian River Crossing Rip off, the group who has gone through 10's of millions of taxpayer provided dollars to produce a pre-ordained outcome study that I could have provided for $20.

Now we find ourselves on a particularly despicable action on the part of Craig Pridemore, best known for cutting wholly-owned tribal/David Barnett subsidiary Commissioner Steve Stuart a huge brake back in 2005 by modifying campaign contribution legislation he was working on so that his buddy Stuart could keep massive contributions by local developers.

This is the C-Trans redux, based on the strategy those scum employed when they passed their last vote. That strategy included skillful gerrymandering that cut out as many as 51,000 voters from north and east county so that they could turn their crushing tax increase defeat at the polls into a huge victory.

What they're doing effectively amounts to drawing their boundaries around every retail center of any size within the county, so those centers would have to charge the tax increase, even to the tens of thousands who were not allowed to have any say in the vote itself.

Local legislative opposition to this iteration of stealing from the people is in large part based on the ongoing C-Trans theft that has taken place for years, and will take place in the future.

This history is easily proven. It was an entirely legal scam where democracy took a bullet in the most rotten and unjustifiable way.

Fromhold, when confronted is quoted in the Pravda Columbian thusly:

"I think we just take a different point of view in terms of the fairness issue," he said. "It's more fair in that the users of the high-capacity transit are going to be the taxpayers of the high-capacity transit."

Yeah. And the sign over the door at concentration camps used to say "Arbeit Macht Frei." (Work makes you free.)

Forcing people to pay for something when they haven't been allowed the right to vote on the project at hand is, perhaps, the LEAST fair outcome possible. And to believe or expect that C-Trans or it's minions would suddenly give a damn about "fairness" after how badly they've been screwing us for years is to believe the sun comes up in the South.

On the surface, Mr. Fromhold's response makes sense. But only on the surface.

The fact is this: no one has drawn any lines to show us as what the outlines of this extortion is going to look like. But you can rest assured that it will include every Fred Meyers; every Safeway, the Vancouver Mall, every WalMart, every QFC, every Albertsons, Every Best Buy, every Costco... every... every.

So the FACT is this: like the C-Trans scam that took place before, tens of thousands of us will not be allowed to vote. But NONE of us will be able to avoid paying the tax increase to cover this unwanted and unneeded project, because ALL of the retail centers will be magically included within the gerrymandered borders of this scam... REGARDLESS of whether or not we are "users of high-capacity transit."

Notice that Fromhold even avoids the term "light rail?" Remember the leftist outrage at Dino Rossi's decision to use the term "GOP" instead of "Republican?"

Same thing.

So, in that respect, Fromhold has agreement with the massive and unlistened-to opposition: We DO have a "different view" about "fairness." Fromhold and the people he works for absolutely don't give a damn about fairness, while the rest of us actually do.

Remember, people: there is no lie the proponents of this colossal and unimaginable waste of money will not tell to make it happen. They don't give a damn about fairness or anything else we want as long as they can get their economic black hole of a project through, regardless of our opposition.

If successful, this will be a stain on the very idea of democracy here locally that will last for decades. This despicable and inexcusable conduct is just that. And for that, there is no possibly acceptable excuse.


Local Dems again push for C-Tran ability to levy tax for light rail
But 18th District Republicans vow to fight House and Senate bill

Thursday, February 19 6:46 p.m.

BY KATHIE DURBIN
COLUMBIAN STAFF WRITER

Democratic lawmakers from Vancouver are pushing again this year for legislation that would allow C-Tran to create a subdistrict to fund operation of light rail in Clark County.

But Republican Reps. Jaime Herrera and Ed Orcutt, who represent the 18th District, have vowed to fight the measure, saying it would require some residents of north and east Clark County to pay higher taxes where they work and shop.

Bills in both chambers would allow C-Tran to ask voters living within the subdistrict to tax themselves to pay for operation of a light rail line connecting to Tri-Met's system in the Portland metropolitan area. Voter approval would be required before either a system plan or a finance plan could be implemented.

Sen. Craig Pridemore is the prime sponsor of Senate Bill 5540, which had a hearing in the Senate Transportation Committee on Feb. 9. Rep. Jim Moeller is the lead sponsor of House Bill 1677, which is scheduled for action by the House Transportation Committee Thursday.

The ability to create a High-Capacity Transportation Corridor Area is key to C-Tran's strategy for connecting urban Clark County to light rail or high-capacity bus transit as part of the construction of a new Interstate 5 bridge across the Columbia River.

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It's a seemingly small thing... with huge consequences: President Obama will directly politicize the 2010 census.

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Here, locally, we feel the impacts of the despicable act of gerrymandering any time we, as Washington State Residents buy anything in almost 98% of retail outlets in the county.

While the scum continue in this effort pioneered here for their loot rail/new bridge scam, the effects of their first effort at scamming the voters will be felt in perpetuity as they cast a dark shadow over what our votes are supposed to mean.

The problem?

The White House has just taken direct control of the 2010 Census.

That essentially guarantees politicization of the numbers. We will see wild swings in population; over-reporting of minorities and gerrymandering that will make the democrat squeals about Texas look like a fender-bender in comparison.

There is a reason the census has been in Commerce for decades. And there's a reason the census is now going to be directly controlled by the White House.

And that reason will do nothing to brighten the lamp of democracy.

Barack Obama

Census Director to Work Directly with White House

By Philip Rucker
President Obama has decided to have the director of the U.S. Census Bureau work directly with the White House, the administration said today, a move that comes as the Census Bureau prepares to conduct the 2010 census that will determine redistricting of congressional seats.

Under the Bush administration, the Census Bureau director reported to the commerce secretary. Obama is adding oversight of the director by senior White House aides, but keeping the bureau itself under the umbrella of the Department of Commerce, White House spokesman Ben LaBolt said.

After Obama nominated a Republican, New Hampshire Sen. Judd Gregg, to head Commerce, Latino advocates voiced concern about him overseeing the politically delicate task of determining the nation's population. But LaBolt suggested Obama's changes to the organizational structure have been long in the making.

"From the first days of the transition the Census has been a priority for the president, and a process he wanted to reevaluate," LaBolt said in a statement this afternoon. "There is historic precedent for the director of the Census, who works for the commerce secretary and the president, to work closely with White House senior management, given the number of decisions that will have to be put before the president. We plan to return to that model in this administration."

The decennial Census is used to redraw district lines for elected seats in Congress and state legislatures, and is always a major issue for minority advocates. The National Association of Latino Elected Officials released a statement on Tuesday, shortly after Obama announced Gregg's nomination, questioning Gregg's willingness to produce the most accurate count of the nation's population.

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The delicious irony of the Columbian's latest whine: In our view Jan. 22: Freeze Public Pay

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No, it's not because I don't agree with the basic sentiment, though I might take it a step further and suggest that the public employees might be forced to take a pay CUT; because, after all, when we as a community suffer, they should share that experience with us.

That is not to say that I don't get that such efforts might result in, GASP, lawsuits. After all, four scumbag state employee unions are suing the Governor now to make sure they can still pig out at the trough... since the very idea that the terrible economy we're all sharing shouldn't have any effect on those here to serve US... is out of the question. After all, they're SPECIAL.

No, the irony here is that this short-sighted rag of a newspaper shilled mightily and hard for the gerrymandered C-Trans election, where over 50,000 voters eligible to pay these clowns had no say in jacking up our taxes to do it.

And now, these idiots are complaining?

Gee, just think: had this waste of a media outlet given some foresight to this issue back when it mattered, we might not have to be dealing with the issue now.

So, to that end, I say: Right on, C-Trans! Stick it to us! Take every frickin nickle you can squeeze out of us!

After all, this very whining, sniveling newspaper wouldn't have had it any other way.. back when it mattered.


In our view Jan. 22: Freeze Public Pay
Some government agencies still don’t get it: In tough times, salary increases are out of line
Thursday, January 22 1:00 a.m.

Here we go again. With so many of us losing our jobs and so many more of us not getting raises, we see that C-Tran workers will be getting up to a 4 percent cost-of-living raise. A few weeks ago we saw that Vancouver Police officers were getting 5.1 percent raises.

See a pattern here? While the private sector grinds through a debilitating recession, it’s business as usual for many government workers, likely because they’re able to keep coming back to the public money troughs. We don’t begrudge workers’ accepting raises, but government agencies can no longer afford to decouple personnel decisions (raises) from continued cries for tax increases and increased fees.

And what makes C-Tran’s situation even more troubling is that the board approved 3.6 percent raises for managers, which flies in the face of what is happening in many other areas of government. Clark County commissioners have frozen pay for managers. So have Vancouver city officials. That same trend is seen at state and national levels. In his first day on the job, President Barack Obama announced, “I am instituting a pay freeze on the salaries of my senior White House staff.”

Unfortunately, these freezes on government pay are too few and too far between; apparently the C-Tran board didn’t get the memo.

C-Tran’s raises are especially perturbing to passengers, who on March 1 will see fares increase 15 percent. A monthly pass will rise 16 percent, and C-Van service for the disabled will double from $23 per month to $46. Yes, as we’ve argued before, under the user-pay theory, C-Tran passengers should provide more than just the current 21 percent of C-Tran’s revenue. For that reason, fare increases can be justified. But this isn’t about fare increases; it’s about increasing public salaries while you’re socking it to the customers, during the nation’s worst economic crisis in seven decades.

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