Posts published in May 2011

Kirkland annexation map/City of Kirkland

Annexations of unincorporated areas to cities are not rare, even if they have been a little less common in recent years (they do have the effect of raising one's property taxes). But the new annexation to Kirkland, set for completion on Tuesday, stands out.

Kirkland is now a city of about 48,000 people, which has expanded before by way of annexation. The new territory, which includes areas called Finn Hill, North Juanita and Kingsgate, will add about 31,000 people (and a couple hundred businesses) which King County will not have to service as intensively. The annexation was approved by voters in 2009. The expanded Kirkland will become the 12th largest city in the state, and the 6th largest in King County.

Jane Hague, of the King County Council (and who represents current Kirkland), said the city will gain in clout, moving from "a middle-size city to one of the big boys."

There's an oddity about it, though. Usually, the concern with annexation comes from the people who are being absorbed, who are likely to see their taxes rise. In this case, the property taxes paid by many of the annexees may actually drop. One reason is that while enough voters approved the annexation, less than the needed percentage approved accepting any of Kirkland's existing debt - so the current area residents will continued to have to shoulder that.

The could settle out over time. But not all of the currrent Kirkland residents are happy with the way this has developed. And there seems to be some uneasiness all around.

A selection from the Seattle Times comments on this:

"As a Juanita resident, I've been dreading this day. Glad we removed dangerous and diseased trees in our yard before Kirkland told us we couldn't. I wonder if Kirkland will make me get a permit to prune a four-foot ornamental hibiscus in the front. We were doing fine with the county without Kirkland getting their little rat-claws on some pretty quiet neighborhoods. Can't wait to see them grab for our wallets in a few years."

"You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile."

"Mark my words in 2 years they will find a way to make the NEW residents pay more!"

"My impression is that the City Council went out of their way to burden existing Kirkland residents with higher taxes to support the annexation area. Why? Who gets rich off of this move? If there's a common-sense explanation, what is it? I never heard a nuts-and-bolts explanation from the City Council, just quotes about it (annexation) being an "opportunity" and other such empty cheer-leading."

Kirkland will have an interesting adjustment period.

It had looked a little iffy, but the special session is over.

The take from Governor Chris Gregoire:

“We’ll walk away from this session with a stronger sense of partnership and cooperation – as well as a balanced budget that ensures we have the financial resources to provide core services now and into the future. And we developed that balanced budget with no new revenue, with no short-term fixes and with no budget gimmicks. We did it by tackling long term costs, by making government leaner and more efficient and by implementing innovative reforms that ensure the state can continue to provide critical services like health care, education and public safety.

“Additionally, we passed major legislation to spur job creation and strengthen our economic recovery. At the state level, we passed a transportation budget that will put 30,000 people to work. Our capital budget sustains another 15,000 jobs. And we passed major reforms to give our businesses the confidence they need to start hiring again – including significant changes to our workers compensation system, and a reduction in unemployment insurance rates. To help our families during these tough times, we provided a temporary increase in unemployment benefits to 70,000 Washingtonians.

“Along with the many needed changes, we also made cuts that will touch real lives. The decisions we made required deep, painful reductions to programs in every area. Some were eliminated entirely."

You get the feeling this one may wind up having more impact that most, though what the political impact is may be hard to tell, since Republicans were deeply involved in the process.

This was fairly obvious without polling, but now we have some numbers to attach to it.

With rare and unusual exceptions, candidates from one place make a mistake if they simply uproot and immediately run somewhere else. (Yes, Hillary Clinton did it sucessfully, and a few others, but those really were odd exceptions - they were national figures.) Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, the House member and periodic presidential contender, isn't in that category. It sounded like a joke when talk shot around that, because post-redistricting he's likely to be thrown into a congressional district with another incumbent, that he might look to run for Congress elsewhere. Like maybe Seattle.

And then he shows up in Seattle.

It's not that Kucinich's politics are far out of line with Seattle's; on his visits there, he found plenty of backers. It's that he has no connection with the region.

Voters seem to feel that way too. Public Policy Polling surveyed the issue, and Tuesday reported it found:

... he's not popular in the state with only 19% of voters rating him favorable to 28% with a negative opinion of him. But the numbers on a potential candidacy for him are worse than the favorability spread- only 12% think he should seek office in the state next year to 39% opposed to the concept.

Even among Democrats, who like Kucinich by a 33/19 margin, just 22% think he should run there next year to 35% who dissent. It really doesn't matter whether Kucinich moves to Washington or not, he's not going to get elected there next year.

Denny Heck

We've suggested any number of instances where unsuccessful candidates gearing up for a second run may be thinking ... unwisely. Today, a case arguing for the opposite.

Or, not really, because in the case of Denny Heck, the Olympia-area executive and Democrat who lost a race for the 3rd district last year to Republican Jaime Herrera Beutler, there are a bunch of changed conditions.

One is that 2012 is unlikely (as matters stand) to be the kind of strong Republican year than 2010 was. More important, Heck and Herrera Beutler are likely to be in different districts next time. Washington gains another congressional district next year, and the new territory will have to be parceled mostly out of the heavy population area running from around Olympia to King County east of Seattle. There's a good chance Heck will be in a new district without an incumbent but with a Democratic leaning.

The Seattle Times reports, "Heck filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission last Thursday, setting up a campaign for the 10th District. He then refiled less than an hour later to say he was running for an unspecified congressional district (listing it as district "00.")"

In a case like this, probably wise to put down a marker, if he has any interest at all.

Washingtonians might be a little uneasy about tomorrow's legislative special session deadline. They probably should feel better if legislators and the governor just went ahead and announced another session, right now.

That runs counter to most of what you hear: Those legislators should get it done and get out of town! Well, sure, ideally. Problem is that really tight deadlines can impair the decision-making process. It's a little like torture: You'll say or do anything, just to get it over with. (Remember the old legal principle, that hard cases make bad case law?)

The problem in Washington has had to do with developing a final budget. The excellent Political Buzz blog (of the Tacoma News Tribune), after noting some of the items which apparently are scheduled to be sliced, and some others that aren't, reports that as of today, there's talk that the session might wind up on schedule come Wednesday.

Or not: "A few minutes ago the Senate's two negotiators on debt, Democrat Derek Kilmer and Republican Linda Evans Parlette, said they were still working on the issue, as they speed-walked into the office shared by House Speaker Frank Chopp and Majority Leader Pat Sullivan."

Look through the rundown of cuts and no-cuts. Are those the lists you would endorse? Are they the best possible? Are Washingtonians likely to get the best possible from a pressure cooker?