Election results: King County-wide emergency-radio levy passing

8:41 PM: The first and only election-night results are out, and the one measure that was on ballots in our area, King County Proposition 1 to raise money to replace emergency responders’ radio system, is passing in a big way – 65 percent for, 35 percent against. It only required a simple majority for passage. Here are the numbers.

9:24 PM: County Executive Dow Constantine has sent this statement thanking voters: “A reliable emergency radio network is the lifeline that keeps all of our communities safe, used thousands of times a day by police, firefighters and medics in every corner of our county. I want to thank the voters of King County for acknowledging the need to replace a dangerously outdated system and ensuring that our first responders have the tools they need to communicate during life-threatening emergencies.”

17 Replies to "Election results: King County-wide emergency-radio levy passing"

  • m April 28, 2015 (9:30 pm)

    Oh no. Renters, prepare to see your rents increased to coincide with home owners increase in property taxes. I suspect the majority of yes votes didn’t come from the people that have to live with the financial burden of property taxes.

  • Vincent Dakotah Langley April 28, 2015 (9:51 pm)

    I’m really glad that this levy issue is passing by way of the voters! Our first respondors, they all need this new radio system and equipment really very badly and they’ve needed it for really a very long time now!!!

  • KBear April 28, 2015 (10:38 pm)

    Um, M, the first part of your comment exactly explains why the second part makes no sense. Renters pay property taxes through their rent. Thank goodness they also vote.

  • Fleeced April 28, 2015 (11:48 pm)

    Here we go again. Another basic service that should be funded from the general fund. But no our executive has to pay for frivolous non- essentials and threaten the taxpayers with losing an essential one. What happened to long range planning and saving money in anticipation for replacing outdated systems?

  • m April 29, 2015 (3:26 am)

    @kbear. The point being that so many complain about their rents being raised whilst continuing to vote yes on every election item. One doesn’t get to have their cake and eat it too.

  • Nora April 29, 2015 (5:47 am)

    Fleeced, the kicker is that the technology hasn’t changed all that much. According to the radio nerd in my life, the last major advance in radio technology was the transistor

  • Bando April 29, 2015 (7:20 am)

    Why couldn’t we have voted on this last fall, or this upcoming fall when we wouldn’t have had to incur the millions of dollars to hold an election for this one issue?

    • WSB April 29, 2015 (7:45 am)

      This was the only issue in this area but around the county, there were seven issues in all, so the election pricetag went for them all. Not that I’m defending the ancient election calendar/system – it’s one of those “been that way forever” things. School levies tend to show up on “special election” ballots and the system is so entrenched that the “special election” dates are preset each year.

  • JVP April 29, 2015 (10:32 am)

    I’m a diligent voter, but I tossed this ballot in the garbage in frustration. Our laws need to be changed so our elected officials deal with this minutia, and then we can choose to kick them out or re-elect them.
    .
    These levies also frustrate the heck out of me. General fund is hamstrung and there’s not any budgeting flexibility, so the only way to fund essentials is with levies. Then look into how levy law works and see that some junior levies (of totally essential items like fire!!!) get unfunded in smaller districts. It’s such a bad system that it boggles the mind!
    .
    Time to toss this stupid levey-based system and go to an income tax. Start over with a blank slate since our tax system is so jacked. Get rid of much of our sales tax and property tax (mostly or all together) so that seniors on fixed incomes aren’t hosed. Our system is horribly regressive and just plain doesn’t work.
    .
    Junk like this on the ballot really turns people off from voting, so our turnouts are lower and lower, even when it really matters.
    .
    I’m a dyed in the wool capitalist, so I’m not looking for some utopia here. But let’s pay for what we need to pay for, and not do it in a horribly regressive way. Worst tax system in the country. And don’t even get me started on the B&O tax which sucks for everyone but Boeing and a few other industries that have the power to craft the rates in their favor.

  • Marty April 29, 2015 (11:55 am)

    Fleeced: Exactly! I call it extortion.

  • Joe Szilagyi April 29, 2015 (11:56 am)

    “I suspect the majority of yes votes didn’t come from the people that have to live with the financial burden of property taxes.”
    .
    …e.g., everyone?

  • P April 29, 2015 (11:56 am)

    JVP – you pretty much nailed it. Our tax system is broken. I held my nose and voted for it, but not happily.

  • Fiwa Jcbbb April 29, 2015 (12:28 pm)

    I’m with JVP also…I’m not against emergency radios, but voted this down because my income is not keeping up with Property Taxes. The righties like to bring the subject up constantly…when it suits them…as in whenever someone suggests the 1% ain’t all that…but we seem to have “class warfare” being waged on us by both both parties in this state.

  • skeeter April 29, 2015 (3:07 pm)

    This was the first time in many years I didn’t vote. I was very frustrated. It takes me about 2 hours to research a new camera. It takes me about 8 hours to research a new car for my family (test drives, etc.) Do you know how long it would take me to research emergency radio systems and then determine whether King County needed a new one? Hundreds of hours. I’d have to educate myself on how the radios work. I’d have to interview vendors. I’d have to interview users. I’d have to research new technologies. I’m not exaggerating. It would take me *hundreds* of hours to determine if this system was a good use of money or not. It’s completely inappropriate to ask me to vote on this issue. It should be included in the general budget after staff, personnel, and elected officials decide how to best spend our dollars.

  • Neighbor April 29, 2015 (3:53 pm)

    I agree with Fiwa and Skeeter. I too did not vote as a way of protesting. My points of emphasis are 1) my income growth does not keep up with taxes, and 2) I feel the elected officials should do this job. I’m very liberal too so watch out Constatine, Murray, Fitzgibbons etc. if there are more people like us you will lose votes.

  • KM April 29, 2015 (5:51 pm)

    Bando, my thoughts exactly. I was absolutely for this and voted yes, but lamented silliness of having a special election–they’ve known it’s been “out of date” for years, put it on the Nov. ballot and spare us the extra expenses of running a special election. I can’t blame anyone for not trusting the county’s financial management.

  • wetone April 30, 2015 (10:05 am)

    I wonder how many people that voted yes for Prop 1 read the full text of (Ordinance 17993). Not impressed myself on the accountability of how and where money will be spent for this project. I hope they invest in proven technology and not a custom one off build full of bugs like this city/county/state usually does. I did vote as everyone should, even on issues like this one. Don’t whine if you didn’t vote. I voted no because I believe there will be a huge amount of wasted money on this project. Holding an election for one proposition didn’t help either and shows how wasteful our voting system is.
    It would be interesting to see percentages of renters that voted yes and same for home owners.

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