How ironic at the same time as Bellevue is voted the best place to live and start a business it is forced to deal with this type of eco-socialist nonsense
By signing into law the western world's most draconian greenhouse gas bill, Washington State Governor, Christine Gregoire, took to a whole new level the expression, "Give them an inch and they'll take a mile,"
Gregoire who was given an inch in 2004 when she was allowed by a deeply entrenched Democrat bureaucracy to find thousands of votes several weeks after losing the Gubernatorial election, has returned the favor by taking away the residents right to drive unlimited miles on the State's freeways.
By pandering to that bureaucracy and the State's eco-socialists, Gregoire hopes to be reelected this Fall. That is the only possible explanation why HB 2815 which was rushed through both houses in Olympia by large Democrat majorities, got past the Governor's line item veto completely unchallenged.
HB 2815 notes, "The legislature finds that Washington has long been a national and international leader on energy conservation and environmental stewardship,"
Because of the State's self-proclaimed position as guardian of Planet Earth, the new law proclaims, "Using a statewide baseline of seventy-five billion vehicle miles traveled,"( today's usage excluding freight trucks,) the State "will decrease the annual per capita vehicle miles traveled by eighteen percent by 2020; 35% in 2035 and 50% in 2050"
The Act does not detail enforcement particulars, but sets up a process to finalize the details of the next couple of years. Nor does the bill attempt to quantify the economic disaster it will bring upon business in the state.
The State of Washington has been governed by Democrats since 1984. A 24 year period of increasingly big government bureaucracy has created a hostile business environment resulting in a number of major corporations moving operations and/or HQ out of the State. Most notably this includes the Boeing Corporation which moved it HQ to Illinois in 2001, without even bothering to give notice to Governor Locke.
In spite of its Democrat government,the state's economy has flourished due to the astonishing growth in a high-tech sector launched and sustained primarily by Washington native Bill Gates.
How ironic that the wealth that Bill Gates created for the entire state,in a free market economy, is being used to finance left wing politicians bent on denying similar opportunities to future entrepreneurs who will find their businesses thwarted by restrictions on free movement.
Time to change Governor! Surely, this time the easy-going citizens of our laid-back State will correct the wrong of 2004, and elect by an insurmountable margin, Dino Rossi, the businessman and former legislator she conspired to defeat in 2004.
