Replace the Viaduct, Kill the Monorail

Voters have a rare opportunity to improve transportation in this election. Our biggest chance to make progress is at the top of the ticket, where environmentalists, labor, and business agree that investing $5.5 billion in much-needed transportation projects—from mega-projects like Seattle's crumbling Alaskan Way Viaduct to small ones like Winthrop's bike and pedestrian path—makes sense. This will counterintuitively require a "no" vote on Initiative 912, stopping the rollback of a gas-tax increase. Way down at the bottom of the Nov. 8 general election ballot, meanwhile, another "no" vote will free Seattle of the disastrous monorail project—an albatross that threatens to sink other mass transit alternatives. In the middle are incumbents and challengers who deserve support. In most races, the choice is clear. When it's not, we offer help with every contested race on the Seattle ballot.

State of Washington

Initiative 900
Performance audits

Today, our elected, independent state auditor shines a bright light on government bookkeeping at the state and local levels. He has no authority to do anything but inform the people of the facts, but his staff's public reports are widely disseminated. It's a terrific example of how simple scrutiny can keep politicians and bureaucrats in line.

This measure would provide more authority and money—an estimated $17 mil-lion from sales-tax revenue during the 2005–07 biennium—so the state auditor can evaluate performance as well, examining not only how public money was spent but how effectively. Opponents say that judging performance in this way is problematic; that this law would duplicate oversight already exercised by the Legislature; and that it could lead to politically motivated abuse. Inasmuch as the auditor would still only have the power to inform, we think it's worth trying. Ignore the driving force behind this measure— indiscriminately tax-slashing, initiative-obsessed Tim Eyman—and vote yes.

Initiative 901
Expanded smoking ban

There are few places where smokers can light up. They can smoke only in designated areas of public places, including privately owned public places, and the locations where smoking is completely prohibited, such as airports, buses, and building lobbies, are numerous. This law would essentially ban indoor smoking entirely, except in private homes. Moreover, smoking would be prohibited outdoors within 25 feet of a doorway or ventilation intake. In other words, it will be perfectly legal to smoke as long as you do it in the middle of the street. The 25-foot rule is overreaching. Vote no.

Initiative 912
Repeal of the gas-tax increase

This measure would gut the $8.5 billion bipartisan transportation package passed by the Legislature by repealing a gradual 9.5-cent increase in the gasoline tax. At today's prices, that's about a 3 percent increase to pay for 274 projects in 32 of our 39 counties. Many of those plans involve public safety, and all address transportation efficiency, which affects the economy. Backers seem to want to wait for a world in which government and private contractors are 100 percent efficient, accountable, cheap, and Republican before fixing or building anything. But even many Republicans and big-time capitalists, no fans of taxes, oppose this rollback. (It would be nice, by the way, if more of them had the courage to say so.)

Supporters also don't like the fact that the two biggest projects funded by the new gas tax are replacement of the decrepit elevated freeway downtown called the Alaskan Way Viaduct and the aging Highway 520 floating bridge across Lake Washington. Both are earthquake-vulnerable, and it could be argued that the viaduct ought to be closed immediately for safety. Closure or failure of those highways would cause a cascade of congestion from Elliott Bay to, well, the Cascades. These highways are crucial to the prosperity and security of the entire state. This measure is idiocy. Vote no.

Initiative 330
Monetary limit for medical errors

What is the reason for this onerous initiative? It would set a $350,000 cap on malpractice awards for noneconomic damages and supposedly is aimed at stemming outrageously high payouts in "frivolous" lawsuits. And yet the initiative's backers can't point to a single credible local example of such an outrageous award.

Probe any multimillion-dollar case and you are likely to find a heartbreaking tale of egregious medical error. And over-the-top awards aren't even responsible for the skyrocketing malpractice insurance premiums that doctors understandably hate. A study by the state insurance commissioner found that lawsuit awards, from trials and settlements, have risen roughly according to the rate of medical-care inflation. While this initiative wouldn't solve any problems, it would place new restrictions on patients by allowing doctors and health care organizations to require that they sign away their right to sue. It's an unacceptable demand to make of sick and vulnerable people who need to see a doctor. Vote no.

Initiative 336
Decertifying bad doctors

This measure actually tries to do something about medical malpractice. It confronts the confounding ability of bad doctors to keep practicing. Neither hospitals nor the state Department of Health seem able to weed them out.

A three-strikes provision would revoke the license of any doctor who has been subject to three jury awards within 10 years—a high bar that few doctors would meet. The initiative would also require the state to investigate doctors who have three sizable settlements within five years. And crucially, it would give patients information they have a right to know about doctors by outlawing secrecy agreements in malpractice settlements. Doctors don't like this initiative, but they have failed to come up with a convincing argument against it. Vote yes.