By now tens of millions of households have gotten a letter from Mr. Robert Groves, the Director of the U.S. Census Bureau, stating that the 2010 census form will be arriving in the mail soon and requesting that it be filled in and returned promptly. Raise your hand if you didn’t know that. Raise your other hand if the census letter will have any effect on how you process the census form. After reading the letter, I had three thoughts about it.
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Category Archives: Government
2010 Census Letter
Posted in Government
1910 to 1960
Last week while I was waiting for my turn in the post office I looked over the list of commemorative stamps the USPS will issue this year. The 2010 stamps made me think about the stamps issued in 1960, which predated the year I started collecting stamps, although not by much, but was one of the first year sets I completed.
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Posted in Government
Global Warning Score
Global warning score? We don’t need no stinking global warning score in Washington to help decide which new car or truck to buy, do we? I cannot answer the questions of whether we need the score or how much it influences a purchasing decision, but I can say that a global warning score, along with a smog score, is provided on a window sticker on new Toyotas—and probably on other makes too.
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Posted in Cars, Government
You Cannot Make These Comments Up
My title isn’t completely apt. What I mean is that I wouldn’t be able to make up comments like the ones I read recently in The Seattle Times. Readers commented on an article describing a plan to build high occupancy toll lanes on Interstate 405. The lanes would be free for vehicles carrying three or more people, while cars with one or two occupants would pay a fee to use them. At last count the story had 169 comments. I skimmed through them, partly to gauge public reaction, but mostly because the way people express themselves in an online forum can be educational, clever, thought provoking, and at times LOL funny.
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Posted in Government
Cash from Clunkers
In 2009 the federal Car Allowance Rebate System (CARS), better known as “Cash for Clunkers,” provided cash rebates of up to $4500 to owners of qualifying cars and trucks who traded them in on energy-efficient new vehicles. This year Democrats in the state senate want Washington taxpayers to return the favor by paying sales tax on the value of vehicle trade-ins. Call it “Cash from Clunkers.”
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Posted in Cars, Government
Padding the State Utility Tax
By law the Washington state utility tax rate on Cascade Natural Gas accounts is supposed to be 3.852 percent. After looking over my most recent bill, by my calculation the state is collecting more tax than it should. Although collecting extra tax helps offset our current $2.6 billion budget shortfall, you would still think that the Department of Revenue would double-check every revenue source for accuracy. But if they do, they don’t figure percent the way I was taught.
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Posted in Government
Why Write About the Belfair Bypass?
There’s an excellent letter in yesterday’s Kitsap Sun by first-term state representative Fred Finn (D-35th District) in which he urges that the Belfair Bypass be taken off the shelf (link at end of post). The idea of a bypass has been around since the 1980’s, and currently there is almost no local opposition. Nor is there much disagreement on when we need it: now. Yet budget woes have delayed the project until at least 2019. In the interim, it has little chance of competing successfully for funds against the state’s mega transportation projects. So I was curious why Rep. Finn wrote the letter. To find out why, I asked him.
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Blue Mailboxes
How many locations are there for blue mailboxes in your zip code? Officially known as USPS collection stations, these sturdy steel containers, bolted to the sidewalk, do yeoman duty collecting mail and seemingly used to be everywhere. There’s a link at the end of this post to a web site that will tell you how many are near you. Before you click it, take a guess. Hint: The number is probably less than you think.
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I’m So Busted
I ran the traffic signal at Wheaton and Sylvan Ways in Bremerton the evening of August 31—more than a week ago. Yesterday the “Notice of Traffic Infraction” arrived in the mail, complete with inculpatory photos and instructions on how to pay (or fight) the $124 fine. In this day of instant communication like email and 24/7 cable news, it now takes longer to actually get a red-light ticket than when the officer used to hand it to you on the spot. The rest of the process is impressive in its moneymaking efficiency, although the amount of the fine and who shares in the cash raise some questions.
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Posted in Government
No Painting Congressman Dicks into a Corner on Health Care
Last month I criticized Congressman Norm Dicks for not holding a town hall meeting on health care. Since then the congressman has changed his mind, and I applaud him for facing his constituents, although I think he was uncomfortable and not well prepared. But try as they might, attendees in the noisy crowd couldn’t paint the bulldog Dicks into a corner on any of HR 3200’s controversial sections.
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Posted in Current Events, Government
Mud Bay Blog 