Governor Locke has been busy. He's signed into law three separate transportation packages, and all will go to a public vote for final approval. The problem is that they're all likely to go on the same ballot. All three call for increases in taxes: the statewide package will raise gas taxes by nine cents per gallon to bring in $7.7 billion, the regional package will bring in $8.7 billion (the tax mix hasn't been determined yet), and the monorail package is seeking $1-2 billion (tax mix not yet determined). For the monorail and regional plans, the likeliest tax hike would be a new motor vehicle excise tax. Yes, that's the dreaded MVET--car tab taxes--which voters repealed by passing I-695. It's back, like it or not, as one of the best ways to tax users of the system to pay for system upgrades. Other options--an annual car license fee, rental car tax, or more property taxes--are non-starters. The property tax simply won't fly, since it's not linked to transportation in any way. And the car license fee and rental car taxes would only bring in about half the money that an MVET would.

On the same ballot this fall will be a $95 million low-income housing levy to replace the one that expires this year. The housing levy relies on a property tax hike of 20 cents per $1,000 assessed value. Will voters, during a recession year when gas prices have risen, housing prices have risen, food prices have risen, health care costs have risen, and unemployment has risen, vote for extra taxes all across the board? That's the $16 billion question. It might be worthwhile for the monorail folks and the local politicians who are crafting the regional transportation package to hold off until next year. Otherwise, all four funding plans might go swirling down the drain.--Maria Tomchick

It's been a baaaaaaad week for QWest. The Securities and Exchange Commission recommended action (a possible fine) against QWest for failing to disclose actual financial results in December 2000 along with their proforma financial results. In brief, proforma results are the company's spruced-up interpretation of how well they did financially during the past quarter. Actual results are, well, the real deal, and there's a law that says companies have to publish that along with their happy talk. QWest violated that rule. In addition, the company announced it must take a write-down of $20-30 billion on its balance sheet for "goodwill," which represents the difference between what a company has paid for an asset and what that asset is really worth. It's a loss. $20-30 billion. And that's not all. QWest said it would have to take a further write-down related to a Dutch subsidiary. As if that weren't bad enough, the SEC is continuing to investigate QWest and other telecom companies over the use of "swap transactions," tricky deals whereby the QWest sold and then repurchased bandwidth from the same customers in order to book lots of fake income.

The real story here is not simply the demise of one company. QWest is a utility, a phone service provider. It's also a big corporate parent company that owns a lot of little local subsidiaries, including the old US West. US West was and still is a very profitable operation. QWest, the parent company, is busy sucking the positive cash flow out of our local phone system and using that cash to pay down its corporate debt. That cash isn't being used for local system upgrades, to pay decent salaries to local QWest employees, or to provide decent customer service. If Qwest goes bankrupt, that cash will be gone forever, and our local phone subsidiary will be in lousy shape, lacking the cash reserves to keep operating while a new buyer is found or QWest is restructured. This is what happened in California a couple years ago with the failure of two energy utilities. The result: a combination of a taxpayer bailout and sharply higher rates. We pay, now and always, when privatized utility companies fail ... which is the best argument for having public utilities.--MT

Some kitchen reminders...first, that we're startin' up our monthly ETS! potluck socials? again, on the last Friday of the month, at a secure (and comfy!) location in Belltown. The next one is Friday, April 26, and we mention it now cuz in two weeks it'll be too close to the date for many folks to make plans -- so mark yer calendars now. Call the ETS! voice mail hotline (206-903-9461) to leave a message and get a call with the address.

Secondly, just to mention it cuz it comes up fairly regularly in notes we get from new and renewing subscribers: ETS! never, ever, ever shares its subscriber or e-mail lists with anybody. Not even our closest friends. Not even the coolest activist groups. It just ain't none of their damn business, and don't you wish Qwest (or the state drivers' license office) had a policy like that?

Lastly, now that we're running twelve pages EVERY SINGLE ISSUE (for the time being, anyway), we've got room for a lot more stories -- and we need them. Yours. Especially shorter stories (the unsolicited articles we get are often tomes, which we have a harder time running even when they're good tomes, which they frequently, um, aren't.) Bring 'em on: ets@scn.org. (SCN is a freenet, so please -- anyone, not just contributors, take note -- no attachments. SCN literally can't read them. Send text files.) --G.P.