Should Washington state split into two states? (Seattle, Spokane: house, schools)

[pnwguy2]

Originally Posted by 509

There are a lot of issues with splitting the state in two. Federal approval is one of them.

However, there is NO laws governing how individual states are governed.

Simply, set-up a new level of regional government for eastern Washington and western Washington. Shift all the tax and government authorities to the regional governments.

The original Washington state government then becomes a "ceremonial" office that facilitates discussions between the two regional governments.

The problem is not just in Washington state. California, Oregon, Colorado, and Nevada have similar issues. Back east and in the mid-west similar problems. I would support redrawing all the state boundaries across the entire country.

BTW...western Washington is too dependent on eastern Washington to allow it to leave.

And Eastern Washington is too dependent on Western Washington to allow it to leave. In other words, this break will not happen in any of our lifetimes. But always an interesting discussion.

[grega94]

The 8th congressional district should be redrawn, Auburn and Wenatchee shouldn’t be part of the same district. Also some people point to the gun initiative that the western WA hijacked the Vote, but if you look at the map you will see that it’s not west vs east, but urban vs rural. Spokane also voted for the gun initiative and the rural southwestern counties voted against it. Perhaps we should have a better system in place that can fairly account for the urban and rural needs.

[thatguy950]

Originally Posted by Seacove

Deal. Easiest deal ever.

You won’t get any argument from them either, also stay out of SoCal once that state splits as well

[Swampoid13]

Originally Posted by grega94

The 8th congressional district should be redrawn, Auburn and Wenatchee shouldn’t be part of the same district. Also some people point to the gun initiative that the western WA hijacked the Vote, but if you look at the map you will see that it’s not west vs east, but urban vs rural. Spokane also voted for the gun initiative and the rural southwestern counties voted against it. Perhaps we should have a better system in place that can fairly account for the urban and rural needs.

It's like this across the country. The urban and rural divide has never been more apparent.

[rkcarguy]

We should make King County part of California.

[509]

Originally Posted by Seacove

I agree, let Eastern Washington join Idaho. Then Western Washington can stop having to fund Eastern Washington.

https://www.seattlepi.com/local/arti...hat-969099.php

The article is written by a journalist that really does not understand policy analysis.

I actually went through and created my own spreadsheet using that data and splitting the state into along the Cascade divide.

The artricle is correct in the fact that King County pays for the REST OF THE STATE.....It actually pays for Thurston County. All that money goes to Olympia.

First, issue is that the journalist used Method 2 in the Office of Financial Management. That method counts monies in Olympia as monies that went to eastern Washington. Under that method when you look at the analysis the state spends more on WELFARE for Adams County in Olympia than they do in Adams County!!!

Method One should have been used. It actually tracks state revenues and expenditures by individual county.

The statement that "No county in Eastern Washington pays more in state general fund taxes than it receives back in expenditures." is not true. Not sure if it was true in 2011 or not, but that is no longer the case.

These are from 2013.

Here are the eastern Washington counties that receive more in general fund taxes than they generate.

Adams, Franklin, Kittitas, Okanogan, Spokane, Stevens, Walla Walla, Yakima, Whitman.

Here are the western Washington Counties that receive more in general fund taxes than they generate.

Callam, Clark, Gray's Harbor, Lewis, Mason, Pacific, Pierce, Thurston.

That does not include transportation taxes. Currently eastern Washington ships money over the Cascades to support the mega-transportation projects in the Seattle area.

The analysis is also incomplete in the area. For example, much of Federal highway spending is prioritized by the Governor of the state. So yes, Garfield County is part of the eastern Washington region of DOT and the state funding is less than state taxes paid. BUT this region of DOT gets back 46 cents for every dollar paid in local, state, and federal transportation taxes. Almost all the federal transportation taxes are shifted to western Washington. Which is why Spokane still does not have a north-south freeway after 50 years.

Basically, Washington state exempts the large corporations from taxes. So tax revenues in Washington state some 80% is my estimate is paid by sales taxes and small businesses. Expenditures are primarily for the poor, elderly, and schools. Those are primarily for health care and education.

Anyway, when I combined the difference between revenues and expenditures between eastern and western Washington was less than one percent in 2013.

[509]

Originally Posted by pnwguy2

[/b]
And Eastern Washington is too dependent on Western Washington to allow it to leave. In other words, this break will not happen in any of our lifetimes. But always an interesting discussion.

Eastern Washington uses the Port of Seattle and Tacoma for trade. Prior to construction of I-90 most of eastern Washington exports went through Portland. As late as the 1990's you could still buy the Oregonian in Yakima. It was the big city paper.

Western Washington needs eastern Washington electricity. Western Washington generates very little electricity.

That's it.

The large corporations in western Washington have virtually ZERO presence in eastern Washington. The only eastern Washington institution that crosses the Cascades is Washington State University.

I am not sure why western Washington thinks it needs to meddle in development projects in eastern Washington. The Heart Transplant Center in Spokane is the classic case. No state monies, so why the opposition??

Municipal broadband in eastern Washington. Really, why do western Washington legislators care if we decide to build a government owned fiber optic system. Mind you, this was after private companies refused to do it. Again, no state monies.

That is where you get the outrage towards state government on this side of the mountains. Read that list posted in the comment section of the Seattle Times.

Your probably right that the break will not happen in our lifetimes. Quite frankly, with the mass migration of people from west to east it is hard to even find people that have only lived in eastern Washington. It is more common to find western Washington transplants than natives.

Eventually, there will be very little difference between east and west. A loss of diversity and a special place that was eastern Washington.

[Hemlock140]

Because a large portion of property tax goes to the state, and the tax amount is based on the value of a home, naturally the Seattle Metro area is contributing much more than in eastern Washington, or the rural areas of western Washington. My home, for example, was charged $6,799 for 2018 property taxes, of which 27.93% goes to the state. That same house in Yakima would be paying $3,617, just over half as much. Since more of the state's infrastructure costs are spent on the west, it ends up coming out close to even. The real difference is in the politics, with so much population (and votes) coming out of King County, with over 2 million people, and 800,000 in Pierce, 700,000 in Snohomish, but only 1/2 million in Spokane County, the largest east of the mountains and no others close to that.

[thatguy950]

Originally Posted by rkcarguy

We should make King County part of California.

Yeah but only NorCal, lots of normal people still left in SoCal where the nice weather is. Most people in King County are too hard on the eyes to be in SoCal too

[bergun]

Originally Posted by rkcarguy

We should make King County part of California.

Sounds good to me... This way I can sell my house at insane California prices and then move to Free State of Eastern Washington.