Bellevue Has Great City Government

King County votes all absentee ballot.  There are no voter suppression Jim Crow laws by “must have ID laws” going on elsewhere in the country.  The voting process could not be easier.  I check my choices, sign my name, put the ballot in a two-envelope for signed anonymous voting and can either mail it in or drop it off at a collection box at the mall I go to every week.

King County sends out one voter information pamphlet for all voters in the county so there are many pages of info that don’t pertain to me.  I am okay with that.  It is a lot simpler than trying to create a custom pamphlet for every voter.

The KC-VIP came in the mail today.  While balking on writing my Gratitude blog, I skimmed through the pamphlet.  Looks like the only thing I will be voting on is an uncontested reelection of the KC Prosecuting Attorney and some local judges.  Nobody is running for Bellevue City Council this term.

Most other cities have referendums.  Bellevue has a fantastic city government that does not have to go to the voters to fund basic needs such as parks like Bothell or police like Carnation, Kent and North Bend.

Seattle voters have at least 20 pages of fine print to read and conflicting pre-school referendums to vote on amongst a host of (mostly funding) issues to vote on.   30% of Seattle streets need repair.  That is not going to happen this year or anytime soon.  I don’t even know of a pothole in Bellevue.

30% of Bellevue residents were born in another country besides the US.  It is not a whites-only town with no immigrate issues—they are being dealt with at least acceptably well by government and NGO social service agencies.  Our police don’t go around shooting brown people with little provocation.

Bellevue is far from perfect.  For example, Bellevue’s highest profile landlord, Kemper Freeman, flies to work in a helicopter while fighting against light rail.  Nonetheless, light rail is coming to Bellevue.  Compared with what else is going on around the region, the country and the world, Bellevue city government is mighty danged good.

I am grateful for a well-run city that funds it schools, police, parks, roads and so on through regular taxes and not by referendum due to missing political leadership.

1 comment:

  1. Bellevue has the highest income in all of King county, next to Medina and the other place with the richest people you know where they all live, when you have that tax base lots of people get a lot of services, Mercer Island I was thinking of..I don't live in the county and city you live in we barely get anything in Vancouver anymore, it used to be a wonderful place for schools, homes etc. but many come here, no jobs, homeless, hungry and are thinking they can escape God-Forsaken Oregon with no services whatsoever, Portland they escape can get better benefits here or so they think..The governor of Oregon has a gal pal who he is not married to Nov 4th is the election, his gal pal they call the first lady they have lived together without marriage for many years, when she was 30 married an immigrant up in the evergreen state area, accepted $5,000 never reported, never lived with him, then she bought a piece of property with another fellow and grew marijuana and told the governor Kitzhauber about it just a few days from the election, he is on his 4th try to the be the Governor again, the other candidate is not much better thinking and saying crap about immigrants from Central Point out in the literal sticks, oh, my goodness sakes alive and over here in Washington state we are on the butt end of the entire state & don't get much done at all even though our county is one of the fastest growing counties in the state but no jobs and lots of hunger and homelessness from Oregon people fleeing the largest city in that state for what they think they can get in our tiny town, the smart people tell them to head north to the seattle area and get education and jobs...

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