Get unlimited local news and information that matters to you.

Week of Oct. 16, 2024: Future voter plea, ‘greed merchants’ and pesky initiatives

Send letters, maximum 250 words, to letters@cascadiadaily.com

Editor,

I know I am not alone in my feelings of anxiety entering this election season. Two very different candidates, a split nation. I am not telling anyone who to vote for, but I am asking that you vote. Please exercise this political freedom if you have it.

I am 14, unable to vote yet, but I really wish I could. Please, people of Whatcom County, vote. Vote because it’s a privilege. Vote because our future depends on it. Vote because democracy depends on it. 

Thank you.

Jonna Gilham, future voter
Bellingham
Editor,

I am amused by the “hair on fire” commentary on many media outlets regarding the declining birth rate in many advanced countries. People like Elon Musk seem to be apoplectic about this birth rate trend. It is primarily corporate entities fueling the uproar because they are worried about having fewer customers available to buy their mediocre products.

For me, and millions of others, this trend is a wonderful thing. Let me list some of the positive aspects of having a shrinking population:

Mother Nature will feel relieved as we will be able to make reductions in the contamination of our land, air and water by a myriad of nasty chemicals and waste products. Perhaps, too, our declining plant and animal populations can recover. Maybe even extinctions can be significantly reduced.

Workers will see significant wage increases as the worker pool declines. The corporate world hates it when the workforce gains the upper hand. There will be affordable housing for almost everyone. While the real estate industry will freak out, the rest of us will relish the availability of cheaper housing (purchase or rent).

All kinds of products will be cheaper as demand goes down and companies fight for customers. Don’t believe all the alarms pushed out by the greed merchants. I am also sure some of the powerful political leaders around the world are nervous about having fewer soldiers to fight their wars. I am looking forward to a less crowded world; including driving through Seattle in under 20 minutes!

Jonathan V. Hall
Blaine
Editor,

Today Washingtonians are taking advantage of programs across the state that help us transition to cheaper, cleaner energy. Both large and small cities have introduced rebates, tax credits and other incentives to purchase energy-efficient appliances and heat pumps.

Heat pumps have an energy efficiency rating of 300–400% compared to gas furnaces at best, 95%. It’s cheaper to build new all-electric homes than it is to install gas. And it’s cheaper to heat our homes with electric.

Now the Building Industry Association of Washington has joined with hedge fund manager Brian Heywood and his billionaire buddies, spending over $5 million to end the programs that benefit average Washingtonians and low-income households. They want to line their pockets at our expense. Don’t be duped by their claims.

There is no proposed gas ban in our state. Washington law allows you to keep gas furnaces and appliances. You are already protected. If I-2066 passes it will prohibit local and state government from offering credits and rebates necessary for many of us to upgrade our furnaces and homes for energy efficiency and lower utility costs.

The greedy few are trying to deny access to these important programs so they can make larger profits at our expense. The nonpartisan League of Women Voters, and many cities and counties across the state, ask you to keep us on track by voting NO on I-2066. We deserve better!

Mira Kamada
Bellingham
Editor,

I am curious why [Greg] Baker [superintendent of Bellingham Public Schools] makes a higher salary than our state governor. This especially is curious since it is reported that Bellingham students are scoring less than 50% in math and less than 60% in reading. Many jobs in our community are based on performance. Doesn’t look like this job is. 

As a retired teacher and 10-year volunteer after retirement, I feel our schools have much room for improvement. I encourage community members to think about this. These students are our future.

Jan Stamey
Bellingham
Editor,

Once again fear is pushing an initiative. I-2124 will reduce the effectiveness of the WA Cares Program — a program assisting people in need of skilled nursing or home care. I-2124 would take away the funding necessary to make this program viable.

Like Medicare and Social Security, we all need to participate to make it work for all. The WA Cares Act helps to cover short-term home care and paid household caregiver costs. It is said to be a lifeline for the middle class. Former President Barack Obama said in his book, “A Promised Land,” “that democracy is not about putting others down, but about lifting others up.

This will result in a sense of dignity for people and for communities.” Vote NO on I-2124 so we can continue to give the care and dignity folks deserve.

Dorie Belisle
Bellingham
Editor,

Whoever we are, we hope that if we come down with a crippling or fatal disease, we’ll be helped and cared for, preferably in our own homes. A friend and neighbor recently died of cancer. His last weeks were comforted not only by his family, but by home hospice care that relieved his pain and allowed him a peaceful death.  

Our state is the first in the country to make such care possible for everyone, including people who otherwise couldn’t afford it. It’s a kind of supplement to social security, paid for by payroll deductions and by contributions from self-employed people, just as social security is. 

But Initiative Measure No. 2124 on our ballots this November would bankrupt that supplement by making contributions to the plan optional. What young person, feeling illness or injury as an unimaginably remote possibility, would opt to lose dollars from a paycheck now? Imagine how much social security we would get if everybody started paying into it in their 50s! 

This initiative is the project of a billionaire who funded professional signature gatherers with a misleading message. It seems unlikely that he wanted to make life better for ordinary people like you and me. Under the existing law, an employee earning $50,000 a year would be required to pay $290 per year, or $24 a month, for this benefit. Try buying private long-term-care insurance for that price! There’s a lifetime limit to the benefit: it’s the same as the limit on private insurance, at a fraction of the cost.

Let’s all look forward to getting help with incurable or fatal conditions when we need it. Vote NO on Initiative 2124.

Minda Rae Amiran
Bellingham
Editor,

The League of Women Voters of Washington has considered the four initiatives on the November ballot in relation to the League’s positions and are asking voters to vote NO on them. 

The League of Women Voters (LWV) is a non-partisan, grassroots political organization open to everyone age 16+ that encourages informed and active participation in government, works to increase the public understanding of public policy issues, and influences public policy through education and advocacy. 

We never support a candidate or a political party. Positions on issues are based on study, consensus and adoption by the membership. Studies are rigorously conducted and reviewed to be fact-based, non-biased and nonpartisan. Our positions do not align with or advance any political party or platform. 

Vote NO on I-2109 – The capital gains tax supports public education and creates a more equitable tax structure.

Vote NO on I-2117 – Our position is based on the best available climate science, reducing emissions, addressing the long-term impacts of climate change on public health, accelerating the shift to cleaner, more energy-efficient sources and more. 

VOTE NO on I-2124 – Total health care system expenditures should be controlled and universal access to affordable health services — with seamless coverage regardless of one’s health status — should be provided.

VOTE NO on I-2066 – Electric energy in buildings and homes is safer, healthier and more efficient. We encourage the transition with planning and investment.

We urge you to vote NO on all four. And remember, every vote counts.

Eileen McCracken, President LWVBWC
Bellingham
Editor,

To the sad, sorry individual who stole Harris/Walz signs from several houses in my neighborhood, we’re all buying new signs. I won’t mention the neighborhood, since you’d likely just come back and steal them.  Stealing political signs is not conducive to an open democracy.

When you behave in this way, it says volumes about the kind of person you are and the kind of person you support — one that must not believe in freedom of speech. Certainly, it’s not going to persuade us to vote for your candidate!

Laura Livingston
Bellingham
Editor,

When I began to write this letter, I turned to the website of the state Office of the Attorney General to acquaint myself with the span of his work.

I urge all of you to do so.

A recurring theme of “protecting” and “safeguarding” appears in many areas of his leadership.

 The structure of our government in Washington is not the rule of one man or one party … Bob Ferguson recognizes that we are a state of different ideological predilections and political connections. I believe Bob Ferguson will bring a cooperative pragmatic approach to governance and guard the civil rights and civil liberties of all people, whatever their background.   

The current deterioration of our economy has been hardest felt by the poor, the elderly and the working class. I have trust that Bob Ferguson will do all in his power to provide economic and social protection for all in Washington state.

Please vote!

Helen Moran
Bellingham
Editor,

The relationship between DNR timber sales and school funding is a sinister one. Schools such as Mount Baker School District, lacking the corporate tax support of other districts such as Blaine, are reliant on any revenue they can cobble together. So important forest stands, such as Little Lilly, with its 160-year-old growth (yes, some presumably to be spared; we’ll see how that goes) become a fiscal resource when they should be viewed as a carbon resource in a threatened world.

One more reason to both amend school funding and liberate it from this lesser-evil choice of trees vs. our future and particularly to support Dave Upthegrove for Public Lands Commissioner.

Leaf Schumann
Deming Foothills
Editor,

The ballot is long this year but please make it to the last page so you can vote YES on the Meridian School Bond.  

Our middle school is older than Velcro, helicopters and the yield sign. The walls do not have rebar in them and we live in the land of earthquakes. The showers regularly flood, it is an accessibility nightmare and the concrete is literally falling apart. It is past time that our students and teachers had a facility that meets their needs.

As a mom and a PTA volunteer, I’ve seen first-hand how our school district is careful with the taxpayer’s dollars and trust them to do this right. They just need us to do the right thing this November. 

Please join me in voting yes on the Meridian School Bond — our kids are counting on us. 

Bryna Sweeney
Lynden
Editor,

This letter is in support of the No-on-2117 campaign. Washington should not allow an out-of-state millionaire hedge fund manager to hijack the policy process in our state through a misuse of the direct democracy process.

Every two years, Washingtonians ponder who we should send to Olympia to legislate on our behalf. We trust them to do research, listen to interest groups and constituents. Then make good decisions on which policies to support.

Brian Heywood is abusing the initiative process to short-circuit the careful work of the legislators. He is counting on you to act in knee-jerk fashion to dismiss the climate resilience strategies supported by the legislation. All for the faulty nostalgia of low gas prices.

Worse, he has been promoting his initiative through dubious gas station takeovers, where he pays for drivers’ gas.

But when the legislature begins cutting checks to offset the cost of the natural gas phaseout initiative, Heywood cries foul. That’s a mighty rich sentiment coming from him.

In fact, you would expect the law to be amended as new information presents itself. But you would never expect the law to be thrown out, as the initiative drafters wish. Vote No-on-2117. Not acting on climate change won’t prevent it from coming for us all.

Thomas Pratt
Bellingham
Editor,

I’m an environmental studies major at WWU. Therefore, it likely comes as no surprise that I am firmly against Initiative 2117, a state initiative that would repeal Washington’s Climate Commitment Act. No matter your area of expertise, however, you also should staunchly oppose 2117.

This initiative, and three others, are being funded by millionaire hedge fund manager Brian Heywood. He is pushing the narrative that Initiative 2117 would lower gas prices for Washington residents. And while I would certainly appreciate lower gas prices, nothing about Initiative 2117 guarantees a reduction in gas price.

The only thing this initiative guarantees is more pollution and less public transportation for the state of WA. The Climate Commitment Act puts Washington on the right track to drastically reduce carbon emissions and combat our warming planet.

In addition, Heywood’s other three initiatives would be disastrous for schools/child care, health care and clean energy alternatives. Instead of repealing policies that aim to benefit us all, we should ask why major gas corporations and millionaires are allowed to destroy the health of communities and at the same time, burden everyday citizens with extra costs.

Vote NO on initiatives 2117, 2109, 2124 and 2066 to show those with wealth, power and greed that they cannot prioritize themselves over the people of Washington.

Megan Neufeld
Bellingham
Editor,

In 2021, Washington enacted the Climate Commitment Act, (CCA) becoming only the second
U.S. state (after California) with an economy-wide cap-and-invest program. This year, a hedge fund billionaire has spearheaded an effort to repeal it.

Is the CCA perfect? No, but as a mechanism to get polluters to pay for their pollution, it is ideal. In the first year, the state collected over 2 billion dollars to pay for things like helping low-income citizens install energy-efficient heat pumps, three ferry conversions to hybrid, electric buses, solar projects, electric vehicle charging stations and much more.

The repeal of this act would leave Washington without a good mechanism to fund projects that not only will reduce emissions but will also mitigate the effects of global warming. As the devastation from [hurricanes] Milton and Helene remind us, we can no longer wait — we must act to combat global warming. Please vote No on I-2117.

Jill Bernstein
Bellingham
Blaine
Editor,

Voters have the opportunity to further the legacy of President George H.W. Bush by voting no on Initiative 2117. In the early 1990s, the negative effects of high sulfur dioxide levels were hurting human health and our natural environment. President Bush and Prime Minister Mulroney were the architects of cap and trade to incentivize industries to reduce emissions.

President Bush worked with a bipartisan effort in Congress to pass this important legislation. And it worked. Since 1995, there have been significant drops in sulfur dioxide in our atmosphere and resulting improvements in public health and the health of our beloved Earth.

Cap and trade is an effective policy. It provides the regulated industries the flexibility to select the most cost-effective approach to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions. Everyone is a part of the effort, which makes it easier. The path is predictable and allows time to reach the goal.

Our legislators have put a lot of effort into the legislation that would be undone if 2117 passes. They have studied the dire situation we are in as climate change intensifies. This legislation carefully uses the funds to benefit all of us in many ways. There is no provision in this initiative to mandate lower prices at the gas pump.

Do you really believe that the oil industry would pass it on to consumers? Vote no and repeal this effort to undo this vital piece of legislation. Our children and grandchildren deserve a healthier world that is within our grasp.

Carol J. Smith
Bellingham
Editor,

The hedge fund millionaire that paid for the signature gathering to put four initiatives on the ballot including I-2117, which is the repeal of the Climate Commitment Act, keeps saying that cap and trade doesn’t work. Has he never heard of the success using a cap-and-trade mechanism to get rid of acid rain? Yes, it worked with a 93% reduction in annual sulfur dioxide emissions occurring between 1990 and 2019! 

This bill is even better because it is really a cap-and-invest bill. Every dollar that is paid by fossil fuel companies to buy carbon credits from the state is used to make clean energy investments.

There will be oversight as Mary Dye, R-Pomeroy, successfully sponsored an amendment to the law that requires the state Department of Ecology to produce an annual report on climate spending. Those updates must detail the recipients of climate funds, along with the amount, the purpose and the ultimate use of those dollars — and, if possible, what verified impact they have had. 

A NO VOTE on I -2117 will ensure we have at least a fighting chance of protecting our quality of life and our health from the ever-expanding impacts of climate change.  

We simply cannot afford to allow this multimillionaire to shift the cost of climate mitigation from industrial mega-polluters to average citizens.

Judy Hopkinson
Bellingham
Editor,

I have been really surprised at the lack of NO on I-2117 signs in Bellingham. Where I live, we have many of the bright yellow signs alerting people to the irresponsible Initiative that is on our ballot this year. The funder of this misleading Initiative (an extreme, right-wing multi-millionaire who moved to Washington to avoid taxes on his hedge fund) paid people to obtain signatures to get it on the ballot.

Initiative 2117 would get rid of the Climate Commitment Act in perpetuity. Washington state would never be allowed to tax the big polluters. I-2117 implies that gas prices will go down. But there is absolutely nothing in the initiative that guarantees lower fuel costs.

That would be at the discretion of the oil companies and history has shown us the record profits they’ve made at the expense of the paying public. The significant revenues generated by the Climate Commitment Act fund investments in clean air and water, wildfire prevention, transportation projects, support for Tribal nations, grants that support farmers’ and ranchers’ sustainable practices and fish habitat and salmon recovery.

The No on 2117 is endorsed by over 400 organizations and is funded by small donations across the state. Please tell your friends and family about the importance of voting NO on I-2117. This is a critical moment in our state. Keep polluters accountable and our environment healthy and diverse.

Lindy Early-Rosen
Lummi Island

Letters to the Editor are published online Wednesdays; a selection is published in print Fridays. Send to letters@cascadiadaily.com by 10 a.m. Tuesdays. Rules: Maximum 250 words, be civil, have a point and make it clearly. Preference is given to letters about local subjects. CDN reserves the right to reject letters or edit for length, clarity, grammar and style, or removal of personal attacks or offensive content. Letters must include an address/phone number to verify the writer's identity (not for publication).

Latest stories

CDN makes tough daily choices balancing public disclosure, harm to individuals
Oct. 31, 2024 5:59 p.m.
Send letters, maximum 250 words, to letters@cascadiadaily.com
Oct. 29, 2024 10:00 p.m.
An expert notes: Over time, other countries changed their minds
Oct. 29, 2024 3:35 p.m.

Have a news tip?

Subscribe to our free newsletters