We tied the legislature's hands--again--on tax increases with I-1185. In non-binding advisory votes, we favored repeal of both tax increases passed by the legislature last year (ESB 6635 and SHB 2590). Two years ago, we stopped--again--an attempt to create a state income tax. While Washington voters may be undecided on a number of issues, on taxes the message is clear: government takes enough already.

Yet some folks in Olympia seem to have cotton in their ears. Nowhere is this more clear than at the Department of Transportation, where officials are constantly scheming at ways to convince (perhaps "blackmail" is a better word) the public to turn over more money.

This is clear in the current Washington State Transportation Commission survey, which tries over and over to force respondents to say that they support higher taxes or more tolls and fees. I took the survey yesterday and it was both frustrating and intrusive. Yet I did it to register, once again, my opposition to government extracting more resources from our already burdened and struggling economy.

Perhaps the most dishonest part of the transportation conversation is the refusal to consider the costs of the state's prevailing wage law. This law literally does just one thing: inflates the prices state taxpayers pay for infrstructure. That's all it does. It makes taxpayers pay more to build roads and schools, to do earthquake retrofits and make other safety improvements. And what this really means is that taxpayers get less--less roads and schools, and more dangerous bridges and buildings.

I encourage you to take the WSTC survey--their small sample size means your response actually matters. And if you agree with me that taxpayers shouldn't be asked to pay more and get less, tell them that repealing prevailng wage must be a part of our transportation solution.