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Misguided survey likely backfired
Misguided survey likely backfired
Friday, October 8, 1999
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL BOARD
In their campaign finance disclosure forms, Initiative 695 supporters may
have to list an in-kind contribution to their effort from an unlikely source:
King County government.
Metro Transit's recent survey, which it allegedly conducted to gauge public
opinion on budget priorities, comes perilously close to a so-called "push poll,"
a political tool whose goal is to mold, rather than measure, voters' views on
an issue.
It's not necessary to challenge the legality of the Metro poll to question
its morality, and its political advisability.
That the poll may be technically legal is evidenced by the nod it was given
by the Public Disclosure Commission when the county asked in advance. Indeed,
PDC staff went so far as to tab the poll a model for other local governments
to emulate.
OK legal ruling. Bad advice.
I-695 author Tim Eyman has too often been allowed to use his mantra of "threats,
lies and scare tactics" to sidestep substantive challenges to his proposal.
The county's ham-handed poll can't help but put a spring in Eyman's step.
Among other things, those surveyed were told that Metro stands to lose $100
million in the near future and then asked which they would rather see as a result
of that revenue loss: higher fares or reduced service. The only potential $100
million hit on the horizon is I-695. The hardly subliminal message is: If I-695
passes, you're going to either pay more or get less service, so pick your poison.
Factual? Yes. Politically charged? Heck yes.
(The poll question posing the raise fares/cut service choice may in fact be
misleading on its face. I-695 includes a provision requiring a public vote on
any tax or fee increase. If I-695 were to pass, the county apparently would
no longer have the option of increasing fares on its own. Hence, under I-695,
if Metro wants to know what voters think of fare increases, it has to ask them
not in a poll but at the polls.)
Are county officials legitimately worried about how they'll make ends meet
under the meat cleaver of I-695? Good. They should be. But there are other methods
-- crafting a contingency budget, for instance -- to prepare for revenue uncertainties.
The real problem with the county's behavior is not the impact that taking
the poll may have had on the 800 people questioned but its impact on the tens
of thousands of voters who have learned of it.
It appears to serve Eyman's script of a corrupt, entrenched government bureaucracy
willing to do anything to keep on unfairly gouging hapless taxpayers.
And in the political theater of the absurd, appearance is everything.
Running this poll irresponsibly risked giving some voters a push in the wrong
direction.
