Disclosure Flaws
Dear Disclosers:
Does Jack Evans really want to make an effort to loosen DC’s already
lax ethics and disclosure laws for councilmembers a centerpiece of his
campaign for mayor? Read Alan Blinder’s article in the Examiner, "DC
Councilman Wants Disclosure Law Axed,"
http://tinyurl.com/a5tflon.
#####
Henry Grabar, "Why We Should Never Fine Cyclists," The Atlantic
Cities,
http://tinyurl.com/cs4j68z, gives a cyclist’s
take on whether bicyclists should be required to obey traffic laws.
"Here’s mine: I hope it never happens. On balance, cyclists’ illegal
behavior — like that of pedestrians — adds much, much more convenience
to life than danger. Aggressive enforcement of traffic laws could upend
the fragile system of incentives that leads thousands of people to
undertake a long and sweaty commute each day. Why should people riding
20-pound bicycles obey laws designed to regulate the conduct of
4,000-pound cars, to say nothing of accepting the same penalties? In
terms of the damage we can cause and sustain in an accident, cyclists
have more in common with pedestrians than cars and should be treated
accordingly."
#####
The PowerPoint presentations on changing DC’s Height Act that are
being given by the Office of Planning and the National Capital Planning
Commission at its public meetings are reproduced in Aaron Weiner’s
article, "How to Rile Up a Crowd (in DC): Talk Building Heights,"
http://tinyurl.com/cp4uwyn.
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
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More on Undergrounding Power Lines
Dorothy Brizill,
dorothy@dcwatch.com
At a press conference on Wednesday, May 15, Mayor Gray announced the
findings and recommendations of his Power Line Undergrounding Task
Force, which he had established in August 2012, "to advise the mayor on
the general causes of storm-related power outages in the District,
actions that may be taken to reduce future storm-related power outages,
and the undergrounding of power lines" (Mayor’s Order 2012-130). While
neither an executive summary nor a copy of the Task Force’s report was
available at the press conference, an abridged version of the report’s
findings and recommendations has been posted on the web site of the city
administrator at
http://www.oca.dc.gov/node/53957.
While the details of the report have yet to be fully revealed, we do
know that the initial phase of the undergrounding project will cost one
billion dollars; take six to seven years; and focus on sixty high
voltage power feeder lines in Wards 3, 4, 5, 7, and 8 that have been
most affected by overhead-related power outages. DC residents and
businesses will pay for the project through their tax dollars as well as
through an increase in the cost of Pepco’s electric rate (i.e., a
3.23 percent increase in the electric rate for residential customers and
a rate increase between 5 percent and 9.25 percent for commercial
customers). In addition, District residents and visitors will be
adversely impacted for the next six to seven years as neighborhood
streets and commercial corridors are excavated to allow for burying
power lines.
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Ward 6 DC Councilman Tommy Wells is poised to formally announce this
weekend his candidacy for mayor. No one is surprised. But, if he stays
in the race, he will have to give up his seat in the legislature; his
council term expires in 2014.
Ward 2 Councilman Jack Evans is expected to announce for mayor next
month. Ward 4 Councilwoman Muriel Bowser was the first to officially
jump in the race.
Does it feel like 1998? Read more at
http://www.jonettarosebarras.com/p=3152
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UN Human Rights Committee to Take Up DC’s
Disenfranchisement Once Again
Timothy Cooper,
worldrights2008@gmail.com
The UN Human Rights Committee has issued a list of issues that will
be raised with the government of the United States of America between
October 15 and November 1 in Geneva, Switzerland, when a US delegation
will come before the Committee ( http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrc/hrcs107.htm).
At that time, the United States will be required to address these issues
in the context of its international human rights obligations. Among the
issues to be considered by the Committee is the disenfranchisement of
the residents of the District of Columbia.
World Rights earlier this year submitted material to the Committee
about the District’s disenfranchisement, which led to the adoption of
the issue. See
http://www2.ohchr.org/English/bodies/hrc/docs/NGOs/28-USHRNetwork_Worldrights.pdf.
See also UN Human Rights Committee link: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrc/hrcs109.htm.
Based on the language of the list of issues adopted by the UN Human
Rights Committee in March, 2013, UN Committee members will make
inquiries of the United States as to the "steps taken or foreseen to
ensure that residents of Washington, DC, can exercise the right to vote
and elect representatives to the Senate and House of Representatives."
After consideration of the United States’ responses and position, the
Committee will then issue recommendations regarding US compliance with
its international treaty obligations under the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights, the world’s leading human rights treaty. The
Committee’s recommendations will be issued in December, 2013. In 2006,
the UN Committee called on the US to comply with its treaty obligations
to grant DC residents the right to participate in their national
legislature through duly elected representatives.
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New DC "Millionaires" Tax for Everyone Else
Neil Williams,
palisadesnative@gmail.com
For two years, the DC Fiscal Policy Institute (DCFPI) has vigorously
opposed a grassroots group of retirees who are trying to repeal a tax on
the interest from "out-of-state" municipal bonds. This tax was enacted
in May 2011 without any hearings to fill a revenue gap that has never
materialized. Most DC residents with this bond income are seniors who
prefer conservative and dependable investments. This is important
because DC is on the US News and World Report’s list of the ten
worst (most costly) US cities for retirees.
The DCFPI has continued to claim, incorrectly, that every state taxes
all out-of-state bond income (nine do not, seven with no income tax and
two with income taxes). Instead the DC bond tax makes DC residents into
second-class citizens. DC is the only local jurisdiction in the United
States whose residents pay tax on all municipal bonds issued outside its
borders. Unlike any state, DC is a medium-sized city that issues very
few bonds and has no single-state bond funds, which makes adequate
diversification impossible.
The DCFPI’s most recent attempt to perpetuate the tax is to propose
applying the bond tax to anyone with an income over $75,000. At the same
time, the DCFPI alleges that this tax is just intended to eliminate the
"tax breaks" of "millionaires." Although there are eighty-one filers
with average bond income over $2 million, 17,967 other filers also
receive bond income. If enacted, this tax on investment income would be
the only one in the country that is based both on a resident’s income
and the geographic location of the payer (inside or outside of the
city). DC’s revenue in 2013 will be over $5.7 billion, but the revenue
from this tax will be only about $1 million in the first year and
possibly $11 million over the next four years. So the bond tax won’t
raise much revenue, but it will hurt seniors and retirees with moderate
incomes while treating all DC residents as second-class citizens.
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Having noticed the comment in themail that DC’s streetcars had been
in storage for three years, I responded [themail, May 5] that they were
bought at least seven years ago, and that their maintenance should be
included in the ultimate cost of the system. Richard Layman’s reference
to the long-lasting San Francisco streetcars [themail, May 8] couldn’t
have been further off base. I meant to call attention to the high-tech
character of the ones we own. In San Francisco they use cable cars — the
most primitive type of vehicle possible. They just get pulled from place
to place by an external mechanism. DC had one of those long ago, but it
had severe limitations to where it could go and whom it could
serve. Ironically, H Street would been an ideal route for a cable car
because it is a straight route and wouldn’t require overhead wires.
I don’t know the maintenance details of any other streetcar systems,
but I would be willing to bet that the control and propulsion systems of
the systems Richard cited have been updated and replaced several times
since they were built.
The more sophisticated a machine is, the more important its
maintenance is. My twenty-six-year-old bicycle does fine with an annual
cleaning. A safe and dependable twenty-first century, 156-passenger
vehicle is another thing altogether.
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[Reply to Mary C. Young, themail, May 12] I hope that the plan is not
to give drivers licenses to anyone, as you fear, leading to more
traffic. In fact, I propose that, starting immediately, drivers licenses
would be issued only to those people — US-born or otherwise — who pass
an actual driving test, initially and again at five or ten-year renewal
points. The test might require a little study, because there could be
questions about what to do at stop signs and red lights, how and when to
use a turn signal, and what those funny stripy things are at
intersections.
My plan would result in taking a lot of drivers off the roads, unless
they all begin to enjoy walking and biking, as all of us communists and
socialists wish. Driver’s licensure would be about driving, nothing
more.
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