Washington Policy Center Blog

More on RFID

A good descriptive news article in The Seattle Times today regarding the basics of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology and some of the possible privacy concerns surrounding this emerging 21st century bar code.

The reporter does a good job of highlighting the perceived promises that this new technology can bring about in both private and public industries. She also correctly lays out some concerns expressed by consumer advocacy groups without jumping on the Luddite bandwagon (those who are opposed to the technology itself).

But I did take issue with one line that made it into the story and is not a quote from a principle in the story but from the reporter herself, "The technology [RFID] alone can't be made to do the right thing without a good system of laws and policies around it."

I think this is a specious argument. Using this same logic, any and all types of technological advancement should be considered suspect and potentially harmful but for the grace of laws and policies. Not every advancement, whether in technology or medicine or education, is made with the pretense to harm an individual or group of people. Most often, these improvements are based upon the idea of helping people or making a process more efficient and possibly cost-friendly.

I do not think the reporter meant any harm by saying that laws and policies must dictate such technological advancements. My concern, however, is that so often people and policymakers do not stop to think that more laws and policies governing technological advancements may cause irreparable harm to the innovation industry.

The laws on the books should already protect intellectual property rights and provide protection from abuse and from criminal behavior (whether physical or electronic). Yet, today we have policymakers wanting to regulate specific technologies even though -- or maybe because -- they do not understand them. This makes for shortsighted policy decisions.

No Joke: Governor to take action on budget transparency bill

The Governor is planning to finish bill signings tomorrow which means she'll be taking action on SB 6818: Promoting transparency in state expenditures. SB 6818 is based on WPC's recommendation for the state to follow the lead of the federal government and other states by adopting a searchable budget website. Hopefully with an April 1 bill signing the joke will be on those who don't want increased budget transparency, not taxpayers.

Tacoma Narrows Bridge

These were sent to me from Dick Ford, Chairman of the Washington Transportation Commission. Apparently they were taken by Reed Skyllingstad from his deck last September.

North Korea - An Unparalleled Environmental Commitment

Saturday was host to "Earth Hour," a WWF proposed idea to turn out the lights for one hour to show that we can all make a difference.

As I sat at home in this second week of Spring, thinking about global warming and watching the snow fall, I ran across this photo of Korea at night, which shows that some countries take the Earth more seriously than others -- not just one day, but every day.

Hat Tip: Don Boudreaux

Balancing Free Market and Government Intervention

Remember the big fight in the legislature a few years back to adopt California's strict vehicle emission standards?

The most controversial element of the California plan (passed in 1990) was the requirement that 10% of all new vehicle sales had to be zero-emissions by 2003. Environmentalists applauded the push toward cleaner vehicles while car manufacturers complained that forcing a technology before the market is ready would significantly raise the cost of new cars and eventually put them out of business.

Washington eventually adopted an amended version of California's standards.

According to this CNN article, regulators in California have now reduced the quota of zero emission car sales by a whopping 70%.

"Knowledge is power"

Today's Everett Herald has an editorial on the Legislature's adoption of the searchable budget transparency website recommended by WPC. The article notes:

"By the time state lawmakers convene again next year, their results will be under the scrutiny of a new set of eyes -- yours.

If you care to find out how they're spending your tax money, that is.

In a welcome boost for government accountability, the Legislature unanimously approved the creation of a new Web resource that will allow citizens to quickly and intuitively access detailed, understandable information on state spending and taxes. Much of that information is already available on the Web, but it's hard to find. And once you find it, good luck making sense of it. The idea of this new site is to bring it all together in one user-friendly place where average taxpayers can see where their money is going."

The Herald also ran a news article about the new reform yesterday. The bill is currently awaiting the Governor's signature.

Washingtonians work longer to pay off the taxes

The Tax Foundation just released their annual Tax Freedom Day analysis. The report points out that, on average, Americans work from January 1st until April 23rd to pay off their taxes and only after April 23rd do they keep what they earn.

However, Washingtonians are among the more unlucky of the states that actually have to work past April 23rd to pay off the federal and state/local tax liabilities. We Evergreen Staters need to work an extra 6 days, until April 29th, until we start to keep what we make. The worst state? Connecticut, at May 8th. The earliest? Alabama Alaska at March 29th.

In case you're wondering, this means that the first 120 calendar days (33% of the year) are spent funding government and the last 246 (leap year numbers) days working for our families. With looming budget deficits in our state's future are we going to see Tax Freedom Day move further towards, and eventually into, May?

Correction: I misread one of the tables the Tax Foundation printed and the state with the earliest tax freedom day is actually Alaska (March 29), not Alabama (actually April 9th). 

Part III of the Laffer Curve Series

Here is part III of the Laffer Curve video series produced by the Cato Institute. Part one focused on the theory of the Curve, part two highlighted the evidence surrounding the effect of the Curve, and this one talks about the inane budgetary policies of the Congressional Joint Tax Committee.

It is important to remember the principles behind these videos as the U.S. is experiencing economic turbulence.

View the video here

Limiting how much you drive (updated)

In February, the Washington Climate Advisory Team (CAT), released their recommendations to accomplish three broad goals: reduce climate pollution, grow a clean energy economy and become energy independent.

Todd Myers, WPC's Environmental Director published an extensive review of the CAT's recommendations here.

One of the recommendations that caught my attention was proposed targets to reduce Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) across the state.

The state should adopt a schedule of statewide per capita VMT reduction targets, similar to the emissions reductions schedule in E.O. 07-02. Compared to a business as usual baseline, the state would commit to a plan to reduce annual per capita VMT 18% by 2020, 30% by 2035, and 50% by 2050.

There were even two bills proposed this legislative session that would have implemented these targets: SB 6822 and HB 3154.

If these bills would have passed and as the CAT recommends, the state would have been responsible to spend public money to restrict how much citizens drive.

Consider the following chart from the WSDOT that shows the VMT per licensed driver.

In 2004, each licensed driver in Washington, drove their car about 12,555 miles. In 2020, WSDOT projects each driver will drive about 13,500 miles. According to the CAT, a 18% reduction in VMT by 2020  means a Washingtonian could only drive 11,070 miles per year, or about the same level that person drove in 1985.

These targets rely heavily on spending billions of additional public money to increase the supply of public transit. But this strategy has been tried before. Despite huge spending increases in public transit over the last two decades, demand for transit has actually fallen from 7.5% in 1980 to 6.8% in 2000 and as we see from the WSDOT graph, VMT per driver has risen 16% over roughly the same period. 

Spending public money to limit how much the public can drive is the wrong approach. It will not work and will ironically make congestion and emissions/pollution worse.

Instead, the state should spend resources on reducing congestion and removing barriers to technology that will improve emission standards and fuel efficiency.

UPDATE: an astute reader of the WPC blog pointed out that HB 2815, which passed the legislature and was signed by the Governor on March 13, does set VMT reduction targets as recommended by the CAT. Among other things, the bill also exempts vehicles weighing more than 10,000 lbs from the targets, which makes the impact on personal passenger vehicles even greater. And it requires the Department of Ecology to report to the legislature by December 2008 on recommended tools it needs to meet the targets.

As I've blogged before, while the DOE figures out how big and pointy the government's stick needs to be, wave good bye to your freedom of mobility.

Former U.S. Comptroller David Walker in Seattle April 15

When you’re done filing your taxes on April 15, 2008, come join Washington Policy Center for an interactive conference on how to make government work best for taxpayers. Former U.S. Comptroller David Walker of the Government Accountability Office (GAO) will deliver the keynote lunch address. Walker has been touring the nation imploring Americans to "wake up" and deal with the growing fiscal cancer facing the nation.

On July 8, 2007, CBS News did a story on Walker's efforts (video here):

David Walker is a prudent man and a highly respected public official. As comptroller general of the United States he runs he Government Accountability Office, the GAO, which audits the government's books and serves as the investigative arm of the U.S. Congress. He has more than 3,000 employees, a budget of a half a billion dollars, and a message he considers urgent.

"I'm going to show you some numbers…they’re all big and they’re all bad," he says.

So bad, that Walker has given up on elected officials and taken his message directly to taxpayers and opinion makers, hoping to shape the debate in the next presidential election.

"You know the American people, I tell you, they are absolutely starved for two things: the truth, and leadership," Walker says.

He calls it a fiscal wake up tour, and he is telling civic groups, university forums and newspaper editorial boards that the U.S. has spent, promised, and borrowed itself into such a deep hole it will be unable to climb out if it doesn’t act now. As Walker sees it, the survival of the republic is at stake.

"What’s going on right now is we’re spending more money than we make…we’re charging it to credit card…and expecting our grandchildren to pay for it. And that’s absolutely outrageous," he told the editorial board of the Seattle Post Intelligencer.

Along with Walker, national budget and tax experts will also be speaking at the April 15 conference. Click here for additional details.