Blogs

Seattle/King County Board of Health has promoted and proposed a “fee” for each citizen who must use an Onsite Sewer System (OSS), what most of us call a septic system.  This fee would be collected each year in the property tax bill which actually seems much more a tax than a fee.  Exactly how the money the county would collect would be used is not specified; some documents state it would be a way to pool money for low cost loans should a person need to replace a failing system, while other documents discuss paying for additional staff for monitoring of OSS in King County.  This disingenuous scheme is the brainchild of Puget Sound Partnership as can be seen in the Final Funding Strategy Report Volume 1 - Findings and Recommendations Sept.

Maritime Washington National Heritage Act would create a Heritage Area of the entire coastline of Washington State. The unelected National Park Service and an unelected quasi-governmental Private Trust Organization would be in charge of administering and distributing tax-payer and private monies in the Maritime Washington National Heritage Area.  Citizens' Alliance for Property Rights is fighting this Heritage Area.  Individual Property Owners expect the right to self-determination through elected and accountable representatives. National Heritage Areas are mapped regions which include thousands of private properties within the borders of a Heritage Area.

Citizens' Alliance for Property Rights is petitioning Congress asking for a denial of the designation of the Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust National Heritage Area.  There are serious considerations regarding the imposition of an Heritage Area on Private Property Owners. http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/petition-to-deny-mountains-to-sound-greenway-national-heritage-area.html Individual Property Owners expect the right to self-determination through elected and accountable representatives. National Heritage Areas are mapped regions which include thousands of private properties within the borders of a Heritage Area. National Heritage Areas are areas that are designated National Park Service Areas and are as such federally controlled areas.

Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust Pushes Again for Failed National Heritage Area Designation The Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust is taking another shot at becoming the Managing Entity for 1.5 million acres stretching along I-90 from Seattle past Ellensburg. Aside from lack of federal will and dollars, a large part of the reason the previous attempt to push this through congress failed was the public outcry from Private Property Owners who objected to being mapped into this Heritage Area that would fall under the control of the National Park Service. Property owners believe, rightly so, that there is enough governmental control in this state over their properties, both on the state and federal levels. This gets to the heart of the matter, the word trust. Citizens’ Alliance for Property Rights asks do property owners trust the Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust?