The Ill of the People

This past Sunday's New York Times magazine had a short article about an academic who feels American democracy is fatally flawed. Here's the nut: "Bryan Caplan, an economist at George Mason University, has attracted notice for raising a pointed question: Do voters have any idea what they are doing? In his provocative new book, 'The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies', Caplan argues that 'voters are worse than ignorant; they are, in a word, irrational - and vote accordingly.' Caplan's complaint is not that special-interest groups might subvert the will of the people, or that government might ignore the will of the people. He objects to the will of the people itself."

Which brings me to the above-the-fold story on 520 bridge tolls in today's P.I. (which contains an embarrassing fuck-up in print, and has been recently corrected in this online version). The skinny: "There could be $6 round-trip tolls on a new Evergreen Point Bridge within 11 years if regional voters approve a highway-improvement package that rebuilds the aging span, according to a new financing plan for the replacement. The figure, announced Tuesday, was developed by the Regional Transportation Investment District, a three-county entity that is considering the $14.5 billion road improvement package for the November ballot. Tolls, which haven't been imposed on the bridge since 1979, could make up the largest chunk of financing for the replacement, estimated between $3.9 billion and $4.4 billion...The road proposal is to be paired with a $23 billion Sound Transit expansion on the same ballot. Both must be approved by voters to take effect. The Sound Transit package, if approved, would extend the region's light rail system across Interstate 90, south to Tacoma and north to Mill Creek."

So what's a radical D.C.-area economist got to do with a new bridge here in the other Washington? In order to stand a snowball's chance in hell of passing, the RTID package needs to pass overwhelmingly in King County. And in order for that RTID package to pass overwhelmingly in King County, the 520 solution needs to be palatable to voters. A $6 round-trip toll? Not palatable to King County voters, of which there are many, who use that bridge on a regular basis. Hence, that $6 toll, which is almost certain to be included in the final tax package that's put forth to voters, might be the final straw that breaks RTID's back.

But here's the heartbreaker: a $6 toll on 520 is a perfectly logical, reasonable way to pay for necessary construction of a new, improved bridge. It's a user tax, and user taxes are among the most sensible tariffs around. But y'know what? Sanity doesn't always translate into positive results at the ballot box, especially when it removes a significant amount of money from people's wallets on a daily basis.

If Caplan had been consulted on this mess, he'd have advised squarely against putting such a critical, complicated package to a vote of the people. And he'd have been right. There are certain decisions that government officials need to ram down their constituents' throats -- the old "take your medicine; trust me, it's good for you; now shut up" philosophy that politicians in just about any other area would see the wisdom in. But here, it's "when in doubt, punt it to the voters." If this approach fails, it's the voters' fault that Sound Transit stops dead in its tracks, 520 is a parking lot, and the Viaduct crumbles to the ground in an earthquake, right? Wrong. This is why we elect people: To make tough decisions on complex matters that the average voter can't be expected to be fully educated on.