While Mark Harmsworth is an advocate for his constituents and going to bat for them in the 44th Legislative District, our representatives in the 45th Legislative District, Larry Springer and Roger Goodman, would rather continue to take a bat to our wallets than be an advocate for us. These two so called “representatives” have the Olympia addiction…they are addicted to our money. I don’t believe they’ve ever seen a tax, fee or toll they don’t like.

The two-year experiment of tolling on I-405 was completed over a month ago. And the ongoing tolling is illegal because the minimum standards have clearly not been met. The law stipulates, “If after two years of operation of the express toll lanes on Interstate 405 performance measures listed in subsection (4) (a) AND (e) of this section are not being met, the express toll lanes project must be terminated as soon as practical.”

This is the text of the referenced sections: (a) Whether the express toll lanes maintain speeds of forth-five miles per hour at least 90 percent of the time during peak periods; (e) Whether the express toll lanes generated sufficient revenue to pay for all interstate 405 express toll lane-related operating costs.

I’ve repeatedly asked both Springer and Goodman to join our Sen. Dino Rossi in writing to Gov. Inslee to remove the tolls, and both have refused to do so.

During the last session, both Springer and Goodman refused to admonish Rep. Judy Clibborn of Mercer Island who refused to allow democracy to prevail. I guess 32,000-plus petition signatures to remove the tolling on I-405 mean nothing to either of them. That tells me a great deal about their integrity, ethics and scruples when they refuse to follow the laws of the state of Washington, and refuse to represent the best interest of us citizens they pretend to represent.

King County has grown by more than 210,000 people the past three years. Snohomish and Pierce counties have grown substantially as well. Our state’s economy is booming, yet the State never seems to have enough money. Where and how is all this surplus money being spent anyway? I don’t think the state of Washington has a money problem, I believe we have a money-management problem. Hey Larry and Roger, why are you not representing us and going to bat for us?

David Aamodt

Redmond