Hello. My name is Dominique Torgerson,
and I am running for King County Council
for District 7 because we need change.
I know all too well the issues that we face
in our rural, unincorporated areas of King County.
With completely unreasonable and overburdensome
permitting and zoning codes,
it is otherwise a miracle if someone can even make it
through the permitting process at all,
much less without great financial and mental difficulty.
It took our business 2 1/2 years
to make it through what should have been
an over-the-counter permit.
King County does little to nothing to support its rural
or unincorporated businesses,
which is completely evident by the fact
that we have the absolute lowest percentage of sales
that comes from the unincorporated areas
out of any county in this entire state
at a minimal 3.2 percent,
and that is based on 2016 numbers.
King County basically has two principal sources
of tax revenue -- property tax and sales tax.
Property taxes levied by counties
can only increase by 1% every year.
With that limitation, we have to be able to
supplement our revenue by getting sales tax.
But the only way to create this foundation
of stable sales tax revenue
is to support unincorporated businesses.
With such limited sales tax
coming back from the general fund,
we have absolutely no way
to continue to support the rural areas,
much less get funding for anything else.
My second issue that I want to address
is our effect on the environment.
We have such an inefficient recycling program
where most of what we recycle
still ends up in the landfills.
With the technology that is available,
there is absolutely no reason
we should even have landfills anymore,
and that is something I want to change.
Lastly, we need to get back
to listening to the people.
As elected officials,
it is our duty to be servants to the people.
The words "career" and "politician"
should never go hand in hand.
But unfortunately, it is now all too common,
continually reinforced by greed
and need to excessively control.
If I am elected, I will push for term limits
that will effectively remove the incentive for someone to try
and make an elected position a career.