It makes no sense whatsoever to have this discussion devolve into a classis "us vs. them" circle jerk. IR's chart is correct, without Seattle and King County the rest of the State would suffer in the basic services that Hank outlines. The rural counties do not have as much representation in the Legislature because of proportional representation. More citizens, more representatives.

What is more important is that if the citizens of this State want to put constraints (a supermajority) on the Legislature in raising taxes, a Constitutional Amendment must be enacted. Rather than trying to prove a point about liberals and conservatives, maybe we should work on that....