While there was promising news for transit funding in Thurston County last night, over in Island County, voters soundly rejected a proposal to raise property taxes $0.16 per $1,000 valuation---an average tax increase of about $40 a year, in a county with the lowest property taxes in the state. As of last night, the proposal was losing nearly 3 to 1.

What does a suburban area like Island County have to do with Seattle? The Island County measure, like the sales tax increase King County plans to put on the upcoming November ballot, would have paid to staff public-safety agencies, including the sheriff's department and the prosecutor's office. Public safety is the kind of government spending voters tend to support even in tough times. The fact that voters rejected a tax for public safety by such an overwhelming margin is a bad omen for King County, which will have to cut public-safety programs back 12 percent if the sales-tax measure doesn't pass.