January 21, 2006
Sooner or later it adds up to real money
Sunday's P-I editorial, "Fools rush in", informs us that:
As of midweek, word has reached Olympia that officials in King, Pierce and Snohomish counties had reached agreement on a plan to raise about $14 million for regional road projects and Sound Transit expansion.
Sound Transit's light rail capital costs have been roughly
$200 milliion a mile, so $14 million wouldn't buy much expansion. I suspect the actual number is closer to
$14 billion. This was probably a careless error. Not that the P-I editorial board has ever given me a reason to believe they understand the difference between a million dollars and a billion dollars.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at January 21, 2006
06:06 PM | Email This
1. Here comes more taxes and Seattle just loves to pay more taxes they always vote for it!
Amazing I got my ballot this time!
2. They won't run Sound Transit on the ballot alone because it will go down big time.
3. I do not believe the 14 Billion number at all. Just for Roads we were looking at between 10 Billion and 20 Billion Dollars depending on the final plans for 520 bridge and If we have a tunnel in Seattle(Use Transportation money to rebuild the Failing Seawall.) I can believe 14 Billion just for Mass Transit projects alone that would provide about half of the projects they are considering.
But I agree with South County. If Voters had a choice between roads and Mass Transit projects funding Mass Transit would lose. You will see the Democratic Billionaire club providing Millions of dollars to sell the Transportation bill. Like always fear will be the Number one call.
No mention on the thousands of jobs that will be lost yes Lost because of this transportation package. You take 14 Billion dollars out of the economy. That is 14 Billion less money that could be used for Jobs and other things. I do believe in fixing the Highways but is it worth it when Mass Transit is going to take all the money. You will see that the Mass Transit projects will get the money first. There will be some token road work that will have to start. But when the cost overruns take place because they estimated only 25 to 50% of the real cost(Human Error using Washington State Math) Who do you think will get all the money first. It will not be roads. They will divert this money to the Mass transit projects as a priority because that is the way our Regional Transit board will move. If the past 2 decades is not proof of that fact there is nothing I can ever say to show you the facts. If you look at the spending level for all transportation money since the late 80's you wil find that most money went to Mass transit projects. When the roads were done what kind of lanes were added. Not general purpose but Car pool lanes or Bus only lanes. I do not see any change in this policy because it will be the regional board that will set the priorities not our vote.
Here is what I see happening. They are going to do planning for some road construction. Like always that will take a few years. They will build the tunnel which will actually cost between 5 and 20 Billion dollars. Once they start construction it will turn into another big dig(Mass tunnel for those who have not heard of it). Because it is a major road all other road projects will be stopped and all the money will go into a tunnel that will not handle more traffic but less traffic overall. Thereby making communte times even longer. While the construction takes place expect nearly double the time to communte from West Seattle if you are lucky. The next priority for the roads will be the 520 bridge. Yep and they will accept the plan that puts light rail on the bridge and will only have 75% of the current capacity. I have a lot of confidence in our Regional Transit board since they get rid of anyone who questions there plans. Basically anything left over will have to be put into the Mass transit side of the house. Sure they can calculate the cost of making the project but the actual cost of running the system well they will need every dime of this package to run the new mass transit systems being developed. The taxpayer will have to pay 30 to 70% of the annual operating costs. Thereby eliminating any more money for road construction because they will need more money. And again they will do more mass transit projects within the package which will divert even more money from real transportation fixes.
The Regional Transit board does not want to fix the transportation system. They will do some choke points or if one of their supporters demand some special project it will get funded. Maybe a new road to go to Paul Allens Golf Course. The reason why is then they can not ask for more tax money to continue funding Mass transit projects. The ultimate goal is prevent anyone from using their cars. At the rate of 1 million dollars spent to get one person off the roads. It can be a very expensive.(Light rail between Everett and Seattle 300 million spent for a total of 350 one way tickets every day. And in the past few weeks it has not run every day. To dangerous due to mud slides. You would think that 300 Million dollars the system would be able to run every day.
So when the package comes up yes we will be fed a bunch of lies just like no new taxes that the Governor said before the last election. How many new taxes have been inacted in the first year. I trust the transportation board to keep their word just like the Govenor did. In other words they will lie until they get the money then divert divert divert. New priorities most of which were never mentioned when we vote for the package. I wonder how many minivan will be bought in this package. Last transportation bill we voted down had a highway project that would buy 10000 vans and only fund that purchase because the project was only 25% funded.
4. That's over $3100 per inch. Wonder what the per-inch cost of other transportation projects around the country is?
5. Just because a tax gets passed, it doesn't mean most of the voters of Seattle voted for it, any more than Christine Gregoire being governor means most of the voters voted for her. It's not how the voters voted, it's who's counting the votes that determines the outcome of the election.
$14 Billion - it would be cheaper:
to pay 50,000 people $250,000 each to move closer to work.
to pay 100,000 people $1,000 a month for 10 years to get a job closer to home.
to give 45,000 people a $300,000 condo within walking distance of their job.
6. Just because a tax gets passed, it doesn't mean most of the voters of Seattle voted for it, any more than Christine Gregoire being governor means most of the voters voted for her. It's not how the voters voted, it's who's counting the votes that determines the outcome of the election.
$14 Billion - it would be cheaper:
to pay 50,000 people $250,000 each to move closer to work.
to pay 100,000 people $1,000 a month for 10 years to get a job closer to home.
to give 45,000 people a $300,000 condo within walking distance of their job.
7. AND YOU GUYS THOUGHT RON SIMMS WAS A COMPLETE FRAUD...NOW THE REAL PROS OF WASTE AND FRAUD JOHN "CHAMBERS CREEK" LADDENBERG & JULIE "WANA BE" ANDERSON ARE RUNNING THINGS LOOK OUT THIS IS JUST THE START!!!!