Dear Friend of Good Government:
We are writing today to encourage you to contact the Seattle City Councilmembers concerning the potential vote on the viaduct/tunnel. As you know Governor Gregoire has told the city it must hold a vote of the people to decide whether to keep a viaduct or replace it with a tunnel. She further made it clear that Seattle taxpayers will be responsible for all costs above those estimated for a new viaduct.
We are asking that you either send your own letter requesting that any ballot language clearly show all financial data or copy and paste the letter below. The councilmembers' email addresses are provided at the bottom of this email.
If you have the time, email separate letters to each. If not, send to all in one email. When putting multiple addresses in the "to line" separate them with a comma and space. Be sure to include your name and address at the end of the message. Then please forward this email to anyone you know who may be interested.
Contact city council members today. A Ballot Measure, Tunnel vs. Elevated will be introduced by Councilmember Nick Licata on Monday January 8, 2007 at a City Council Meeting. Whatever the decision it should be made with full information.
Join in, get on the email list, http://www.notunnelalliance.com
No Tunnel Alliance
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Dear Councilmember:
Re: Tunnel/Viaduct Vote
I urge you to make the Viaduct/Tunnel ballot measure as clear and transparent as possible.
Specifically, I call on you to include all costs and the sources of all funds. This list should cover the cost of the complete project, not just the "core" part, and all finance costs should be made clear. The finance costs should include those that are to be paid by any hoped-for contributor to the project including Federal, Washington State, City Utilities, the Port and the RTID.
If the tunnel plan includes funding that is not secured, this needs to be made perfectly clear. For each non-certain funding source, I request that you identify the taxes which will be raised, or which services will need to be cut, to cover costs should the proposed funding not materialize. The ballot measure also needs to make clear exactly how the residents of Seattle are going to pay for the cost overruns of the tunnel. If the project is over budget the same 40% as the fire stations were, this would be nearly $2 billion, all the responsibility of Seattle.
Further, I request that the vote be binding, both for the type of project and the precise taxes for Seattle's share.
In addition, it is expected that City Hall will make the public aware of the secondary costs of construction. An honest assessment of secondary costs should include the private sector both in business losses and lost jobs as well as the losses to the city from depressed property values and lowered B&O revenues from the lost business.
Finally, I would like to be put on the list for information regarding the public hearings to be held.
Thank you,
[your name]
[your address]
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Seattle City Council
600 Fourth Avenue, 2nd floor, P.O. Box 34025, Seattle, WA 98124-4025
sally.clark@seattle.gov 684-8802
richard.conlin@seattle.gov 684-8805
david.della@seattle.gov 684-8806
jan.drago@seattle.gov 684-8801
jean.godden@seattle.gov 684-8807
nick.licata@seattle.gov 684-8803
richard.mciver@seattle.gov 684-8800
tom.rasmussen@seattle.gov 684-8808
peter.steinbrueck@seattle.gov 684-8804
OR copy and paste this Council list into your email "TO:" field ...
nick.licata@seattle.gov, sally.clark@seattle.gov, richard.conlin@seattle.gov, david.della@seattle.gov, jan.drago@seattle.gov, jean.godden@seattle.gov, richard.mciver@seattle.gov, tom.rasmussen@seattle.gov, peter.steinbrueck@seattle.gov
Posted by ccwt at January 04, 2007 04:18 PM | Email This