This seems timely-

These are the comments of Ted Van Dyk, writer for Crosscut, regarding an article by Knute Berger on transportation in the Puget Sound region:

Posted Tue, Sep 28, 10:20 a.m. 

Good piece. As someone who lived in Boston, NY, DC and LA before returning home to Seattle 10 years ago, I can attest that local transportation congestion is minimal compared to that experienced in those metro areas. We are not at some transportation crisis point.

The Alaskan Way Viaduct and Evergreen Point Bridge must be replaced or retrofitted because they represent a threat to public safety. We are nearly 10 years late in dealing with them.

We have a totally unneeded Allentown trolley, from downtown to South Lake Union, to feed Vulcan Inc.’s desire for such a link (and with a bit of tourist-appeal trolleyism thrown in). It has been running near empty since Day One. We are beginning a First Hill streetcar system not to meet any particular transportation need. Existing buses could do it.

Sound Transit light rail actually will cost far more than the $18 billion sum you cite. The three-county system now being planned—which includes retrofitting the I-90 bridge for light rail—will take many years of capital construction. At the end of the period, congestion will not be reduced—same as with the Mercer Mess redo. The transportation need could be met immediately with simple and far less costly expansion of existing bus service.

We should not underestimate the degree to which these projects are driven by the economic self-interest of powerful local players—the Mercer Mess redo and trolley for Vulcan; light rail to feed the ST bureacracy, contactors and sub-contractors, law firms, financial and p.r. firms, and unions which feed at the light rail trough—and who keep campaign money coming to the elected officials who support light rail.

Badly missing in all of this are elected officials, at federal, state, and local level, with the capacity to examine priorities and options and, then, to choose those in the public interest.

Transportation should not be consuming such a disproportionate amount of local energy and resources. Much is being driven not by public need but by the voracious appetities of those who benefit financially from transportation projects.

— Ted_Van_Dyk 

See http://crosscut.com/2010/09/28/mossback/20197/Why-is-transportation-in-the-driver-s-seat—/?pagejump=2

Tonight, the case for a potential conflict of interest was laid out re: Bellevue City Council member Grant Degginger and his law firm Lane/Powell by a Bellevue citizen during public comment. Lane/Powell apparently represents Sound Transit and Degginger admitted he has tried and won a case for them.

After Degginger’s comments re: his involvement, he called out his challenger by disparaging a group she belongs to.  That led to an escalation of conflicts between Council members.

See the streamed 09/27/10 City of Bellevue Council meeting on their website at: http://www.ci.bellevue.wa.us/bellevue_tv.htm

Seattle P-I Columnist Joel Connelly writes about concern over-taxing people to the point where they can’t afford to live in Seattle:

“Although devoured by the Seattle P-I computer when we switched e-mail systems, the message from an elderly Beacon Hill couple about their tax burdens remains embedded in my mind. They wrote about reaching a point where they can’t afford to stay in their modest home of 40 years, and how nobody in government seems the least bit interested in hearing about it.”

Glad to see that someone is figuring out that taxpayers from both major parties, Democrats & Republicans, as well as Independents,  have serious challenges in their efforts to save for retirement, pay for medical care, send their children to college, and take care of their parents, along with the relentless ASKS from local elected officials, cities, counties, and agencies. Joel’s response?

“In short, just say no.”

More and more people are figuring out that  elected officials, cities, & counties separate out what they think is palatable to the taxpayers- parks, libraries, fire and police services- so that they can happily spend on non-essentials in the general fund on items they know the public WOULD NOT vote to approve.

Then there is the question of: what are we paying for?

Crosscut’s Ted Van Dyk wrote October 21, 2008 about Sound Transit’s transfer of taxpayer funds for voter “education” services (click here):

“State Auditor Brian Sonntag is investigating payments of taxpayer funds by the City of Seattle (authorized by Mayor and Sound Transit Board Chair Greg Nickels) to the Sound Transit-supporting Transportation Choices Coalition, which is campaigning for the light rail proposal.”

Now, here’s the top story from King 5 news alleging: “Did Bellevue break the law in push to pass parks levy?”

“But one thing cities can’t do is use tax dollars to help convince voters to say yes. It’s against state law. Yet the KING 5 Investigators have uncovered evidence that Bellevue has done exactly that in its determination to get a new parks levy passed.”

See the King 5 story on the Bellevue parks bond at: http://www.king5.com/topstories/stories/NW_102008INV_bellevue_parks_levy_SW.13007a1d8.html

How does the cumulative number of tax proposals  relate to transportation planning in the Puget Sound region? Here are Joel’s thoughts:

“There’s one more reason for the natives to be restless — the current financial crisis. Could we not curb urban vision until financial markets are again stable, and we find out how bad the stable smells?

Since World War II ended the Great Depression, Seattle has been a middle-class city. We’ve avoided an affliction of the used-up portions of America, cities as domains of the very rich and the very poor.

The Beacon Hill couple’s message is somewhere in cyberspace. I would hate to see them ejected from a city they love.”

Click to see RTF’s previous posts on this subject HERE. And on future infrastructure ASKS: HERE.

Ballot measures: Hate 'em, but here's how I'm voting Crosscut, WA - 7 hours ago Sound Transit, light rail's prime- and sub-contractors, and the network of law firms, PR firms, consultants, and others profiting from light rail have ...

KIRO Team 7 Investigations have prompted: “the State Auditor to launch an inquiry into why hundreds of thousands of your transportation tax dollars are being funneled to a charity.”

“Investigative Reporter Chris Halsne spent weeks unraveling how some major transit agencies might be skirting laws on lobbying and gifting.

The law generally prohibits government entities from collecting taxes from you, then using that money to lobby for ballot measures or tax increase initiatives. We discovered that Sound Transit, King County Metro and some other taxing authorities may have figured out a way around that.”

The whole article is pretty interesting- Sound Transit and other public agencies, as well as cities are all giving money to Transportation Choices Coalition:

“The Washington Policy Center says it found out that Sound Transit donated at least $156,000 to Transportation Choices in the past 10 years. That’s something we confirmed through Open Records.

WPC transportation director Mike Ennis says, “Even the most casual taxpayers can see the conflict of interest when you have a public agency giving money to an organization that lobbies on behalf of that organization. That’s not what public money is intended for. It doesn’t matter how noble the cause is for some of these groups.”

Again, using the Open Records Ace, KIRO Team 7 Investigators discovered Sound Transit is just one of at least 15 government agencies donating your tax money to Transportation Choices via something labeled “membership dues.”

Sound Transit recently donated $22,000.

King County Metro handed over $30,000.

Other transit agencies donating to TCC via membership dues in 2008 include: Community Transit, Pierce Transit, Intercity Transit, Whatcom Transportation Authority, Ben Franklin/Richland Transit, Spokane Transit and Kitsap County Transit.

Other government agencies that contributed your tax dollars to TCC’s charity include the cities of Seattle, Kirkland, Redmond, Sammamish and Edmonds. The Port of Seattle donated as well.”

The concern is expressed here:

“We called State Auditor Brian Sonntag and showed him the financial relationships we uncovered. He tells us he will open a formal inquiry.

Sonntag told Halsne during on on-camera interview, “They can’t ‘give’ your tax money away.

There has to be a benefit.

My first general impression is that there are a lot of questions — a lot of questions that need to be answered on behalf of citizens and tax payers. This is a lot of money.”

Washington law says that if your tax money is given to charity, there has to be a specific return, something of documented value given back. Lobbying can’t legally be that value and, according to Sonntag the label “membership dues” isn’t specific enough.“Membership to what? That would be my first question. I mean, it is a club? An organization? What are your dues paying for? That’s a question that citizens have a right to an answer.”

The audit will at least point out how pervasive this practice is.

Read the full article at: http://www.kirotv.com/investigations/16811658/detail.html

Group questions Sound Transit contributions Seattle Post Intelligencer - Jul 8, 2008 By LARRY LANGE A Seattle think-tank frequently critical of Sound Transit has raised questions about contributions made by the agency to groups that ...

Washington Policy Center released a new report showing Sound Transit officials using public money to contribute to special interest groups. The study was featured in an investigative report on KIRO (CBS) television this evening (video of the story is available here). Through public disclosure requests, Sound Transit provided a list of non-governmental interest groups that have received direct financial contributions from the agency since it received taxing authority. According to Sound Transit records, the agency has contributed more than $164,000 to special interest groups ...

Team 7 Investigation Sparks State Audit Of Sound Transit KIROtv.com, WA - 18 hours ago We discovered that Sound Transit, King County Metro and some other taxing authorities may have figured out a way around that. With gas prices skyrocketing, ...

See the article by Hunter George of the News Tribune:

House Majority Leader Lynn Kessler told The Daily World, the newspaper in Aberdeen, that she has no plans “now or ever” to endorse fellow Democrat John Ladenburg’s campaign for attorney general.

That’s because he continues to diss her open-government bill that would require local governments to record their executive sessions. The Pierce County Council was fine with it, but lots of other local governments weren’t, so the bill died.

“Local governments are, obviously, still afraid of my bill even now and are trying to come up with every kind of excuse possible to avoid it,” said Kessler, D-Hoquiam.

Local governments afraid of tape recording their executive sessions. That can’t be good.

And remember, John Ladenburg was Sound Transit Chair when the agency’s furtive behavior prompted the Washington State Legislature to create a new law to notify people when agencies are planning to act to take their property.

Ladenburg still defends Sound Transit’s extreme behavior in that matter, and is not supportive of increased government transparency.

Ladenburg was also one of the chief architects of the enormously bloated Sound Transit/Proposition 1 tax proposal that failed in fall 2007, reportedly because taxpayers weren’t able or willing to pay the huge additional cost in taxes.

Is that the recipe for a “people’s advocate” (Attorney General)?

Conflict of interest by McIver claimed Seattle Times, United States - 6 hours ago Joann Francis, a former Sound Transit executive and attorney, joined GHA in June 2006. That September, McIver met in his office with Francis and Griffin to ...