Creative funding to keep the Eastside rail corridor whole Seattle Times To the south, Sound Transit is looking at a Seattle-Bellevue-Redmond light rail line. Redmond is considering a Redmond-to-Woodinville spur and two utilities ...

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

Since lifting a construction moratorium in March, Port of Seattle commissioners have approved spending on six projects.

County Council Oks Eastside trail deal Seattle Post Intelligencer - 12 hours ago Sound Transit and a regional planning agency intend to conduct a $300000 study of the corridor and its transit potential. The corridor proposal has gone ...

Weigh in folks- preferably before the May 5th King County Council meeting:

Date: Monday, May 5th

Location: King County Courthouse, 516 Third Ave., Seattle, 10th floor

Time: 9:30 a.m

Kevin Erwin of the Seattle Times reports on comments by Ron Sims:

“rail and trail should be “coequal in principal.”

But Port Commission President John Creighton and Port CEO Tay Yoshitani told Sims and the County Council in a letter Wednesday that future rail uses have priority over the trail.”

Here’s a link to make comments to the King County Council: council@kingcounty.gov

Here’s a link to King County Council’s page on BNSF: http://www.kingcounty.gov/exec/connections.aspx

The Metropolitan King County Council will take public testimony Monday on a pending deal with the Port of Seattle and BNSF Railway for construction...

'Rails to Trail' deal done by fall? Seattle Post Intelligencer - Apr 8, 2008 Yoshitani said he believed a $300000 Sound Transit and Puget Sound Regional Council study of the rail corridor's feasibility as a commuter line would ...

The Port of Seattle violated federal law by dredging up more mud and sand than allowed near Magnolia and in a waterway beside Harbor Island, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Friday as it slapped the port with a citation.

P-I port reporter Kristen Millares Young appeared on local NPR-affiliate KUOW's show, The Conversation with Ross Reynolds, to talk about the possibility of merging the ports of Seattle and Tacoma. Young covered a joint meeting between the ports on Tuesday.

Gov. Chris Gregoire is getting around to signing the supplemental transportation budget for 2007-09 much faster than I thought she would. She's going to sign it next Tuesday in Seattle. Generally, budget bills are among the last that governors sign because of their complexity. But come to think of it, the budget is pretty straightforward. Except for the new steel ferries, there ain't much new in it. The tolling policy bill, HB 1773, should be of interest to the Gig Harbor misery-loves-company crowd. Although it doesn't impose tolls on any projects just yet, you can see that tolls are ...