Fred Jarrett has been many things in his career – Republican and Democrat, winning and losing candidate, elected official and appointed bureaucrat. Now that he is at that final stage after losing his last election, he is now an appointee of the man – Dow Constantine – who beat him, left to echo whatever the boss says.
And King County Executive Constantine says we must spend $54 billion on Sound Transit’s 25-year light rail expansion plan, so Jarrett is left to ask how high he must jump.
And jump he does in a piece in the Seattle blog Crosscut, creating multiple straw men about the virtues of light rail and vices of those who would like to see a more effective plan for the huge price tag that Sound Transit’s Seattle officials have proposed.
Jarrett starts by talking about the frustration of traffic congestion and being “stuck in the carpool lane no less.” He fails to mention that even by Sound Transit’s own admission, its expensive ST3 plan on the ballot this fall will not reduce congestion. You might think for $54 billion it might get easier to get around the region.
The Deputy County Executive then writes about how much transit ridership is growing, and a “great example is the euphoria around U-Link opening.” Of course, Sound Transit boosted that “euphoria” with a nearly million-dollar taxpayer-funded party when it opened that University of Washington station – 10 years after when it had promised to do so. Again, one might think that for the exorbitant costs Sound Transit rings up, that it might able to get something done on time, rather than just moving the deadline back and then saying it has been done on time.
But that’s not how the bureaucrats roll at Sound Transit roll at Sound Transit.
Finally, Jarrett resorts to comparing critics – who prefer that Sound Transit spend less and be more efficient with taxpayer dollars by focusing on transit options that more people could use, more quickly – to the people who voted down the Forward Thrust initiative in 1970. He wants us to think how much better off we’d be if we hadn’t listened to those voters back then.
Of course, many differences abound between the current transit debate and the one in 1970 – and not the least of which is that the federal government won’t be picking up the vast majority of the tab for ST3. It is solely on the backs of local taxpayers to fund this $54 billion dollar boondoggle, which for the first time ever also taps the property tax to pay for Jarrett/Constantine’s train set.
Jarrett concludes his plea with some unfortunate language however, as it does not reflect well on Sound Transit. He suggests that “We must prepare for the future, make the right investments and keep our people moving. We have the plan. We have the experience and the track record.”
Consider each of Jarrett’s arguments:
- The Seattle Times has pointed out that ST3 is the wrong “investment”.
- ST3 only moves people from buses to trains without reducing overall traffic congestion and keeping “people moving”
- The ST3 “plan” is one that an influential Democrat State Senator says does not pencil out.
- And finally, Sound Transit’s “track record” is one of always being late with projects and over-budget – and with that kind of “experience”, why should anyone join Jarrett in supporting this massive, Seattle-centric money grab?
