The bureaucrats at Sound Transit can always be counted on for one thing – making up numbers to try to make themselves and their very expensive light rail trains sound efficient. The latest example of their number fudging was uncovered by an unlikely source, the liberal Seattle blog Publicola.
Publicola actually looked behind the widely repeated claim that Sound Transit’s latest plan – a $27 billion dollar scheme stretching out 25 years – would only cost “$200 per adult annually” for the average taxpayer in the Sound Transit taxing district across King, Snohomish and Pierce counties.
Turns out the bill would be almost twice that if Sound Transit’s unelected “leaders” try to send the most expensive package out for voter approval next fall.
Publicola reports that the Sound Transit board’s proposed “15-, 20-, and 25-year models all rely on a new sales tax (0.5 percent), motor vehicle excise tax (0.8 percent), and property tax (25 cents per $1,000 in assessed value), generating $15 billion, $20 billion, and $27 billion respectively.”
All those taxes would hit the average adult in the area $200 a year, for up to 25 years. You ready to write that $5,000 check to an agency that has yet to build anything on time or under budget since first fooling voters back in 1996?
But wait, there’s more.
Here is where the number fudging comes in – because “current ST taxes—0.9 percent sales tax and 0.3 percent MVET—will still be part of your monthly bill” and that amounts to another $170 per year.
So what Sound Transit is really asking for next year – if they “go long” as Shift reported one board member said they must do – the average adult will get to fork over $370 a year to the train zealots at Sound Transit.
Sounds like a real bargain, eh?
Sounds like the 1600 odd dollar gas tax bill we just got popped with down here in Clark County, thanks to Ann “Gas Tax” Rivers.