Offering frequent news and analysis from the majestic Evergreen State and beyond, The Cascadia Advocate is the Northwest Progressive Institute's unconventional perspective on world, national, and local politics.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Would you buy a tunnel from this man?

The Seattle Times, a periodical I usually scorn for its pro-Republican slant, looks askance at Dino Rossi's new transportation "plan" in their story today:
Republican gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi says he can solve Washington state's transportation problems with a tunnel, two bridges and $15 billion in taxpayer cash. His critics say that with a price tag like that, he'll need a little magic, too.
The "magic" part is necessary because Dino is proposing the state spend 40 percent of the state sales taxes on new and used vehicles for transportation projects — a total of $7.7 billion in 2007 dollars projected over the next 30 years, without saying "how he'd make up that loss in revenue, but he says he would not raise taxes or cut programs supporting education, nursing homes and the developmentally disabled."

If you want an "expert" reaction to the plan, here's a quote in the story from Mark Hallenbeck, director of the Washington state Transportation Center at the University of Washington::
Rossi's numbers are "completely divorced from reality...He lowballs almost all the estimates and never says where all the funds are going to come from. It's a political statement. It's complete silliness..." Hallenbeck said.
Heard enough? There's more:
The plan does not address public transit, which Rossi says should be dealt with on the local level.

Comments:

Blogger Robert said...

Rossi is going to make up the difference by selling a certain Volcano 80 miles southeast of Seattle to Microsoft.

April 16, 2008 1:50 PM  

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