Under questioning from the only Sound Transit board member with integrity, the following was revealed:

King County Councilman Rob McKenna cast the sole dissenting vote, saying he thought the costs would continue to rise. And under his questioning, Chief Operating Officer Joni Earl admitted that project costs would be closer to $4 billion once $191 million in borrowing costs, $11 million in public art, $50 million in mitigation of neighborhood impacts and $157 million in reserves are added.

PI article

-- Mark Stilson (mark842@hotmail.com), January 12, 2001

Answers

and now it appears the federal grant is in question....per the article I read in the Everett Herald

-- no chance (kingoffools_99@yahoo.com), January 19, 2001.

How right you are-------

Traffic jam likely for light-rail funds House panel may hamper $500 million grant plan Associated Press SEATTLE -- A $500 million federal grant for Sound Transit's light-rail project, approved by the regional transit agency's directors last week, may stall in the U.S. House. Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Kentucky, incoming chairman of the Appropriations transportation subcommittee, has told Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater his panel won't approve the grant until questions about the project are answered. Rogers also called for a review by the Office of the Inspector General. Sound Transit has spent years trying to get the grant from the Federal Transit Administration, and approval had seemed almost certain. But Rogers, like some Seattle-area critics, is concerned that the $3.6 billion project is $1 billion over budget and three years behind schedule, with completion projected for 2009. The subcommittee will not take action until it gets more information from the inspector general, Rogers wrote Slater on Tuesday. A report could be delivered by March.

-- Mark Stilson (mark842@hotmail.com), January 19, 2001.

I heard on the evening news that Secretary Slater signed off on the grant.

-- Matthew M. Warren (mattinsky@msn.com), January 20, 2001.

Apparently so, but that really just obligates us. That doesn't require them to come up with the remaining $400+ million.

-- (mark842@hotmail.com), January 20, 2001.

As above:

The agreement does not guarantee the appropriations. Sound Transit already has received $91 million of the $500 million light rail grant. Sheila Dezarn, the agency's government affairs manager, has said doubts about the project now surfacing in the Bush administration mean Sound Transit will have to work harder to assure Congress the project is worthy of federal support.

Dezarn said if these new concerns are not adequately addressed, Rogers and others could conceivably reduce or withhold the yearly allocations. In addition, Sound Transit's approved budget for the 21-mile light-rail line is contingent on receiving another $931 million in addition to the $500 million federal grant in question.

"We need to sit down with a whole new cast of people and get them up to speed on how we got to where we are," said Denny Fleenor, a Sound Transit spokesman.

Pressure to re-evaluate the project is also growing in Washington state, where state Sens. Dino Rossi, R-Issaquah and Pam Roach, R-Auburn, this week filed separate bills calling for a public referendum on Sound Transit. Roach's bill is being sponsored in the House by her son, Dan Roach, R-Auburn, and Rep. Roger Bush, R-Spanaway.

Also this week, U.S. Rep. Jennifer Dunn, R-Wash., who will be chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, said she, too, has doubts about the light-rail project and supports Rogers' call for further review.

Dunn, like the four state lawmakers, represents areas of King County that will not be served directly by the LINK line. Sound Transit plans to extend light rail to east King County after 2009.

-- (mark842@hotmail.com), January 22, 2001.

And the latest in innovative financing: Condemn someone's property, then sell it at a profit to generate income to offset your other problems.

Sound Transit stands to make millions by eventually selling off property it seizes Friday, February 16, 2001 By CHRIS McGANN SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER Whitewater torrents raging through the Rogue River's narrow canyons couldn't sink Glen Wooldridge's wooden boat when, in 1915, he became the first person to navigate the waters between Grants Pass, Ore., and the Pacific Ocean. But the boat-making company he founded, today owned by his grandson, is in danger of being swept away in Sound Transit's rush to cure its financial ills. Sound Transit plans to offset part of a recently announced $1.2 billion shortfall in its light-rail budget by forcibly buying parcels along the rail line's right of way, then reselling the parts it doesn't need for a substantial profit. When the 21-mile project is completed in 2009, Sound Transit expects to make $95 million by selling its leftover land, agency documents say. The plan draws fire from legal experts and property owners, who call financing a government project with profits from forced acquisitions patently unfair. "If the (property value) is going to appreciate, it's the landowner who should benefit from that appreciation," said the boat company's Glen Wooldridge, who owns one of 95 properties slated for full condemnation by Sound Transit and who would rather rebuild his business at the same site than sell. Ron Slye, a Seattle University law professor who teaches property law, said reselling condemned property at a profit "is something the courts would look quite suspiciously on." Although the plan satisfies the Fifth Amendment requirement allowing government to seize property only for a public purpose, it raises questions about the amendment's second requirement for takings: paying fair compensation. "Presumably, they are assuming they'll get more from selling than they are actually paying. And that suggests that they may not be giving adequate compensation to begin with," Slye said. "It would certainly be a case that's worth filing."

-- (mark842@hotmail.com), February 16, 2001.