Is anyone running the Boat?

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Who is in charge of our roads? I just watched a senator who is supposed to be the head of the transportation committee in Olympia, give an hour long interview to a reporter. She says ferry prices will go up from the riders paying 60% of the actual cost to 80%. She says the ferrys will still be in the red to a tune of 210 million a year. She does not favor putting tax increases to fund roads, before a vote to the people. She claims she is a leader, but admits she has no idea where the money to fund future roads will come from. Not a Clue... She wants a toll to pay for the new narrows bridge, but that is against current law, she says. She lauded Gov. Lockes new budget but wishes he would have sent the senate a revenue package as how to pay for this new budget. She states she has no idea of where to get the new money to pay for this budget of Locke's. Great Leadership!

She also states that Sound Transit is a local regional problem, between three counties. Under no circumstances does she want the legislature to step in and fix this Sound Transit Problem.

I did not catch the senators name. After watching her evade all of the reporters pointed questions of how we were going to pay for all these new roads, I realized one thing: No one in the Transportation Committee in Olympia, knows what is going on. No one is running the Boat. The reporter accused her of having all trans-committee meetings behind closed doors and she answered by saying: "We were having a workshop for freshman committee members who no NOTHING about the complex transportation issues of this state". She claimed she did not want cameras catching freshman members, asking "stupid" questions.

The reporter asked her that if she was a liberal democrat, why does she have these closed door meetings and why weren't these meetings made public?

I have come to the conclusion, with this current leadership, that you poor suckers in western washington are going to get screwed with heavy tolls and long traffic jams in the future. Does anyone else have an opinion? I would love to hear it.

-- Rolex Hoffmann (rolex@innw.net), February 02, 2001

Answers

Rolex, that’s not all….this morning, on the way to work, KIRO news mentioned Sound Transit was going to spend a half million dollars toward lobbying….the same transit authority which cannot bring in projects on time and within budget…. Go figure…

-- Doug (dgoar14@hotmail.com), February 02, 2001.

"I have come to the conclusion, with this current leadership, that you poor suckers in western washington are going to get screwed with heavy tolls and long traffic jams in the future. Does anyone else have an opinion? I would love to hear it."

Who, us? I'm sure you'd love to hear it. Actually, you should find out the opinion of Chris Vance. In a King County meeting (televised on CTV), he didn't like the Blue Ribbon Transportation Commision's idea of letting regions set up their own taxing structures. He said "If you ask any state legislator, they will freely admit, if they are from Eastern Washington, that they are getting more than they are putting in."

It will be interesting to see what his take on that is now.

What if there were a 'transportation czar' to steer the boat?

Be careful what you wish for.

-- Jim Cusick (jc.cusick@gte.net), February 02, 2001.


It takes me three minutes to get to work from my house, summer or winter. I could care less if you seattlites sit in traffic for hours.

My point is: There was supposed to be a blue ribbon commission to provide leadership to fix the traffic problems on the west side of the state. This Senator was blaming Locke for not sending them a revenue package. She was so good at passing the Buck, during that interview, that I encourage her to try out for the vacated starting quarterback position on the Seahawks. No one in Olympia seems to be able to make the hard choices OR take any responsibility for them. Every one is waiting for the other guy to propose the revenue package and then take the heat for it. This is not leadership, in my opinion. These elected officials in Olympia are rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic as it is sinking. No wonder we have these initiatives.

-- Rolex Hoffmann (rolex@innw.net), February 02, 2001.


I just find it interesting that you consider western washington getting screwed , in ny 47 years of living here I always thought eastern washington got screwed by having to fund the ferries.

-- Phil Wilson (phillipgwilson@yahoo.com), February 04, 2001.

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