Says Josh Feit. If it comes, he notes, there goes the federal grant for University Link:
Here’s one major problem with this approach right off the bat: $750 million.
The feds, at the behest of U.S. Senator Patty Murray’s appropriations sub-committee on transportation, are prepared to sign off on $750 million this summer to get Sound Transit from downtown to the U District. That’s 43% of the $1.7 billion segment. If Sound Transit goes away that money is gone. That means light rail is dead.
I imagine the new entity could re-apply for the money, but it wouldn’t have ST’s strack record with the feds. You can mock ST for being late to deliver the Central Link, or for its early missteps, but the fact is it has a very high municipal rating and has won the trust of the feds. Building that expertise takes years, and it could all go away when the agency is gutted and folded into a larger Regional Transportation Commission.
Don’t believe me? Ask FEMA how life has been under the Department of Homeland Security. Or better yet, ask the residents of New Orleans.
The really farcical part is that the RTC’s whole purpose is to raise more money for regional transit projects. Wouldn’t it be ironic if its first order of business — or rather, its very creation — threw $750M out the window?
And by “ironic,” I mean “an utterly sad indictment of our state and local leadership.”
Update: Martin at STB has more, including what we can and should do about it.
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