The Urban Land Institute states what should be obvious: if you keep voting down transportation funding, sooner or later you’re not going to have any money to spend on transportation:
Among U.S. cities/metro areas studied, the Seattle-Puget Sound area’s infrastructure-funding gap was nearly twice that of Dallas-Fort Worth, which was second at nearly $400 per capita. ULI, a nonprofit education and research institute that focuses on land-use, population growth, urban planning and the environment, worked with financial consultants Ernst & Young to produce the 60-page study.
“By 2040, the population of the Seattle area is projected to grow by 1.7 million new people, with 1.2 million new jobs … that’s like dropping the population of greater metropolitan Portland into the Puget Sound area,” John Hempelmann, co-vice chairman of the Reality Check Task Force for ULI Seattle, said Wednesday.
I-695, Prop 1, the monorail… the list of transportation projects ultimately rejected by Puget Sound voters is long (going back to the Bogue plan in 1911 and Forward Thrust in ’68).
But the really maddining thing is that the Seattle Metro area has generated an absolutely astonishing amount of wealth in the last decade or two. We’re home to two of the richest men on planet Earth, not to mention the highest number of millionaires per capita in the country. And yet, despite all this, we can’t fund an infrastructure project (and don’t get started on funding for other priorities like education).
At the end of the day, then, this is our own fault. After all, we have no state income tax, so our taxes end up being more regressive than most places. Partly, of course, it’s a leadership issue. But at the end of the day, trying to lead people in the Northwest is like herding cats. This part of the country, tucked away in the corner, appeals to (and breeds) a certain kind of loner, a do-it-yourself type. As such, we’re pretty skeptical of mass movements and big organizations. That’s too bad, because we have the resources (natural, intellectual, and financial) to really show America (and the rest of the world) how to do things right.
(via CIS)
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