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RTC and the South Sound

By Frank on January 9, 2008

John Stanton, who co-chaired the RTC and who supports “governance reform,” paid a visit to RAMP, which is sort of a South-Sound-centric version of RTID to pitch them on the idea.

They were nonplussed. RTC would end sub-area equity, a phrase that, in Tacoma, translates roughly as “give all your money to Seattle.” So it’s not exactly surprising that a group co-chaired by John Ladenburg would be against the idea.

I’m beginning to wonder if ending sub-area equity is the carrot designed to induce Seattlites into swallowing the RTC proposal. But either way, it’s a dodge. The problem is not governance, it’s cash. Re-drawing lines on the map won’t change the simple fact that no one wants to pay taxes.

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Prop. 1 Aftermath: What's Next for ST?

By Frank on November 7, 2007

Mike Lindblom writes today in the Times that Sound Transit does not need to get permission from the legislature to get back on the ballot next year. This was the reason that many hypothesized the rapid re-emergence of a transit-only ballot initiative as early as next Spring.

Permission is one thing, protocol is another. I was going over this with a friend last night, and he reminded me that Sound Transit doesn’t need any more enemies in Olympia right now. The knee-jerk reaction is going to be to blame the agency for the failure of Prop. 1.

Plus, there’s more talk about creating the regional transit “super agency” that the Stanton-Rice report recommended earlier this year. Sound Transit has fought the creation of such an agency in the past, fearing that it would dilute ST’s influence and create a huge new bureaucracy. If Sound Transit wants to keep lobbying against such an agency, it needs to stay in the legislature’s (and the Governor’s) good graces.

All of this is by way of saying that Sound Transit won’t rush back to the ballot unless the legislature gives them the green light, or at least a wink and a nod.

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