In light of all the boondoggles and brouhahas involving public transportation issues, it would seem like transportation officials, business and government leaders would do something besides threatening us with predictions of Armageddon, crossing their collective fingers and hoping that will be enough to defeat I-912.
Shouldn’t those of us who pay for these grossly expensive projects deserve to know why tolls cannot be used for the Alaskan Way Viaduct? Especially since the viaduct serves a relatively small area, albeit a huge volume, but is still basically a route through downtown. From there on, it’s one stop light after another.
Don’t we deserve to know how much a project will truly cost? And why we can’t have mandatory audits annually on a government agency that spends a huge amount of our tax dollars? And one that is not known for being the model of efficiency. I refer to the DOT, of course. Shouldn’t there be an independent board or a commission to decide if we should shovel out billions in tax breaks to businesses, which we have done in the last decade or so? Instead of those decisions being made by a Legislature whose re-election campaigns are financed largely by that same business community? Those tax dollars would go a long way toward solving today’s transportation problems.
Five cents or 9.5 cents a gallon is nothing to most, but to those for whom gasoline is a basic necessity (buses don’t go everywhere) the gas tax is another rise in the already high cost of living. If you can’t or won’t answer these questions you can expect voters to respond accordingly.
Don C. Curtis
Clinton
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
