State senator Jim Kastama (D-Puyallup) wrote a deep-bore op-ed for the Seattle Times a few days ago, wanting to set the record straight about whether Seattle taxpayers were on the hook for cost overruns on the Viaduct-replacing tunnel.
Despite what you may have heard during the mayoral race, Kastama says, if you’re a Seattle property owner who “benefits” from the tunnel, you’re still on the hook. In fact: “I am drafting legislation that will clarify Seattle’s obligation in no uncertain terms and provide them options for local funding sources.”
Kastama makes many sensible points, but I think he and history part ways when he says, “Seattle chose an approach inherent with a history of huge cost overruns.” Mayor Greg Nickels went to Olympia with a surface/transit plan to sell; it was Governor Gregoire and the legislature that chose the deep-bore option for us, claiming that SR99 was too “vital” a corridor to be left to the whims of Seattle yokels.
Kastama is united with state House speaker Frank Chopp, against state representative Judy Clibborn, that the legislature meant what it said: Cost overruns are Seattle’s problem. But while Kastama prefers the tunnel, if the state had money to spare, Chopp does not and is pleased that he has an ally in Mayor-elect Mike McGinn. State senator Ed Murray, reports Publicola, disagrees with Kastama and Chopp that the Seattle-overrun provision was that big a sticking point.
Sounds just like sausage being made doesn’t it?
