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Million dollar Seattle light rail party
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Don't miss the train, or party
When commuters think about “green” these days they might think about so-called environmentally friendly methods of transportation. They may do well to consider that “green,” is also the color of money, their money, specifically their tax money, and how cavalierly our political leaders often spend it.
This past weekend Sound Transit spent more than $1,000,000 for a Seattle Link light rail grand opening extravaganza. According to a column by Seattle Times transportation reporter Mike Linblom, the party budget of $1.1 million included $200,000 for police overtime, $133,000 for buses (let me get this straight; take a bus to get to the train, to go to where the bus would have gone in the first place—hmmm), $193,000 for event staffing, $67,250 for government permits, $42,000 for entertainment, $46,000 for a 12-page insert into the Times and News Tribune newspapers, and—my favorite—$195,000 for a “crowd and event consultant.”
In this day and age of government misspending, overspending, and growing deficits, I don’t think it’s out of line for taxpayers to wonder—out loud—about the propriety of spending a million greenbacks for a party. Although, I will concede that a million bucks is relatively small change compared with Link Light Rail’s price tag of $2,300,000,000 (yes, that’s billion), but before you find yourself too chagrined, that is for a whole 14 miles, which amounts to more than $164,000,000 (yes, that’s million) per mile.
Whether you support light rail or not, I’m not sure how one justifies such an expense especially for a train with only a 350 person capacity, with insufficient support for bicyclists, and a total disregard and even antipathy for commuters who’d like to park their car to catch the train. It seems the powers-that-be created not so much a mode of transportation as yet another method for separating the good taxpayers from their hard-earned money for a rail line only a fraction of them will ever use even once, never mind to commute.
For more info: Comments & Questions: stevepomper@stevepomper.com or please visit: www.stevepomper.com
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