I’ve been reading through Dino Rossi’s transportation “plan,” trying to figure it out, and for the life of me I just can’t make his numbers add up. Wider bridges cost less than narrower bridges? Tunnels are now suddenly cheaper than elevated viaducts? We can divert $10 billion out of the state general fund to transportation, without raising taxes or cutting services, and still balance the budget?
You gotta give Dino credit though for listening to voters. Polling conducted in the wake of Prop 1’s defeat showed that voters want a transportation plan that does more but cost taxpayers less — and that’s exactly what Dino is promising. Too bad the only way for him to deliver on these promises is to print the money to pay for them.
UPDATE:
It looks like I’m not the only one who can’t figure out Dino’s new math…
“Mark Hallenbeck, director of the Washington state Transportation Center at the University of Washington, said Rossi’s numbers are ’completely divorced from reality.’ […] ‘He lowballs almost all the estimates and never says where all the funds are going to come from. It’s a political statement. It’s complete silliness,’ Hallenbeck said.
— Seattle Times, 4/16/08“The Republican candidate for Washington’s governor outlined a number of spending initiatives, from an expensive tunnel replacing Seattle’s Alaskan Way Viaduct to a north-south freeway in Spokane. But when it came to paying for them, he punted. Actually, faked is more like it. […] it’s another something-for-nothing scheme…”
— Lewiston Tribune, 4/17/08“Can Dino Rossi’s freshly unveiled transportation plan solve our traffic mess? Doubtful. Many of the cost figures cited in it appear to be based more on wishful thinking than thoughtful analysis.”
— Everett Herald, 4/17/08“…the particulars of his proposal seem a little delusional.”
— The Stranger, 4/16/08“Of course, his plan to use all that state money has only a snowball’s chance in hell…”
— Tacoma News Tribune, 4/15/08“Rossi’s ideas run counter to local public opinion…”
— Seattle P-I, 4/16/08“Further criticism came from the Director of the Washington State Transportation Center, who said in the Seattle Times that Rossi lowballed all of his estimates.”
— KXLY, 4/16/08
Dino Rossi’s transportation plan. He has a plan. The people in charge now are just letting all the choke points setting on the back burner. Vote Dino Rossi 2008
He doesn’t have a plan, give me a break. He says he has a plan. That’s not the same thing.
To the extent that his “plan” is anything it’s more of the same – build more roads for more idiots alone in their cars. All of us alone in our cars Are the traffic problem.
@1 That is your defense?
George Bush wants to colonize Mars, he has a plan…as crazy as Dino’s plan.
Where are all the groups in Seattle and on the Eastside clamoring for this plan? Who did he have standing behind him????a bunch of old legislators.
Well, Dino’s “plan” mentions that Gregoire supports every one of his projects. I haven’t checked it out myself to see if it is true, but in affect he is saying that his plan is lifted from the “wish list” of the DOT.
The only thing that distinguishes his “plan” is that it says we’ll just take the money from current revenue sources to pay for them, and the hell with everything else. That’s somebody else’s problem to figure out.
Gregoire is the fiscally prudent one. She says we aren’t going to start a project without having sufficient funding in place to finish it. There will be no “bridges to nowhere” on her watch. And if the local authorities can’t agree on how to fund it, or on the details of the project, than the project won’t get started until they do so. And just to make sure the procrastination doesn’t last forever, she’s imposed a deadline on the dangerous Alaskan Way Viaduct – if it doesn’t get replaced soon, it’s going to be torn down.
That is the difference between responsible leadership and posturing, between fiscal responsibility and putting together Christmas packages for the voters on somebody else’s credit cards.
I wasn’t a big fan of Gregoire originally, but I’m coming around. And there is NO WAY I’d ever support the empty suit known as Dino Rossi.
Hey, I’d like an eight-lane bridge on 520 myself, and a tunnel for the Alaska Way viaduct, and a wider I-5 through Seattle, and safety improvements on SR2, etc., etc., etc.
I also need new siding on my house, and sometime in the next couple of years I’m going to have to re-roof. But I’m not going to do either one until I have a way to pay for them. Of course, my wife could claim that she could manage our finances better, and offer to just take the checkbook and pay for both projects from current income, and then leave it up to me to figure out how we will make the car payment, eat, clothe ourselves, etc. for the next five years. Essentially, that’s what Rossi is doing. But neither plan will work.
(Of course, I just used my wife as a hypothetical example. She’s actually very good with money, and we make financial decisions together.)
rhp6033’s wife says:
Yes, he’d better qualify that statement! If not for me, we’d still be living in that one bedroom apartment in Ballard like we did some thirty years ago!
Mr. Rossi’s “plan” is not a plan but a list, with, as noted, little substance behind it. Cost figures are pulled from the air.
Didn’t we learn ANYTHING from the monorail debacle, on getting valid cost and revenue numbers?
Nobody’s going to take him seriously until he tells us how he’s going to pay for it. So far, no clues.
@7 monorail
I do not believe the issue with the monorail was $$ … rather it was .05 pieces. The Mayor’s did not want the monorail and to be fair to mayor .05 a monorail in isolation from a systemic plan made no sense!
I’m still waiting for John Kerry’s plan to
get us out of Iraq. Rossi is the MAN with
a plan. Go DINO
Goldy made a typo!
I am sure he did ito make me feel good.
Perhaps Dino took math lessons from the same person who helped him get his Real Estate Brokers- er make that Agent’s license?
Rossi and Guzzo cooked up his transportation plan at a Ouija board. What did you expect from that ass hat?
IOKIYR
Will people demand the same level of accounting from Dino Rossi as they forced the Monorail Board and Sound Transit to accept?
Why do I think that no Republican will?
Rossi received excellent television and print coverage, must admit he is winning the spin war among the average joes and suburban schmoes. We can dial in here and pat each other and excoriate the plan and the man all we want. Some of the critics from the usual suspect groups on the radio (KIRO bastards) have been identified as Gregoire donors, which doesn’t help her at all. She dillied, she dallied, and it is being reported he is leading with this plan.
Dino has at best, half a plan. Where does the money come from? He talks about sales tax exemptions and the general fund. What does he cut to balance the budget.
Or does he go the George Bush school of Government- make the kids pay. Oh yeah, that does not work at the state level.
Somebody should check to see if Rossi was the driver of that bus in the previous thread.
What’s really hilarious is that Rossi lifted his project list straight from Gregoire:
“There isn’t one single mile of road from Dino’s plan that Christine Gregoire has not supported … Rossi’s plan … draws its list of projects from those that were promised through the 9.5 cent gas tax, which Gregoire spearheaded. … Gregoire supports every project listed in Dino’s plan.”
Sounds like something straight out of a liberal blog, right? Well guess what here’s where I quoted it from: http://www.dinorossi.com
@8 SJ, you bet your bippy it was $$. The monorail died when the Leg closed the tax loophole and Seattle voters realized they would actually have to pay for it instead of getting it free.
@9 bwahaha ha ha … has the Road Fairy visited you lately? Did you find a penny under your pillow this morning? ha ha ha har har
@10 Goldy makes lots of typos. I have to correct him constantly.
Lou Guzzo couldn’t cook up a “plan” for anything. He permanently resides in the 1950’s, thinks Reagan was a hero and a conservative – despite the huge budget deficits….wait, that does explain Rossi so-called plan. Build it now and they will come…I mean pay later….
@16 What Rossi will do is play the George Bush Shell Game of shifting costs farther down the food chain so he can claim “savings.” For example, states and cities had to lay off cops, firefighters, and teachers to pay for programs mandated but defunded by the federal government. Rossi will “save” money at the state level by shifting costs to counties and cities. You will still pay as much for those services at you did before, but now you’ll be paying new local taxes while Rossi increases stating spending by $15 billion “without raising taxes.”
Mark @ 9: Dino’s got a plan to get us out of Iraq? That one, I’ve got to hear. Is it anything like Mike McGavick’s one-note plan: “Win the War, and Get Out of Iraq with Victory!”???????