(The Center Square) – Facing a $35 billion budget deficit, the 18 members of the Sound Transit Board of Directors made their case Wednesday for which segments of the unfinished light rail system should go forward and which should be delayed.
Not unexpectedly, board members like Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson, and Everett Mayor Cassie Franklin each argued for stations in their jurisdiction to completed as soon as possible.
Wednesday’s retreat at an art museum in Tacoma was a prelude to the board’s expected vote at a later point in May on how to cut costs while continuing to make progress on expanding the system.
The cost of the total rail system, scheduled for competition in the mid-2040’s, is estimated to have reached $180 to $185 billion.
“It’s a real high priority for me,” said Wilson of the planned West Seattle section scheduled to be go into service in 2032. “I think just moving forward in that way demonstrates momentum.”
Expanding public transit and making it affordable was a key part of Wilson’s campaign for mayor last year.
The first part of a delayed expansion plan for Sound Transit comes later this month.
Sound Transit is scheduled to connect the Eastside communities of Redmond (home of Microsoft) and Bellevue to downtown Seattle over the world’s first floating rail bridge across lake Washington on March 28.
But the West Seattle rail section, which is already in the design phase, is scheduled to be completed next after that.
That won’t happen, however, if Everett Mayor Cassie Franklin gets her way.
Franklin, another board member, took the issue down ethnic and class lines Wednesday.
She argued that West Seattle, a portion of Seattle five miles across the Duwamish River from the city’s downtown, was not as deserving as Everett for new stations. She mentioned both the population and income diversity of Everett, comparing it to richer and more white West Seattle.
The current plan is to open stations in Everett, 20 miles north of Seattle, starts in the late 2030’s and early 2040’s.
“The medium income there (in West Seattle) is double what the household income is at the end of the line in Everett,” Franklin said.
And she of West Seattle: “it’s far less diverse than other parts of the system,” a reference to the argument that light rail will help the poor and middle class who don’t have cars connect to jobs and community services.
At a meeting on March 12, Sound Transit staff told the board that it could reduce the cost of the West Seattle segment to as low as $4.9 billion, from an estimate cost last year of $6.2 to $65 billion.
The reductions would occur by cutting one of the four planned new stations and scaling back the expansion of a transfer point station for the new West Seattle line.
Wilson said the West Seattle link was shovel-ready, making it logical to continue in that direction first.
But Franklin said even with the savings offered reducing the West Seattle line, “it is still not affordable.”
Franklin said just because West Seattle was in the the design process doesn’t mean the plan deserves to move forward.
“I really think we need to consider what we promised,” she said
Franklin has a powerful ally in Sound Transit Board Chairman Dave Somers.
Somers is the Snohomish County Executive and Everett is the county seat. He has been pushing for the completion of the line to Everett sooner than scheduled.
Sound Transit Executive Director Dow Constantine told the board that they would have a difficult decision to make in the near future, but reminded board members of the intent of Sound Transit’s 2016, $53.8 billion bond issue.
That bond issue called for both the West Seattle rail expansion and and a transit line from Lynnwood to Everett in Snohomish County.
The measure was funded by almost $40 billion in new taxes to repay the bonds, including new local sales, property and motor vehicle taxes.
The original Sound Transit plan for a much smaller light rail system goes back to the mid 1990’s with a $3.9.billion bond issue.
