Just say no to higher taxes for Denver light rail (FasTracks)
This is a letter to the editor of the Denver Post responding to their article of March 12, 2009 entitled “Doubling FasTracks sales tax gets nod“.
It’s hard not to laugh at RTD Spokesman Scott Reed’s claim that “there was no upside for RTD to over-estimate finances” during the initial proposal for FasTracks and the sales tax that was supposed to fund it. Of course there was upside for RTD, namely the fact that once tens of millions of dollars have been poured into the lightrail money-pit after getting approval for the project by fooling the public into thinking the 0.4% sales tax tack-on would cover the cost, RTD can then say “we have to raise more money or the first money will just have been wasted.”
It’s time to just say no to such transparently deceitful ploys. Nobody but RTD and its allies could possibly have believed their incredibly rosy economic assumptions, particularly a constant economic growth rate of around 6%. Jon Caldara was right to call that assumption fraudulent, and now we’re already $2.2 billion short with a recession that doesn’t seem near to ending.
So, typically for government, they’re behind schedule, over-budget, and want more of our money just as Colorado’s unemployment rate reaches its highest level since 1988. I have two words for RTD: “Forget it.” I maybe have been born at night, Mr. Reed, but not last night.
| Print article | This entry was posted by Rossputin on 03/15/09 at 01:36:41 am . Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. |
Yours truly
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03/15/09 @ 12:30:15 pm
And it's not a loss if they have to make due with what they have. Look at the West Corridor. How much money did they save by single-tracking 30% of it? What was it's impact on ridership?
A few prudent but politically unappetizing cuts could take care of most of their cost problems. For example, if they were to drop building the Denver-Boulder-Longmont rail line and the east corridor, they will have take care of the costs. Boulder-Denver would still have great BRT service. And the east corridor is only projected to carry 18k-19k individuals in 20 years despite costing more than most any other 2 corridors combined.
They could use money to buy land, arguably the single biggest contributor to future building costs, and either not build or single track large portions of lines. They could skip building some stations and build them later.
There are lots of things they could do and we'll still get a lot out of Fastracks. Well, a lot if you don't don't acknowledge that 2/3 of the riders would be taking transit whether or not they had a train. Or a lot if you don't consider the same money could've built freeway capacity capable of carrying more people, especially when combined with bus transit. But eh, when finances are tight who wants to worry about using money well? :)
04/08/09 @ 09:22:22 pm
This is why we need a man like Cleve Tidwell in office. With 30 years in business, he knows how to save our money.
04/09/09 @ 07:02:53 am
Who is Cleve Tidwell and why do you keep talking about him?