Individual Liberty — Individual Responsibility 

How deep does the rabbit hole go?

If you ever needed proof that politicians don’t truly represent the people, but instead represent their pocketbooks and their “legacy,” all you have to do is look at the agreement signed by Washington’s governor “Chris” Gregoire and Seattle’s mayor Greg Nickels. If you need further proof, simply look at how long this “public safety emergency” sat in limbo waiting for a resolution.

For that matter, if you’ve long believed that politicians live in a fantasy land where prudence, foresight and simple intelligence are meaningless, all you need do is listen to (or read) the words coming out of the governor’s mouth.

"No one, is my opinion, is going to have to pay for cost overruns," she said.

Either the governor of the state of Washington is lying through her teeth, or she’s living in a fantasy land. Someone always pays for cost overruns. The only way that doesn’t happen is when there are no cost overruns. When was the last time that you can recall any government run operation having to do with transportation in this state that didn’t have cost overruns? In some cases, cost overruns running into hundreds of millions of dollars and showing no results at all (think Seattle Monorail)? Some studies have shown that nine out of every ten big transportation project encounter cost overruns, averaging 30 percent!

…the first large study of cost overruns in 258 mega-transportation projects… found that nine out of 10 came in over budget, and that the average cost overrun was nearly 30 percent. Rail systems had an average cost escalation of 45 percent.

On February 8 2001 the Nisqually Earthquake damaged the Alaskan Way Viaduct. The damage was so severe that it was called a “public safety emergency.” Here it is, 2009, and we’re still waiting on our government to actually do something about this public safety emergency.

The Washington Department of Transportation is keeping a close eye on the condition of the aging structure to make sure it can still safely carry cars. Engineers will be looking for settling and checking crack monitors to make sure the viaduct is no worse off now than it was after the Nisqually Earthquake.

When a state government takes almost nine years to respond to an “emergency,” what does that tell you about that government? Are they really concerned about public safety? Do any of you remember this from February 13, 2007?

Seattle's proposal for a reduced, four-lane Alaskan Way tunnel should be dropped from further consideration, because of "serious operational and safety problems found during our technical review," the State Department of Transportation said in a letter released this morning.

This is the way politicians in the state of Washington operate. Nearly three years ago Governor Gregoire said about the tunnel option “"To move forward with that option would simply be irresponsible." Further, she also said “Today we need to move forward with the one option that meets safety standards and is fiscally responsible: the elevated structure.” Wind the clock forward to today and she’s singing a different tune, signing an agreement with Greg Nickels to build the tunnel.

Replacing the Alaskan Way Viaduct with a new elevated structure was estimated at the time to cost 2.8 billion dollars. A narrow four lane tunnel with “safety shoulders” was estimated at 3.4 billion dollars, but the State Department of Transportation suggested that cost overruns could drive that up to 4.6 billion dollars. Do any of you remember Boston’s “big dig?” Overruns on that project were an order of magnitude higher!

The controversy over the tunnel was so great that a special election was held to see what the people thought. Of course, only some of the people benefitting from the replacement were asked about it. The rest of the people that would end up paying for it weren’t given the option to vote. Neither were people that don’t live in the city but that work there asked – the people most likely to actually use the roadway.

Gov. Christine Gregoire this morning called for a public vote on the Alaskan Way Viaduct to break the political stalemate between an affordable elevated structure and a tunnel that is still financially shaky.
The vote should occur by April within Seattle only. Seattle residents and the city government would be legally responsible to come up with the additional $1.8 billion of expected tunnel cost over what's available from current gas taxes and federal grants — if city voters approve the tunnel.

The vote was held. The people rejected the tunnel. They rejected an elevated structure as well. Apparently the notion of surface level streets was more attractive to them. In a way it makes sense to me. If the structure isn’t elevated another earthquake won’t damage its support. If the roadway doesn’t go through a tunnel, then people won’t be buried alive if the tunnel collapses or trapped in case of a major traffic accident.

I said at the time that I thought the tunnel option was more motivated by the notion of a “legacy” for the city council and for Mayor Nickels than anything else. It the Alaskan Way Viaduct is replaced by a tunnel the land above the tunnel would become available for new businesses or for parks. New businesses would mean more revenue for the city – except that it looks like businesses aren’t exactly flocking to Seattle now with something like one sixth of the available office space in the city sitting vacant. The attraction of new parks to politicians is obvious. They could put their name on them. memorializing themselves for posterity.

This notion must have been really attractive to Mayor Nickels and the Seattle City Council. After all, they threatened to slow roll and drive up the cost of an elevated structure if they were forced to take that option.

The city has said it could inflate the $2.8 billion cost of an elevated viaduct to nearly $5 billion by slowing permits, filing lawsuits and using other tactics to oppose the project.

So there you have it. Absolute proof that politicians in the state of Washington don’t represent the people or the people’s interests.

1. They ignore “public safety” for political gain.
   1. Nine years to resolve a “public safety emergency”
   2. The Department of Transportation determined that the tunnel option posed serious safety risks to the public, yet they insist on choosing that option anyway.
2. They disdain the will of the people.
   1. The Seattle City Council was so afraid that a vote of the people would go against their dreams that they refused to hold one.
   2. When the governor called for a vote, she ignored most of the people, restricting the vote to Seattle residents.
   3. When the people voted down the tunnel, our politicians decided to willfully ignore them.
3. They consistently choose the more expensive option when considering how to spend public monies.
   1. Replacing the viaduct with an elevated structure was estimated to cost almost half of what the tunnel would.
   2. When it looked like an elevated structure would be chosen they threatened like spoiled children to drive up the costs to match or exceed their legacy building option.
4. They toady to those in power rather than standing on principal.
   1. The governor decided on principle at first that public safety was the important factor.
   2. The governor then capitulated to the mayor of Seattle — arguably the most politically powerful city in the state.

The states are a microcosm of the federal government. I’ve railed against the federal government’s usurpation of the powers rightfully belonging to the States and the People ever since I started writing this blog. I’ve talked about the hypocrisy of our politicians and their attitude that the very behaviors that they themselves engage in are only bad when the politician engaging in them is from “the other” party. I’ve complained that our federal government fails in its responsibilities and duties while taking on responsibilities and duties that it should not, and that our freedoms are being eroded before our very eyes while we sit back and meekly take it on the chin.

Maybe I’m arguing the wrong points. There’s almost certainly no hope of reforming our federal government if we can’t even reform our state governments. Lord knows they need reform.

Why do we keep voting for these spineless charlatans anyway?