Trust and Transit

This advertisement [large PDF] for the Trust and Transit initiative will appear in Wednesday's Seattle Times, Post-Intelligencer and King County Journal. The ad starts:

WHY DO PEOPLE FEEL LIKE THEIR VOTE DOESN'T MATTER?

WHY ARE THERE SO MANY ANTI-TAX INITIATIVES?

WHY WON'T PEOPLE SUPPORT ADDITIONAL TAXES FOR TRANSPORTATION?

Maybe it's because agencies like Sound Transit are allowed to go many billions of dollars and years over what was approved by the voters.

Indeed.

The KC Journal will include official petitions you can use to collect signatures to get the Trust and Transit initiative (I-894) on the ballot. We need to collect 200,000 signatures by July 2. This is probably our last chance to make a decision on Sound Transit. If we fail to get I-894 on the ballot, we're certain to be stuck with the mega-billion dollar Sound Transit black hole that falls far short of its promises to the voters and whose price tag only seems to keep going up. There are many effective alternatives to light rail, but if so much of our transportation budget goes to light rail, we won't have the resources or the political will for more effective alternatives. It's that simple. Either we get I-894 on the ballot, vote down Sound Transit once and for all and make some sane decisions about transit, or we keep paying through the nose while our transportation problems only get worse. Please do what you can to help put the Trust and Transit initiative on the ballot.

Afraid of Ron Sims

One of the Trust and Transit campaign insiders sent me the ad copy Tuesday morning, but asked me not to post it until late Tuesday evening. Her concern was that

Sims will have the news union folks toss our petition inserts if they get advance notice

I have no idea whether this fear is grounded in any actual experience with Ron Sims and his supporters, but it does suggest that there is a widespread perception that Ron Sims is, for lack of a better word, "Mugabe-esque".

Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at May 25, 2004 10:59 PM