A piece in Charlotte?s Rhino Times newspaper on the spin city officials are putting on the latest rail-transit stats deserves a lengthy excerpting:
For pure chutzpah, it?s hard to beat Transit Czar Ron Tober and his cohorts of light rail cheerleaders.
Take, for example, the presentation Tober made Monday night to city councilmembers in seeking their approval of an application for nearly $193 million of federal money that would foot half the bill to build Charlotte Area Transit System?s (CATS) South Corridor light rail line. Local revenue from the half-cent transit tax will pay for a quarter of the line?s capital cost, and state funding will pay for a quarter.
As part of his presentation Monday night, Tober noted that there is now an 82 percent probability of the project coming in under budget, versus a previous estimate of 64 percent. In fact, Tober boasted, the $52 million contract for the purchase of the South Corridor rail cars, as well as a $2.9 million demolition contract, has already come in under budget.
That?s a truly audacious set of statements, considering what was left unsaid: that the capital budget for the South Corridor has steadily increased from a projected cost of $227 million in 1998 to $331 million in 2000, to $371 million in 2002, all the way to its current budget of nearly $400 million.
In that context, Tober?s comments about bringing certain items ? or for that matter even the whole project ? in under budget is like a wife, husband or significant other taking credit for buying a $200 sweater or DVD player on sale for $100 ? and then, oh by the way, letting it slip that instead of spending an agreed upon limit of $500, the total shopping spree rang up $2,000. At least, $100 was saved on the sweater.
