Only a dull, throbbing rage holds back a point-by-point I-told-you-so exultation. For now, Richard Rubin provides the latest “news” on CATS:
Charlotte’s first light-rail line will cost more than planned, and city officials don’t know how far the price tag will rise above the $427 million budget.
Faulty designs have made it difficult for multiple contractors to coordinate work with each other, and some designs had to be redone, said Ron Tober, chief executive officer of the Charlotte Area Transit System. The city may sue Parsons Transportation Group, the company that was paid $38 million for designing much of the 9.6-mile line along South Boulevard.
Tober announced the problems late Tuesday night, following a two-hour closed-door meeting with the City Council. He said he still expects the rail line to open in November 2007.
First, I’ll be shocked and amazed if trains are running in 60 days or so.* (see comments)
Second, CATS and the city are now doing everything humanly possible to doctor the numbers and come up with a total less than $500 million. The Powers That Be absolutely do not want to cross that half-billion dollar mark.
And sue Parsons? Good Lord. After everyone but CATS and the city of Charlotte knew Parsons’ track-record of financial mismanagement? How could anyone claim to be remotely surprised that the light rail budget was busted? CATS and Ron Tober do not have a leg — or a rail bed — to stand on here. This is just PR spin for the yokels.
The upshot — as we’ve pointed out relentlessly — is that the half-cent sales tax will not fund CATS’ grand choo-choo plans. General fund revenue will have to be used for the other corridors, or new debt issued to be paid for via the car rental-tax hike approved as part of the great Wachovia arts complex switch-a-roo. (Also known in some parts as the Taxpayer Sodomization Act of 2006.)
The only remotely sane policy response to these developments is to crap-can future CATS light rail plans for good and begin to devote some of the $50 million a year in half-cent sales tax revenue to building roads, as per UNCC traffic guru David Hartgen’s massively researched suggestion. CATS has proven it cannot do what it agreed to 1998 when voters approved the half-cent levy for transportation solutions, not light rail pipe dreams. That is no longer a question.
What is a question — a damn mystery, in fact — if why local officials, candidates even, utterly refuse to stand up and demand that the transit tax be ripped from CATS’ clumsy grip.
Rage. Throbbing.
