Seattle is close to dumping its famed monorail dream due to the project’s massive cost:
Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels is withdrawing his support for the monorail, and at a press conference this afternoon said he is canceling the agreement for monorail construction permits.
Nickels is asking the City Council to hold an emergency session next Thursday to put an advisory measure on the Nov. 8 ballot. Next Friday is the deadline to submit a ballot measure to King County Elections.
The measure, which would be Seattle’s fifth monorail ballot question, is intended to ask the public whether the monorail should still be built given the project’s financial constraints, Nickels said.
The governor supports the move too as the cost of a 14-mile line ballooned to $2.1 billion, a number impossible to finance with excise taxes on private vehicles as was planned.
The King County excise tax is expected to bring in $48 million this year, far more than the $32 million or so that Mecklenburg’s extra .5 cent sales tax will. Still, that was not enough to fund mass transit pipe dreams.
Does anyone in Charlotte city government get the picture? It is never too late to say no to a bad idea.
