Monorail...
Ahhhh...The mighty monorail....Where to begin!
First, congrats to our Mayor, Greg Nickels, for revoking the city permits required to complete the project. I have always been a HUGE fan of the monorail, that is, until the committee revealed the "updated" financing plan.
The monorail committee should pack up their office, hold their heads up high and accept defeat. In my mind, the monorail failed for the following reasons:
1. A group of cronies
The first person who took us for a ride was Joel Horn. To his credit, he did an excellent job raising supoprt for the project. However, he clearly did not poses the experience to direct a multi-million dollar public works project. Additionally, once appointed as the executive director, he received a salary of $184,000. That's a lot of car tabs just to pay his salary!
The average salary at the SMP has been quoted at over 80K. I have no problem with 80K salaries, but at the minimum, I would expect employees to have experience with a similar caliber transit project not just experience working to put the project to vote. Looking back, we should have hired on a big shot consulting from Day 1.
2. Financing
The information provided to voters was never accurate. The SMP has provided a number of iterations on financing and this blog will concentrate on the final plan.
The SMP's revenue revolves around a car tab tax. If you live in Seattle you should be very familiar with the additional tax required to register your car. The final plan rested on the value of cars appreciating by 5% over inflation for the next 20 years. If this were true, all investment bankers would be directing us to purchase cars in place of stocks/bonds.
Moreover, isn't the goal of the monorail to reduce the number of cars in Seattle? Thus, reducing the tax base for the SMP. The total cost of the project, 2.1B, would end up costing with interest between 7-12 billion and financed for 50 years. Would the monorail still be running in 50 years?
2b. Break even operations by 2020 - operation runs on cash flow from rider fares.
No other major American transit system has succeeded without subsides. Why would we be the first?
In summary, thank you Mayor N. for pulling the plug. I hope the SMP starts mailing refund checks soon, I could use the money for the holiday season.
Here are a few links to interesting articles from a web search:
seattle pi
seattle times
seattle weekly
First, congrats to our Mayor, Greg Nickels, for revoking the city permits required to complete the project. I have always been a HUGE fan of the monorail, that is, until the committee revealed the "updated" financing plan.
The monorail committee should pack up their office, hold their heads up high and accept defeat. In my mind, the monorail failed for the following reasons:
1. A group of cronies
The first person who took us for a ride was Joel Horn. To his credit, he did an excellent job raising supoprt for the project. However, he clearly did not poses the experience to direct a multi-million dollar public works project. Additionally, once appointed as the executive director, he received a salary of $184,000. That's a lot of car tabs just to pay his salary!
The average salary at the SMP has been quoted at over 80K. I have no problem with 80K salaries, but at the minimum, I would expect employees to have experience with a similar caliber transit project not just experience working to put the project to vote. Looking back, we should have hired on a big shot consulting from Day 1.
2. Financing
The information provided to voters was never accurate. The SMP has provided a number of iterations on financing and this blog will concentrate on the final plan.
The SMP's revenue revolves around a car tab tax. If you live in Seattle you should be very familiar with the additional tax required to register your car. The final plan rested on the value of cars appreciating by 5% over inflation for the next 20 years. If this were true, all investment bankers would be directing us to purchase cars in place of stocks/bonds.
Moreover, isn't the goal of the monorail to reduce the number of cars in Seattle? Thus, reducing the tax base for the SMP. The total cost of the project, 2.1B, would end up costing with interest between 7-12 billion and financed for 50 years. Would the monorail still be running in 50 years?
2b. Break even operations by 2020 - operation runs on cash flow from rider fares.
No other major American transit system has succeeded without subsides. Why would we be the first?
In summary, thank you Mayor N. for pulling the plug. I hope the SMP starts mailing refund checks soon, I could use the money for the holiday season.
Here are a few links to interesting articles from a web search:
seattle pi
seattle times
seattle weekly
posted by Bradley Krugh at 9:41 PM
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