Slog - Comments on Bad Transportation News, Part 2 http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/03/bad_transportat State Sen. Bill Finkbeiner's proposal to link a planned Sound Transit ballot measure extending light rail and the roads-heavy Regional Transportation Investment District (if either failed, both would fail) is included in the regional-transportation compromise reached in the state legislature yesterday. The "common-ballot" measure, which also prohibits a Sound Transit-RTID vote in 2006, is Finkbeiner's attempt to force roads proponents (who generally support RTID) to vote for light rail, and to force transit backers (who generally support Sound Transit) to vote for RTID. However, FutureWise director Aaron Ostrom says the whole issue may be irrelevant anyway, because Finkbeiner's provision would... Copyright 2007 Wed, 08 Mar 2006 16:43:05 -0800 Thu, 09 Mar 2006 18:03:30 -0800 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.34 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Comment by cressona Finkbeiner's a liar. He keeps saying (a) Sound Transit needs the roads package to pass, and (b) the roads package needs Sound Transit to pass. Only (b) is true. Sound Transit could pass on its own. And once it did, the roads package would become the orphan that has to get even more transit cobbled onto it to pass on its own.

The simple fact that Sound Transit (as far as I know) and the folks like TCC were lobbying against this should be all you need to know.

Finkbeiner tries to make himself out like he's some great diplomat bringing the Israelis and Palestinians together, but he's just doing whatever he can to fight light rail and help roads. I would be curious what connections this guy has with Kemper Freeman. By the way, between this and his gay-rights flip-flop, shouldn't this guy be a prime target for ouster? I mean, we're talking Kirkland here, which is bluer than it is red.

]]> cressona http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/03/bad_transportat#c032547 http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/03/bad_transportat#c032547 Thu, 09 Mar 2006 07:49:57 -0800 Comment by cressona Some background on Finkbeiner. When the State Senate's Transportation Committee was coming up with its own regional transportation reform bill (SB6599), Finkbeiner kept trying to remove any trace of transit from it. The committee chair, Mary Margaret Haugen, eventually just let him do whatever he wanted. She knew it was a loser, so she was happy to let it come out of committee as the monstrosity it became. I think it was Ed Murray who called Finkbeiner's finished work "RTID on steroids."

]]> cressona http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/03/bad_transportat#c032562 http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/03/bad_transportat#c032562 Thu, 09 Mar 2006 07:53:27 -0800 Comment by keshmeshi I find it hard to believe that a Republican from Woodinville has transit's best interest in mind.

]]> keshmeshi http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/03/bad_transportat#c032997 http://slog.thestranger.com/2006/03/bad_transportat#c032997 Thu, 09 Mar 2006 18:03:30 -0800