Local transportation leaders sent a letter to officials at City Hall yesterday, chiding them for interrupting the city's transit plan by passing a law freezing the mayor from spending any money. They say in the letter (.pdf), the city needs that funding to be fluid to deal with issues relating to light-rail planning, mitigating impacts of Metro bus service reductions, and appeals for federal transportation grants.

The groups—including Transportation Choices Coalition, Futurewise, Cascade Bicycle Club, King County Conservation Voters, and Seattle Transit Blog—call out the toxic politics at City Hall, which stem largely from a clash of planning on the deep-bore tunnel, that are obstructing transit planning.

"We ask the Council and the Mayor to put aside their differences on other issues and remove the taint of politics from the transit planning process," the groups wrote to council members Richard Conlin and Tom Rasmussen, and Mayor Mike McGinn. "In the end, our ask is simple, that the Council remove its funding restrictions while continuing to support this planning effort and that the Mayor agree to reasonable conditions necessary to assure a full modal component in this year's planning process."