At a press conference today, Governor Chris Gregoire condemned a city referendum on the deep-bore tunnel contracts while supporting City Attorney Pete Holmes’s lawsuit to keep it off the ballot. “Had Holmes not brought the action, we would have brought the action,” she said. As for the petitioners who gathered 28,00 signatures, Gregoire continued, “It think its too bad that people went out and got the signatures when they should have known all along that the decision was not referable [to the voters].”

Gregoire said any project delay for a citywide vote would cost $54 million. Who would pay those costs—the city or the state? "I have no idea," she said.

Gregoire also insists that the referendum—contrary to the edict of the city charter—didn’t suspend the tunnel contracts approved by the Seattle City Council on February 28 (pertaining to right of way and utility relocation for the tunnel). “Today we have a binding, enforceable contract,” she said.

The governor and Council President Richard Conlin also tried to refute evidence that the tunnel performs the same or worse than surface/transit. She claimed surface/transit would increase travel times through downtown by a half hour, while Conlin claimed a tunnel would result in "moving a majority of cars off our waterfront."

Neither Gregoire or Conlin have responded to requests for data that back up their statements.