Thursday afternoon, the Sound Transit board unanimously approved sending Sound Transit's $54 billion ST3 light rail package to the November ballot where voters will have the final say.
It's official! The Sound Transit Board just voted to put #ST3 on the November ballot. Let's do this! pic.twitter.com/aJi87iAlNh
— Mass Transit Now (@masstransitnow) June 23, 2016
Afterward, Sound Transit board chair (and King County Executive) Dow Constantine led a press conference to discuss the campaign ahead.
The first ST3 campaign announcement... Prop 1 "Mass Transit Now": pic.twitter.com/XTfWz9bLsI
— Chris Daniels (@ChrisDaniels5) June 23, 2016
Constantine on ST3: "It is expensive but it will never be cheaper" @SoundTransit
— Chris Daniels (@ChrisDaniels5) June 23, 2016
The battle to get the proposition approved certainly won't be unopposed. According to K5's Chris Daniels, two opposition groups have already popped up. Daniels also raised a point about the need to convince a certain block of voters to approve the project even through they will probably not get the chance to use it.
Here’s a dynamic in ST3 debate:@Soundtransit needs to convince older voters, retirees to tax themselves for something they may never see.
— Chris Daniels (@ChrisDaniels5) June 23, 2016
And as the Seattle Times reminded us this week, and will probably continue to do so until November, taxpayers will be adding a lot to their bill for the project and there's a chance that number could rise.
If approved, Sound Transit would begin construction on a comprehensive light rail system that would connect Tacoma, Seattle, Bellevue, Everett and tons of neighborhoods, towns, and cities in between. All-told it would be over 100 miles of track with over 75 stations across 17 cities and serving 500,000 passengers daily. Station completiion would begin in the mid-2020s and stretch towards 2040 as lines make their way into neighborhoods such as West Seattle and Ballard.
· $54 billion Sound Transit plan heading to voters [KUOW]
· Seattle Times wants to ‘slow down’ on light rail, which is decades behind [CS]
· Sound Transit Light Rail Stations Could Be Built Sooner Under Revised Plan [CS]
· Sound Transit 3 Plan Calls For Second Downtown Seattle Tunnel, 108 Miles of Light Rail [CS]
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