Snohomish County feels left behind by Sound Transit

Back in 2016, a narrow majority of voters in Snohomish County voted in favor of light rail expansion from Sound Transit. Now, Snohomish County councilmembers are raising concerns.

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Last week, the Snohomish County Council had the chance to ask Sound Transit CEO Peter Rogoff questions about the numerous projects either already going on or in development in the region. Some of the council members are still fuming after receiving what they felt were unsatisfactory answers.

“Well, I think there is definitely a concern about Sound Transit adding projects in other areas,” Snohomish County Councilmember Nate Nehring told KTTH’s Jason Rantz, “and maybe a concern about Snohomish County being the last stop when we’re talking about Lynnwood-Everett.”

Snohomish County Councilmember Terry Ryan made headlines by focusing his questions to Rogoff on changes to the ST3 plan and complaints they were prioritizing projects within Seattle.

Nehring said he mainly asked about project budgets.

“I brought up how in Sound Transit 2, the project to Lynnwood was half-a-billion dollars over budget,” Nehring said. “My main question was what steps are being taken to ensure the other ST2 projects and the ST3 projects are not going to come in over budget in a similar way.”

Rogoff’s response can be found 32 minutes into the video for the meeting.

“We do not view the project as over budget because we do not establish a budget until we baseline a project. We try to be very transparent in saying that these estimates are just that, estimates until we are fully nailed down at 60 percent design.”

Nehring wasn’t satisfied with this response and pointed out it wasn’t the type of thing that would ever happen in the private sector.

“His response was basically that they don’t have a budget so they can’t come over budget,” Nehring said. “If you had something and you went to an investor and they said well what’s your budget for this project and you told the investor well, I’ll let you know when the project’s almost done how much it’s going to cost, that wouldn’t fly.”

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