Jake: Do Ballard residents deserve a refund for the failed Sound Transit plan?

There’s an old saying: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. But what do you call it when it happens three times?

Voters within the Sound Transit District approved tax increases in 1996, 2008, and 2016 — three separate ballot measures, each carrying the same basic promise: Pay up now, get a train later. Ballard residents said yes every time. Some Ballard precincts approved ST3 with nearly 90% of the vote. Now they’re being told the train isn’t coming.

Sound Transit’s governing board recently approved a sweeping overhaul of its voter-approved ST3 expansion plan, acknowledging a projected $34.5 billion funding gap that agency leaders said makes the original schedule unaffordable. The line will now start in the Chinatown-International District and travel about three miles to Seattle Center, four miles short of Ballard, and $7 to $9 billion short in cash to finish the job.

The opponents of ST3 saw this coming. The official ballot argument against the measure warned voters plainly: “Middle-class families will pay over $25,000 in taxes — $1,000 per year for 25 years — to Sound Transit before ST3 is built and ready to use.”

That turned out to be true.

$25,000 in taxes paid, nothing to show for it

So the question is fair: Should Ballard residents get their money back?

Personally, I wish there were a mechanism for that, but there isn’t. The agency faces a $34.5 billion hole. Even if they could pay it, they can’t afford it now. You could also make the argument that voters had every opportunity to read the fine print and chose to take the risk on a very expensive light rail promise — and this is what happens when government promises collide with government math. It’s a hard lesson, but maybe it’s the kind that changes how people vote.

What makes this particularly maddening is that the cycle never ends. Sound Move in 1996. ST2 in 2008. ST3 in 2016. The pattern holds every time. The promise is big. The cost grows. The plan gets reshaped. And the next ballot measure asks for more to finish what the last one started. Sound Transit has never been told no. They have also never delivered a program on budget.

And right on cue, the Sound Transit board has already directed the agency to explore seeking new funding, including a possible new bond issue, if it can’t find another way to finance the Ballard line. They may not call it ST4. They’ll call it a “completion package” or something distracting, but the structure is identical.

Seattle voters have a remarkable talent for taxing themselves for things they don’t receive: clean streets, reduced homelessness, and light rail service. At some point, Sound Transit will come back to Ballard residents asking for more. The only real question is whether they’ll believe the next round of empty promises or whether they’ll finally say enough is enough.

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