Jake: Sound Transit doesn’t need to ask for more of your money. They’ll just take it

Let me be upfront: I’m deeply cynical about Sound Transit and the entire light rail project. And it’s not unfounded.

By any honest measure, what was promised and what’s being delivered are two completely different things.

In 2016, voters approved the ST3 expansion with a price tag somewhere around $54 billion. The current projection to deliver that same plan? Closer to $185 billion. Ask yourself honestly — would voters have approved $185 billion in 2016?

Not a chance. Yes, costs rise. Projects get complicated. But the biggest culprit here isn’t inflation or complexity. It’s poor management.

I saw a poll earlier today asking whether Sound Transit is a well-run agency and a good steward of your tax dollars. I already knew the answer, but I clicked anyway. 93% said no. That’s not fringe opinion. That’s a near-universal verdict.

So here’s where we are: A broadly distrusted agency is now sitting $34 billion in the hole on ST3. A decade ago, that number was basically the entire state budget.

How is Sound Transit proposing to fill that gap?

The Sound Transit board is floating some cuts and holding public comment meetings, but let’s be honest, that’s mostly theater. I don’t think they care what the public says. That’s why it’s called a comment, not a vote.

What they will do — what voters technically authorized them to do in 2016 — is raise your property taxes. The board can approve up to a 1% annual increase, which they have already done for this year.

My fear is a slow bleed: year after year of property tax hikes to bail out a hole entirely of their own making.

Can the people who caused the problem also answer the call to fix it? History suggests no.

And for what? Even at full capacity, light rail will carry only a small fraction of regional commuters — many of whom were already riding buses rather than driving cars. So we’re not even meaningfully reducing highway congestion. We’re just shifting riders from one transit mode to a vastly more expensive one.

My former boss, Dori Monson, saw this coming years ago and fought hard against it. Time has once again proven him right (Dori was great that way).

Here’s my honest take: stop. Stop throwing good money after bad. Just stop.

Does anyone genuinely believe we need an Issaquah extension that, if they somehow stay on schedule, won’t open for over two decades?

They’ve spent just under $30 billion so far. Painful as it is, walking away now costs less than the alternative. Private businesses do this all the time. You make an investment, you see if it’s paying off, and if it’s not, you stop wasting money. It’s too precious a resource, and you cannot afford it.

Unfortunately, this is not a private business. This is big government that thinks the simple solution to fixing any problem is more of your money.

Crazy as it sounds, just keep the system we have. Stop taxing people for trains they’ll never ride. And maybe, just maybe, let them get where they’re going in a bus or their own car.

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