Seattle mayoral candidate aims to use city funds to speed up ST3

Seattle mayoral hopeful Mike McGinn is pledging to speed up Sound Transit’s light rail efforts if he is elected in November, and he proposes to use city money to do it.

In a May 30 blog post, McGinn writes:

“Sound Transit can build light rail faster than the current schedule if Seattle commits to finding innovative solutions in partnership with the regional transit agency to expedite permitting and financing of planned projects.”

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McGinn was mayor of Seattle from 2010 to 2013 and lost the last election to Ed Murray. He currently faces 20 other candidates to get back into the mayor’s office. His campaign now includes this commitment — to do what he can as mayor to bring light rail to Seattle more quickly. That could partly mean leveraging Seattle’s money for Sound Transit’s light rail projects.

“Seattle can potentially help shave years off the timeline if it works to accelerate planning and permitting, and partners with Sound Transit to ease the cash flow crunch,” McGinn writes.

Aside from speeding up the permitting process, McGinn said the city can further help out by using its “borrowing ability” to provide Sound Transit with more upfront cash. Sound Transit has to borrow money to finance projects piece-by-piece, and can only borrow so much at a time.

“Let’s be clear, this would be complex and potentially expensive … Specifically, could Seattle and King County use their borrowing capacity to advance money to Sound Transit. Then, as Sound Transit followed its existing financial plan and borrowed against revenues, it could pay back the advances made by Seattle and King County. To hold Sound Transit harmless and not damage ST’s budget, Seattle would likely have to pay the carrying costs – the interest on the bridge loans.”

For example, a bond rate of 4 percent on a $100 million loan would equate to $4 million, or $1 billion loan would mean $40 million interest, he writes. So Seattle could be on the hook for the percentage costs under this idea.

“We don’t know how that will work out, but we know what will happen if Seattle sits quietly,” McGinn writes. “It will take a long time to get these projects done. Instead we should push for creative solutions that protects the timeline of regional priorities while advancing Seattle’s projects.”

McGinn also notes that ST3 is a multiyear process and Seattle should “not give up hope that we might get a transit-friendly President and Congress in the years to come.” Sound Transit currently faces funding cuts under the proposed federal budget.

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