Dori: Top of Seattle’s priority list is new shark tank

The Seattle Aquarium wants to spend $113 million to put in a shark tank — and the taxpayers would be on the hook for a big chunk of that.

Seattle taxpayers would cough up $34 million, but everybody in the state would be forced to contribute. That means that if you live in Colfax, you’ve got to pay for a shark tank 300 miles away.

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Think about where our priorities are in this state right now — is a $113 million shark tank really at the top of that list for tax dollars?

The aquarium just finished a $40 million expansion a decade ago. But Bob Davidson, the aquarium’s CEO, told KIRO 7’s Linzi Sheldon that the facility is at maximum capacity. So that’s why the taxpayers have to give you more money? That doesn’t make any sense at all.

If you’re at maximum capacity, you should be self-funding. You have donors, you have a private foundation. There’s no way the taxpayers should be on the hook for a massive expansion. If you’re doing that well and you’re at capacity, build something within your means where you don’t have to go to the taxpayers for it.

It’s like the Port of Seattle scam — Sea-Tac is busier than ever, and they still steal money from the taxpayers. If they were managed right, these entities could be self-funding. But no, they’ve got to go after the taxpayers.

The CEO told Linzi that it’s an opportunity for you to give them money. It’s a huge opportunity for your family to work a little bit harder, to pay a little bit more in taxes. How wondrous is that opportunity? God bless them for giving you that opportunity. Once again, our elected leaders are taking us down a righteous pathway.

We’ve got homeless, criminal, drug addict vagrants all over the city. We don’t have enough cops on the street. And we’ve got to build a shark tank? Yes — apparently the most urgent problem we have in Seattle is that we need a big shark tank.

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