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Crack Willy Week reporter Nigel Jaquiss discusses the I-5 bridge over the Columbia River in light of Oregon Treasurer Ted Wheeler's scathing report on its feasibility, while the project director continues to blow smoke:
Nancy Boyd, the CRC project director, acknowledges that delivering her project got tougher last week after Wheeler’s report and will again be challenged by the 2012 C-Tran election. Boyd adds that a “no” vote, however, would not necessarily kill light rail or the project.
“There could be other ways of coming up with that money,” she says. “[C-Tran] could set aside a portion of their operating budget.”
And that’s exactly what many Clark County residents fear: that regardless of the vote, C-Tran will find ways to cover light-rail expenses.
“We think they’ll use the money from this year’s vote as a backstop so they don’t have to worry about next year,” says Josephine Wentzel, who works for Madore.
Heather Stuart, the political consultant running the “yes” campaign for this year’s C-Tran measure, says the transit agency could shift bus funds to light rail. But she says C-Tran wouldn’t do that.
Of course they wouldn't, just like Tri-Met hasn't been cannibalizing bus services to fund light rail.
