The slime of the CRC oozes out: permanent tolls will be used for loot rail and screw what the public wants.

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You know, the Nazi's really could take lessons from the scum running the CRC.

NOW is the time for our elected officials to put an end to this farce... an end to the lies... and admit what we, the people want, really doesn't matter.

Yeah, Steve, there WILL be a "clear vote on light rail." And then you and the rest of the bridger/looters will ignore it and stick it to us anyway.

And then another in the series of loot rail articles where, once again, no one from the well-established opposition to this steaming pile is quoted. No one talks about the costs, or what a rip off this garbage is.

Yup. Goebbels could have learned a lot from Brancaccio. And Himmler could have learned some nice techniques from the CRC.

You people make me sick.

Legislature has clout to OK tolls for light rail

It could do so even if voters defeat proposed C-Tran hike

By Erik Robinson
Columbian Staff Reporter

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

More like this

Separate light rail vote gets support

Commissioners prefer light rail vote

Fate of light rail will go before voters

Vancouver council supports single ballot measure for buses, light
rail

C-Tran hires bus rapid transit planning manager

C-Tran’s board of directors will meet Saturday to talk about whether the board is still on track to place a ballot measure before voters in November.

That measure would boost the sales tax by one-tenth of 1 percent to operate an extension of Portland’s light-rail transit system across a new Interstate 5
bridge over the Columbia River.

There’s just one thing: It may not matter.

The state Legislature could, in the face of a ballot measure defeat, simply authorize bridge tolls to be used for operating and maintaining the new light
rail line.

While that may not be popular in Southwest Washington, it’s permissible under existing state law.

“Toll revenue can be used, pretty much, for anything on the toll facility it was collected on. That’s current law,” said Hayley Gamble, a fiscal analyst for the Senate Transportation Committee. “But the toll facility has to be defined in law, and that’s the limiting factor here.”

The Legislature would have to authorize tolling on the Columbia River Crossing.

Gamble said that legislation will define the specific area to be tolled, whether that’s the bridge itself or a wider area on both sides of the river. Lawmakers could authorize tolling to operate light rail, or they could choose to specifically exclude it.

“Until the facility is defined, I would not be comfortable saying whether (light rail) would be covered or not,” Gamble said.

In any case, that legislation has yet to materialize, and it might not before the anticipated C-Tran vote in November.

Now expected to cost $3.6 billion, the overall Columbia River Crossing project would replace the existing twin three-lane drawbridges with a 10-lane river crossing, extend light rail to Clark College and improve five miles of freeway and interchanges on I-5 in Oregon and Washington.

CRC project planners anticipate a three-way cost split between the two states, the federal government and local revenue generated by tolls.

They anticipate the Federal Transit Administration will provide $850 million to construct the light rail line.

But they will need $2 million to $3 million per year to operate it.

That’s where local voters were supposed to come in, assuming they agree to boost the sales tax. In September, C-Tran’s board decided to split up a long-anticipated ballot measure so that basic bus service would be separated from the political lightning rod that is light rail.

“It’s going to the voters,” Clark County Commissioner Steve Stuart said at the time. “There will be a clear vote on light rail.”

More:

So, uh, Lou... you PROUD of this scam?

I can't wait for the editorials supporting this crime to start pouring out.

And you so high on "user fees." Did you mean the permanent tolls this will cause?

That means people will be born here, live their entire lives here, and die here, PAYING FOR THAT FRICKING BRIDGE EVERY DAY, FOREVER.

Despicable.
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