FasTracks, that is what.
We could write a long dissertation explaining RTD's long and embarrassing FasTracks saga. But you know the story: RTD promised the world, if the voters would only grant a big tax increase. Voters granted that big tax increase, and a bureaucratic boondoggle of epic scale has unfolded ever since.
And now RTD wants to clean up their mess with, you guessed right, another tax increase.
From today's Denver Post editorial page:
The Regional Transportation District earlier this week recommended a proposal that would ask voters for a 0.4 percent sales tax increase to bring the project closer to completion.
We say closer to completion because the plan, while not abandoning commuter rail, doesn't do enough to affirm it will be built in the foreseeable future. Instead, the "hybrid plan" calls for building rail service as far as Westminster by 2022 and spending up to $894 million for some 80 miles of bus-rapid transit service for Broomfield and Boulder counties. There is talk of completing the rail portions in segments as money becomes available, but no details.
RTD general manager Phil Washington said he would bet rail could be built to Longmont before 2042. That's hardly going out on a ledge.
Passing a tax increase this fall is going to be a tough sell, but it could be the last chance to get FasTracks, which we have long supported, right. [Peak emphasis]
As the 2:1 drubbing of Prop 103 showed, voters in Colorado are not keen on increasing taxes right now.
And a tax increase to fund something that voters already thought they funded with another tax increase? You've got to be kidding.
For some reason, we don't think voters north of Denver, who don't have light rail, will want to increase their taxes for the possibility of a rail station at some point before 2042.
As guest contributor Plymouth Rocks pointed out last week, voters south of Denver already have light rail. Why would they vote to increase their taxes for something they already have?
FasTracks has become what conservatives said it would be: a joke.
(Photo Credit: Complete Colorado)
That is over 1 mile a year! They are mad to think they can get it done with such speed!
Some reality here. The Central Pacific Railroad built their almost 1,800 miles of rail from Sacramento California to just west of Ogden Utah in less than six years. That was done using tools powered mostly by human muscle and over terrain that was not friendly to the idea of rails being placed there. They were able to lay a 10 mile stretch of that in one day!
What was the big difference? The railroads were built by capitalists who were not only expected to meet government conditions in construction for the money they were loaned through government bonds, but had to also pay back the loans (with interest) while making enough of a profit to satisfy their investors. They had to produce results quickly enough to keep everyone satisfied.
FasTracks is government run, with all the bureaucratic roadblocks, red tape, and lack of accountability one fully expects to find in such an endeavor. Cost overruns and missed deadlines result in absolutely no one being held responsible for the mess.
You have to wonder how many more tax increases they think they can soak everyone for over that 30 year stretch.
The Central Pacific Railroad used a trick employed nowadays by Apple to get their work done cheap and fast…
…Chinese labor!
As they say, little hands make fast work.
(Too far?)
but not really too far, given that you have a pretty legitimate point in there.
Though lefties would probably disagree just to disagree.