Marr attacks Rossi transporation plan in Spokane weekly

State Sen. Chris Marr (D-Spokane) wrote an op-ed for Spokane's Inlander Wednesday criticizing Dino Rossi's transportation plan. Marr admits that Rossi's plan seems too good to be true for the many folks stuck on clogged roads twice a day, five days a week, and he tries to show that it is too good to be true.

"Watching Dino Rossi roll out his $15.5 billion transportation plan in Spokane last month, it would have been hard for the average commuter to resist the temptation to join Representatives John Ahern and Lynn Schindler, Spokane County Commissioner Todd Mielke and local city officials such as Nancy McLaughlin and Diana Wilhite in singing its praises," Marr said in his editorial.

But Marr claims the plan is built upon a "$10 billion raid on the general fund" that "that steals scarce dollars from schools, health care and our prison system and continues lopsided funding for Seattle area projects."

Ultimately Marr derides the plan as a "cruel hoax" full of "pandering" and "politics".

"Solving Washington's transportation crisis is a complex problem that is not solved by offering up pie-in-the sky proposals without the funding to implement them," Marr says. "Using public frustration over the lack of investment in our roads as a political stunt does nothing to move us towards a solution - it merely builds public cynicism and promotes continued delay."

Read the full op-ed here.