Responses to Critiques of Rossi's Transportation Plan

Redmond, WA - Christine Gregoire and her allies yesterday shared their critiques of Dino Rossi statewide transportation plan.  In response to their claims, here are some facts:

Claim:     Aaron Ostrom of Fuse said: "Dino Rossi's plan is a recycled 1950s-style freeway construction bonanza with a twist." -Vancouver Columbian, 4/16/2008

Fact:        There isn't one single mile of road from Dino's plan that Christine Gregoire has not supported: 

• Seven out of the nine transportation projects are RTID projects that were included in Proposition 1 - which Gregoire supported.
• Gregoire is for the North-Spokane Corridor project.
• She also supports the bridge project across the Columbia River.
• Rossi's plan to fund promised projects draws its list of projects from those that were promised through the 9.5 cent gas tax, which Gregoire spearheaded.
• She wants to build a 520 bridge replacement that she says, depending on her audience, can be easily expandable to eight lanes.

Gregoire supports every project listed in Dino's plan.  The difference between them is that he has a plan to finance the projects and she doesn't.

Claim:     Senator Mary Margaret Haugen, Chair of the Senate Transportation Committee, said funding and carrying out such a plan would be difficult. "I've never seen it happen in my political career and I've been here for 26 years."  -Vancouver Columbian, 4/16/2008

Fact:        This is also the same time frame that Olympia has had one party in the governor's office and exactly why Dino Rossi needs to be governor.  Like this transportation plan, he'll bring new ideas to a city that ran out of them years ago.

Claim:     When Dino released his plan to find 2% efficiency in the state's $33 billion budget in order to fund these projects, Christine Gregoire said: "In order to make that up, you'd have to take huge cuts or raise taxes." -King 5 news, 4/15/08

Fact:        Christine Gregoire's 33% increase in spending has the state facing a $2.5 billion deficit next year.  What's her plan for "huge cuts or raising taxes" to fill this hole she created?    

Claim:     "Mark Hallenbeck, director of the Washington state Transportation Center at the University of Washington, said Rossi's numbers are ‘completely divorced from reality... He lowballs almost all the estimates and never says where all the funds are going to come from.'" - Seattle Times, 4/16/08   

Fact:        Absolutely false.  The project costs for Rossi's plan come directly from RTID and WSDOT, and are adjusted to reflect 2007 dollars.  Likewise, the plan is very specific regarding its revenue sources, and relies on numbers that come directly from state government and Sound Transit.  If Hallenbeck questions the accuracy of these numbers, he needs to address his issues directly with the government agencies that produced the numbers.