Nickels gives monorail Sept. 15 deadline

Mayor Greg Nickels yesterday gave the Seattle Monorail Project a Sept. 15 deadline to propose a ballot measure to pay for its financially distressed train line.

In a letter to the monorail's governing board, he said uncertainty over the elevated line could harm other efforts to fix the area's transportation problems.

"If the SMP Board is unable to take decisive action the City of Seattle will have to independently determine if continuance of the monorail project is in the best interests of our city," the letter said.

There are two choices, he said. Seek higher taxes to construct the entire 14-mile Green Line from Ballard to West Seattle, or shorten the route.

Though the monorail agency is independent of the city, the city has leverage, because city permits are required to build tracks over the streets and through Seattle Center.

The Sept. 15 deadline itself isn't surprising, because the SMP needs to forward any ballot measure to King County Elections by Sept. 23 to reach the Nov. 8 ballot.

The bigger story is the statewide political context.

Campaigners for Initiative 912, which seeks to repeal a statewide 9-cent gasoline-tax increase, already have been citing the monorail as evidence government leaders can't be trusted. (The monorail is funded through a different Seattle-only tax on license tabs.)

Gov. Christine Gregoire showed her own impatience yesterday after a pollster hired by Seattle business groups briefed her on findings that 37 percent of respondents wish to continue the project, and 56 percent would end it.

Asked whether the governor has contemplated calling a special legislative session to disband the SMP, as two lawmakers have suggested, Gregoire said through spokeswoman Kerry Coughlin: "Why should the taxpayers need to spend money on a special session to tell Seattle what to do? Leadership in Seattle needs to do the right thing. It's obvious people have lost faith in the project. I understand their frustration. I'm frustrated too."

If voters were to repeal the gas-tax increase, it would cancel $2 billion in gas-tax funds earmarked to help replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct, a top Nickels priority.

Nickels said in an interview he wants the monorail's future to be settled before 2006 because an "extended period of uncertainty" would jeopardize other transportation efforts. These could include a future regional tax increase to replace the viaduct, fund other highways such as the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge or extend Sound Transit light rail to the University District and Northgate.

Nickels also said that if the agency tries on its own to shorten the route without a revote, it "is not going to be satisfactory to the public," because it would break with the monorail's "grass-roots" heritage and three earlier pro-monorail initiatives.

Monorail board members are aware of the need to act quickly — longtime pro-monorail activist Peter Sherwin has previously encouraged them to propose a revote plan by mid-August. "Don't fear the voters," he has said.

City Council members Richard Conlin, Jan Drago and Nick Licata said they considered Sept. 15 reasonable.

Last night, SMP board member Cleve Stockmeyer agreed the people should vote. He believes people are in no mood to approve a tax increase, so he will support shortening the line and using more conservative assumptions for the finance plan. One example might be building from Alaska Junction to the Interbay operations base, he said.

Last month the SMP halted a $2.2 billion plan. Because of chronic tax shortages, the deal required at least 50 years of taxes and $11.4 billion in total debt payments, even at high growth rates.

After the agency received a single bid for the monorail in August 2004, SMP concealed the financing dilemma and cost overruns of more than $300 million from public view until June.

The business groups' poll, conducted by Peter Hart of Washington, D.C., found that only 34 percent of 503 respondents had confidence in the monorail board.

Last night, Stockmeyer suggested adding to the ballot a measure that would let the public elect the majority of SMP board members; seven of nine now are appointed by the mayor, the City Council and the board itself.

Another reason to make the change now: Three appointed seats expire at the end of the year, he said.

"I think at this moment, in all candor, this board is the last group that the people of Seattle want to see select a board" through reappointments, he said.

But Stockmeyer also said it would be wrong for the City Council, Legislature, the monorail board or anyone but the voters to fold the agency.

Mike Lindblom: 206-515-5631 or mlindblom@seattletimes.com