A light rail with no rise in taxes

A new finance strategy released Thursday says that without raising taxes Sound Transit can pay for its proposed light-rail tunnel from Westlake Center to Husky Stadium.

Any groundbreaking remains four years off, and the project hinges on getting a $700 million federal subsidy to ease the pain of the $1.45 billion cost for construction and trains. The local share would include $550 million in bonds repaid by sales and car-tab taxes.

The project adds only two new passenger stations: one for Capitol Hill and another at the university stadium, medical center and south campus entrance.

The extension recently won the federal government's top rating, based on a high number of riders. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., will push for the federal money, as they've done before.

Officials hope to improve on the agency's early history, when high tunneling bids and other overruns broke the original budget by $1 billion. A voter-approved $2.3 billion, 21-mile line from the University District to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport was changed to a $2.4 billion, 14-mile "initial segment" from downtown to Tukwila, now under construction.

"Five years ago, we suffered some tremendous problems because of over-optimistic assumptions," said transit board member Jack Crawford of Kenmore. "We've got to be cautious, as we take this step by step."

Work on the north-end tunnel would begin in 2009 and be done by 2016. Besides the $1.45 billion, about $101 million already has been spent on administration and partial engineering, said Brian McCartan, deputy finance director.

Project opponent John Niles, of the Coalition for Effective Transportation Alternatives, said he doubts the feds will fund Sound Transit until the agency proves it can tunnel successfully through soggy Beacon Hill, part of the first line. Niles called the north-end tunnel "Seattle's Big Dig," alluding to Boston's infamous highway project in which its cost far exceeded its original budget.

Sound Transit says builders must avoid huge cost overruns while building a three-mile tunnel. Otherwise, the schedule or financial reserves would slip.

Sound Transit would pay interest only on certain bonds during the first 10 years, which raises the financing costs, McCartan said. With interest, total payments reach $1.85 billion, he said. Niles said the three-mile tunnel is still "a bad joke" — because the real goal is reaching Northgate, which, he said, remains unaffordable.

"Nobody wants a subway system that ends at Husky Stadium," he said. "They're just building momentum to get it started. They've got to raise taxes to finish it."

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