Light-rail opponents launch pre-emptive strike with radio ads

Sound Transit hasn't decided whether to put a light-rail measure before voters this fall, but opponents already are airing radio ads against it.

The Eastside Transportation Association (ETA), funded in part by Bellevue Square developer Kemper Freeman Jr., criticizes light rail in the ads, saying the money would be better spent on roads, bridges and bus service throughout the suburbs. Sound Transit's governing board, composed mainly of elected officials from urban Snohomish, King and Pierce counties, is split over how many projects to propose.

Officials want something leaner than what voters rejected last fall, a 20-year, $38 billion combined "Roads & Transit" proposition.

But a recent 12-year, $11 billion transit-only plan was opposed by some board members because money would run out before the tracks reached Federal Way or Lynnwood.

Sound Transit needs to file a measure by Aug. 12, or lose this year's chance to ride a possible wave of public interest in more service, as gasoline prices pass $4.30 a gallon. Sound Transit Chairman Greg Nickels, the Seattle mayor, asked staffers to produce a more ambitious 14- to 16-year version for a public board meeting today, in hopes of finding agreement.

In one of the Eastside group's commercials, a suburban couple grumble about a rail-obsessed "Emerald City Mayor," and claims van pools could serve more people.

Another group, last year's NotoProp1.org campaign, has updated its "Ka-Ching" ads online and on radio. They assert that Sound Transit "costs too much, does too little, and takes too long." Mark Baerwaldt, the group's treasurer, said ads ran on KIRO, KTTH, and KOMO, but he recently stopped them so the public wouldn't be confused between those ads and the messages from the Eastside group.

Baerwaldt said he'll revive a full-fledged opposition campaign, if Sound Transit goes ahead with a ballot measure. "We're back," he said.

The ads don't have to be reported in campaign-disclosure forms, because there's no ballot measure yet.

Dick Paylor, ETA's chairman-elect, said the goal is voter education. "It's trying to get people to ask questions, rather than take things at face value," he said.

The group spent about $50,000 on a two-week blitz, covering 16 to 20 ads a week on four or five stations, including KIRO, KOMO and KWJZ, said treasurer Bruce Nurse, who is also vice president of Kemper Development. He said Freeman is the ETA's largest funder, but another person donated $25,000 last year. Freeman is a longtime advocate of freeway expansion to reduce congestion.

Anti-rail ads are just one sign of the struggle ahead for Sound Transit boosters.

Former state transportation Secretary Doug MacDonald has appeared on talk radio and written essays against light rail for the daily newsmagazine Crosscut.com saying money should instead be channeled toward buses. He says job and housing centers are so numerous that Sound Transit's centerpiece — a proposed Seattle-Bellevue line on the Interstate 90 bridge — wouldn't solve the region's mobility problems.

A pro-rail campaign has yet to emerge, but the Transportation Choices Coalition and the Sierra Club have publicly encouraged Sound Transit to reach the ballot.

Sound Transit has been criticized for paying Transportation Choices $22,000 in membership fees this year, and $156,000 in dues since 1999, according to public records released to the Washington Policy Center, which this week accused the agency of funding "special-interest groups."

Sound Transit money makes up less than 7 percent of the coalition's overall $360,000 budget, and is used only for education programs, such as guest speakers or booths at neighborhood fairs, said the coalition's outreach director, Shefali Ranganathan.

Policy-center analyst Michael Ennis asked state Auditor Brian Sonntag to investigate if the Sound Transit dues were improperly donated. Sonntag agreed to include the issue in this year's routine audit of the transit agency.

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

Information in this article, originally published July 10, 2008, was corrected July 10, 2007. A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that the news Web site Crosscut is at crosscut.org. The correct Web address is crosscut.com.