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Who's behind "Monorail Recall"

By Mike Lindblom
Seattle Times staff reporter

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Back here in Seattle, transportation politics aren't so simple.

This week pro- and anti-monorail factions are rolling out the city's fourth public campaign over whether to build elevated transit.

Initiative 83, better known as "Monorail Recall," would ban city permits for the Green Line monorail connecting Ballard, Seattle Center, downtown and West Seattle.

Voters previously approved a pair of planning initiatives, and in 2002 narrowly approved a measure to build the monorail with money from a new car-tab tax.

For more information: Pro-monorail No Recall — Go Monorail campaign, www.norecallgomonorail.com or 206-963-7131 Build the Monorail (unofficial pro-monorail site): www.buildthemonorail.com Anti-monorail Monorail Recall campaign: www.monorailrecall.com or 206-352-7452 OnTrack (critics' watchdog group): www.monorailontrack.org

The Seattle Monorail Project (SMP), a public agency, has already bought land for most stations, held hundreds of meetings and spent more than $113 million toward the $1.75 billion line.

But Nov. 2, voters will be asked if they want to kill the project — just weeks before a planned groundbreaking.

The agency says it is delivering all 14 miles that it promised on budget, and supporters say it should continue its progress toward a grand opening in mid-2009.

Anti-monorail activists contend that this is the first vote on a real plan. The support columns will be wider than the three feet advertised in the previous campaign, and the route has been changed to run through Seattle Center. Further, the car-tab tax is bringing in far less money than forecast.

Others claim voters have the right to change their minds now that the impact of the tax is sinking in.

A monorail primer Initiative 83 would ban city construction permits for the $1.75 billion, 14-mile Green Line monorail in Seattle. Some facts: A "Yes" vote is to block the monorail, and a "No" vote is to build it. The monorail route begins at Northwest 85th Street and 15th Avenue Northwest, cuts through Ballard, then continues on a high bridge over the Lake Washington Ship Canal to Interbay. It proceeds through Seattle Center and downtown to West Seattle via the existing roadway bridge. Voters previously approved three pro-monorail initiatives: a pair of planning measures in 1997 and 2000, then a car-tab tax to build the Green Line in 2002. It passed by 877 votes. The tax rate is $140 a year per $10,000 of vehicle value, except for a one-year break on new cars. The tax is calculated not on market value, but on an old state depreciation schedule, which tends to overvalue newer cars. Monorail taxes are deductible on federal income-tax forms. Initiative 83 could be tossed out if state courts rule in favor of the Seattle Monorail Project in either of two pending lawsuits.

Even this vote may not end the battle.

State courts could still throw out I-83, which is being challenged by the monorail agency in two lawsuits. Seattle might find itself building a monorail a majority no longer supports.

Or, the people could carry the monorail to its "four-peat" victory.

The rivalry

The initiative campaign began with West Seattle resident Tim Wulf who says he paid about $8 in October 2003 for the Web name monorailrecall.com.

His group is counting on voter outrage over the size of the tax. Like many drivers, Wulf was surprised to see that the tax was based on an old state depreciation schedule that tends to overvalue newer cars.

Two other campaign leaders, architect Nils Finne and his wife, Liv, say they signed on because they think tracks would blight the city.

"I felt it was so clear they had not told the whole story before the election," said Wulf.

I-83 has been bankrolled almost entirely by skyscraper developer Martin Selig, who has given nearly $225,000 of the campaign's $256,000 to date, including payments for paid signature gatherers. The group lists 200 smaller contributors and says volunteers gave 5,000 hours.

Campaign manager Tim Killian said he expects an outpouring of cash from businesses this week.

"We would like to have $750,000. Whether or not we get there, I don't know."

On the other side, the new "No Recall — Go Monorail" campaign has won endorsements from Democratic Party groups in north and central Seattle, the Green Party and former Govs. Dan Evans and Booth Gardner.

Campaign co-chairs are SMP board Chairman Tom Weeks, monorail activist Peter Sherwin and Peter Coates, executive secretary of the Seattle-King County Building and Construction Trades Council. They plan to remind voters of the original allure of monorail: Elevated trains never get stuck in traffic.

"The 'rise above it all' idea still matters to a lot of people," said monorail board member Kristina Hill.

Monorail activists also disparage Selig and other foes by likening them to tax rebel Tim Eyman of Mukilteo, whose measures are usually unpopular in Seattle.

"Unlike our opposition, the effort is broadly supported among so many people and groups, instead of Eyman-loving, anti-tax people and greedy downtown developers," said campaign manager Cindi Laws, a monorail board member.

In 2002 the pro-monorail campaign raked in $531,000, about six times the opposition total. Many large donations came from companies seeking Green Line contracts, but the campaign also pulled in 500 donations of $100 or less.

Sherwin doesn't think the pro-monorail side can outpace an expected deluge of downtown landowners' donations this time.

"We're going to be the smaller campaign when it comes to money, but not when it comes to votes," he said.

What's at stake

This summer the Seattle City Council approved two crucial agreements for the monorail. The council must take a third vote, after an independent consultant's review, to confirm that there is enough money to build the line.

I-83 would undo the council's two decisions — but only if judges agree the initiative is legal. State judges allowed it on the ballot without ruling on its legality, saying there wasn't enough time for full deliberation before election deadlines.

One challenge by the SMP seeks to throw out 10,000 anti-monorail signatures because they were collected before June 18, when a King County judge rewrote the ballot title for greater clarity.

Another lawsuit contends that Monorail Recall took an illegal shortcut by using the city's relatively easy initiative process, instead of a more stringent recall process in the monorail's state authorizing legislation.

Anti-monorail attorneys say control of the streets, and therefore the monorail, ultimately belongs to the people and not the City Council.

Monorail officials aren't slowing down their effort to build the Green Line.

Contract talks continue with the Cascadia Monorail Co., which submitted the sole bid last month to build, operate and maintain the system for around $1.4 billion.

SMP Finance Director Jonathan Buchter said the agency is gearing up to sell $700 million to $800 million in monorail construction bonds in early November, even before the courts resolve the initiative's legality. Because the measure would not repeal the car-tab tax, the agency can pledge the tax proceeds to bond investors, said Buchter.

Even if the project were aborted today the agency would need to keep collecting the tax for about 12 months, and sell off its station properties, to pay existing debts of $73 million.

I-83 campaign manager Killian says most voters have probably chosen sides by now, with only 10 to 15 percent undecided. He considers those people pro-transit, and says the message to them will be that money for monorail would be better spent on Sound Transit light rail, or buses.

The pro-monorail side believes the swing voters are nervous that a small, vocal group can dismantle an ongoing transit project.

"Even if they aren't necessarily rabidly pro-monorail like some of us, there is a disgust that people would have to vote four times to get something built in this town," Laws said.

Chad Maglaque, a longtime monorail supporter, believes an important piece is missing from the debate: the real bid by Cascadia, which remains confidential. He said that unless SMP releases a compelling proposal within about a week, the agency is headed for trouble at the polls.

"No one is going to extend them the courtesy to proceed," Maglaque said. "We need to see this information."

State Rep. Ed Murray, D-Capitol Hill, said it's too early to form an opinion until the SMP's tentative deal with Cascadia is released, to prove the line either can or cannot be built on budget.

"Generally, I don't think once you vote on something you should revote on something. That applies to monorail and that applies to Sound Transit," said Murray.

But the monorail began as a populist cause, he said, so it's vulnerable to a populist backlash.

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

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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