Why do Mayor White and Metro fear a new vote?
Now that Mayor White's new Metro plan is being widely discussed, some interesting things are coming to light.
Tom Bazan emailed the original ballot language from the 2003 referendum, printed in the Chronicle and translated by Lucas Wall. What immediately becomes apparent is how different the new plan is from the voter-approved plan. Here's an example:
3. While 73 miles of rail are included in the Metro Solutions plan, the financing package on the referendum provides only $640 million of bonds to implement the plan's first decade, including construction of 22 light rail miles. The remaining 51 rail miles could be built by 2025 if voters authorize additional bonds in or after 2009. Voters would also have to end Metro road spending after 2014.
That is from the 2003 referendum. Here is what Metro says about the new plan:
The implementation plan also includes more miles of commuter rail than were in the Referendum plan, as well as 40 miles of Signature Express/Suburban BRT instead of 14.
The net result is 97 miles of rapid transit instead of the 36 envisioned in METRO Solutions.
Today's Chronicle story by Rad Sallee (thank goodness he's handling this right now -- his stories are presenting both sides; and we'll go through the whole story in a later post) includes this:
Metro spokesman George Smalley said the revised plan would provide "equivalent service" to light rail until the changeover. "Everything is the same except for the wheels," he said.
But [Barry Klein, president of the Houston Property Rights Association] said the ballot made no mention of the UH-Galleria route, commuter rail on U.S. 290 or an intermodal facility on the Northside near his home. All are envisioned in the new proposal.
And how does Smalley get around that? Oh, you know, it was in the fine print:
Smalley said the changes are covered by a footnote to the ballot resolution that says: "Final scope, length of rail segments or lines, and other details, together with implementation schedule, will be based upon demand and completion of the project development process including community input."
Yeah, I'll bet that fine print was heavily advertised while Metro was trying to sell its Solutions plan.
And we previously heard about an intermodal center, which is a developer's dream.
The icing on the cake, so to speak, is this letter to the Houston Business Journal from 10-3-2003 by Metro Chairman Arthur Schechter; specifically:
Voters will be able to hold Metro accountable throughout the process because they will have the opportunity to vote to continue funding based on their experience with Metro Solutions up to that point.
Okay then! Give us the opportunity to vote on what is a substantially different plan. We've seen quite a bit of Metro Solutions enacted (or not, as in the case of reduced bus service), so let the voters tell Metro what they think of Metro's stewardship of our tax dollars so far. As Barry Klein said in today's Chronicle story:
"They [Metro officials] make all these quick switches, and they don't think they have to bring it back to a vote," he said. "If they think they have public support, they shouldn't hesitate to put it on the ballot."
One wonders if Metro officials and Mayor White already know it would be tough to get this plan approved.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 06/15/05 07:28 AM | Print |
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