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Big TUNNEL Scam News
Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Viaduct ballot language challenged
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/301628_tl130.html

P-I STAFF

A King County Superior Court judge will hear a challenge Thursday to ballot language describing choices Seattleites face in voting on a replacement for the Alaskan Way Viaduct. The measure is scheduled for a citywide, all-mail advisory vote March 13.

The challenge, filed Monday by monorail activist and tunnel opponent Peter Sherwin, said the language does not clarify that the state has not agreed to the proposed four-lane tunnel, one of the two choices, and it doesn’t say significant funding is unsecured for the tunnel option.

It also doesn’t tell voters what city residents may have to pay in taxes for a tunnel. The challenge comes on the eve of a No-Tunnel Alliance meeting at 7 tonight at History House, 790 N. 34th St.

———-More Trickery———-

Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Board to take concerns about viaduct wording

P-I STAFF

New objections to the explanatory statement that will precede the advisory vote March 13 on replacing the Alaskan Way Viaduct will be put to a hearing Thursday.

A request for changes in the statement was filed Monday with the city Ethics and Election Commission, which will decide whether the language will be altered.

The [new] petition [by pro-tunnel interests], which comes on the heels of a separate [anti-tunnel] challenge to the advisory vote ballot language, was filed by two groups — the pro-tunnel Friends for a Better Waterfront and the anti-viaduct [pro-tunnel] Not Another Elevated Viaduct — and John Taylor, policy director of the [pro-tunnel/anti-monorail] Downtown Seattle Association.

The [pro-tunnel] objection asks the commission to remove from the statement a reference to “uncertain” funding for a proposed “hybrid” tunnel, saying federal and state money could go to either option [”could” is an “uncertainty“- see also Federal budget cuts hit home.]. Objectors also want to cut out a reference that the “hybrid” tunnel proposal hasn’t cleared the state’s normal cost-validating process, saying that doesn’t describe current conditions or the effects of the two measures.

A commission hearing will be at 4 p.m. Thursday in Room 4050 of the Seattle Municipal Tower, 700 Fifth Ave.

Commission Executive Director Wayne Barnett said the commission will try to decide on the rewrite in time to get statements printed and mailed by Feb. 20.

Seattle resident Peter Sherwin filed the separate court challenge to the advisory ballot language Monday, saying it didn’t accurately describe tunnel finances or operations. A King County Superior Court hearing on Sherwin’s charges is expected this week. A judge could change the ballot titles.