Prudent planning for mobility

Like POWs in a World War II movie, taxpayers throughout the service area of the Spokane Transit Authority languish, guarded by an administrative bureaucracy’s creative accounting.

By 2017, only towering financial fantasies disguise plummeting levels of collapsing service; hypothesizing the perpetual largesse of federal and state grants alone keeps STA’s wheels rolling that far.

Moreover, municipal buzzardry over transportation money threatens the gutting of STA’s dedicated funds with road-kill status, becoming mere carrion for rapacious government budgeters.

Enlightened public policy demands that prudent planning for realistic regional mobility be developed through sustainable investment: replacing expensive bus operations with manageable transit capital.

Building commuter rail along a corridor from northwest to southeast unites Spokane County’s living needs with a leveraged stream of revenue bonds designed to deliver proper, reasoned and enduring mobility.

Constructing commuter rail now discounts threats to mobility in a community soon to be bisected by increased coal train traffic by including stakeholders from mines to ports in providing input.

Unless opponents of coal trains hijack legitimate transportation policy to sabotage freight timetables for global exports, then rapid and reliable passage from hither to yon can become a reality in conjunction, rather than conflict, with coal trains.

Mike Rogers

Spokane