Tell The City Council You Want Monorail
The usual well-funded monorail opponents are giving one last try to stop us from building a new monorail in Seattle. The last step is for the Seattle City Council to approve the use of city streets for monorail tracks. It is crucial that you let your voice be heard and tell the City Council that we've voted 4 times for monorail and you want it built. more...
We Must Build The Monorail
There are times where communities face critical tests: do they build for the future, or retreat to the past. This is one of those times for the citizens of Seattle. more...
Monorail MVET Growth Analysis
The SMP says the monorail tax will grow at 6.1% per year. The mayor has a more pessimistic view of his economic policy and says it will be 5% per year. We've got the details on the actual difference between the two.
Help Build the Monorail Message
We'll be publishing some print-your-own flyers and brochures here on the site. Help out by adding your suggestions to the comments in this thread. more...
We Must Build The Monorail
There are times where communities face critical tests: do they build for the future, or retreat to the past. This is one of those times for the citizens of Seattle. more...
Mayor and City Council Defy Will of the Voters
Once again the denizens of Seattle City Hall are trying to kill the monorail. more...
Equity Office's Anti-Monorail Activity Causes Employee to Resign
There's a triumvirate of wealthy property owners downtown that are bankrolling the anti-monorail campaign. One employee has had enough of her employer's questionable ethics and has resigned her job. more...
More Endorsements for the Monorail
The campaign to save the monorail from greedy landlords and corporations continues to rack up endorsements. The anti-monorail campaign is stuck at 0. more ...
WAMU Hit Hard By Boycott
Last week's protest against Washington Mutual's anti-monorail activities was a huge success, resulting in the removal of twice 10 times as much money from the bank than what they've spent to fund lies about the monorail. more ...
Boycott WAMU
Although the anti-monorail campaign is late as usual with their public disclosure filing, reliable sources indicate that Washington Mutual has donated $85,000 to the effort to permanently ban the construction of a monorail in Seattle. It's time to boycott WAMU. more...
Monorail Grassroots At Work
The monorail has won 3 elections due to the combination of a great, common sense idea and the dedicated efforts of ordinary, inspired, grassroots volunteers. See how they're back at work this campaign season. more ...
Get a Break From High Gas Prices
Analysts say that the age of cheap oil is over. If that is the case, why would we approve an initiative that will ban the construction of rapid, electrically powered monorail anywhere in the city? more ....
Anti-Monorail Campaign Breaks Copyright
The anti-monorail forces have made another ethically questionable, if not downright illegal move. Their recently launched television commercials feature video that was stolen from a monorail supporter's website. more ...
WAMU Turns To The Dark Side
A buildthemonorail.com exclusive: It appears that another billion dollar downtown business has turned against Seattle and the monorail. more...
Anti-Monorail Campaign Gets Extreme Makeover
In the last several weeks this website has cataloged the distortions, outright lies, and right-wing agenda of the wealthy forces working against the monorail. It looks like that may have had an effect. more...
More Ethics Problems for Monorail Opponents
The anti-monorail campaign has been characterized by two things: distortions of the facts and deceit about who is actually behind their efforts. buildthemonorail.com has filed an official ethics complaint that alleges further illegal activity. more...
Monorail Winning the Endorsement Race
A surprising thing is happening so far in the campaign to save the monorail from right wing extremists. Many of the groups that opposed the monorail in 2002 are now supporting it in 2004. more...
Are Monorail Opponents Simply Anti-Transit?
Monorail opponents say that they oppose the monorail because of their distaste for taxes and elevators. Is it possible that they're also opposed to all forms of mass transit? There's some interesting new data that could answer that question. more ...
Another Recall Lie Exposed
The Seattle Times recently quoted Tim Wulf as saying that his involvement started with his registration of their website domain last year. A simple internet search has revealed that it was actually registered by the chairman of the King County Libertarian party. more...
The Truth About Selig
The monorail opposition is almost entirely funded by a single wealthy property owner. Who is Martin Selig and why does he hate the monorail? more...
Pro-monorail Campaign Launched - Funding, Volunteers Needed
The official pro-monorail campaign has started up to defend the Seattle Monorail from its attackers. It's crucial that you send them any funds you can to run the campaign and any time you can give to help win in November. more ...
What would I-83 do?
Curious about what the anti-monorail initiative would actually do? Get the facts here. more...
Don't Let Tim Eyman Style Anti-Tax Politics Kill The Monorail
Do monorail recall leaders really represent Seattle? Or are they in fact nothing more than local versions of Tim Eyman? more...
I-83 Is An Illegal Initiative
Why vote for something that will only be thrown out after the election due to it's blatant illegality? more...
Monorail Opponents Lie about "Grassroots" Campaign, Fined by Ethics Commission
Remember back in the summer when the monorail opponents such as Liv Finne were collecting signatures and claiming the work was done by their "grassroots volunteers"? Turns out it was a huge deception campaign. more...
| Get the facts on the Green Line from the source |
I-83 Is An Illegal Initiative
When considering a vote for I-83, voters should be sure they are supporting an initiative that is actually legal and will be implemented if approved. As we've learned from people like Tim Eyman, any proposal that gains enough signatures can make a ballot. However, that does not mean that the proposal is legal under state law. Illegal initiatives only waste government tax dollars by creating lengthy court battles that end up with the rejection of the proposal.
When the Elevated Transportation Company (ETC) lobbied the state legislature to pass a law allowing a new Seattle Monorail, they did something unheard of in any other transportation project in the state: they built in a method for the voters of Seattle to repeal the project if it went over budget and wasn't able to fulfill its original promises. This could be done by proving that the authority faced "significant financial problems" and then collecting 60,000 signatures in 90 days.
In fact, a King County Superior Court judge found that I-83 was illegal in several areas and tossed it out. A appeals court later lifted his injunction that prevented it from the November ballot, but did not find fault with any of his conclusions - only that it's illegality shouldn't prevent it from being on the ballot and then challenged again if it won.
When the monorail opposition started their campaign in the winter of 2002, they talked about starting a petition based on this provision of state law. However, a few months later they flip-flopped due to the fact that they couldn't prove their claims of financial problems and they evidently lacked the necessary amount of support, or perhaps Martin Selig wasn't willing to pay enough signature gatherers to reach the requirement of 60,000. So, they found a backup plan of using a Seattle city initiative to deny monorail the use of city right-of-way. City initiatives require about 1/3 of the 60,000 specified by state law, and don't require them to prove their claims of "significant financial problems".
Of course the problem with this is that state law is explicit in how the monorail can be recalled. They deliberately avoided this means because they knew they couldn't meet its requirements.
This is only the first issue with I-83. As a major transportation project designed to help Seattle meet the goals of the state's Growth Management Act, this qualifies the Seattle Monorail Project as an essential public facility, which protects it from flip-flopping local governments and NIMBY attempts to recall projects by disgruntled citizens.
Finally, it has been decided many times by Washington State courts that land use decisions are made only by the "controlling legislative authority" of cities and counties, and is explicitly denied to the people's power of initiative and referendum. The denial of use of street right-of-way is a land use decision, and therefore not able to be changed by a citywide initiative.
In summary, don't support I-83: it will only create several long months of court cases and eventually be tossed out. Don't waste your hard-earned tax dollars by voting for a clearly illegal proposal.
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Court of Appeal won't act on SPMAs appeal on the ballot title signatures
by Gerald Shields on 9/21/04 |
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There's one point that should be listed also: Since the State Supreme Court acted on the question of whether it should be allowed on the ballot, They probably won't act before the election. Neither the Appeals Court nor the Supreme Court addressed 1) the question of the validity of the signatures; or 2) the legality of the initiative. The Supreme Court chose not to act due to time constraints. |
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Pro Monorail
by Mike O'Neill on 9/28/04 |
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Sept.28,2004 My reason for responding is the great need for a regional monorail system. Though I don't live in Seattle, I used to, having been born and raised there, I am very supportive in my beliefs. The big issue is money!! You folks have great assets, the waterfront, the center, the sports stadiums etc. Sell the idea of having a Seattle Regional Monorail system, that would include all the major cities, and would charge fees to come on board. In other words if you want to have fast and trouble free entry into and out of the city, you pay your share. With the city pioneering the system, and developing the stations, should be compensated. For arguments sake, city residents that paid more than other areas for there car fees, could be compentsated when other cities come on board. How that would done is to lower there tabs in the future, or send them a check for tabs. There is many ways to accomplish this. |
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