FINANCIAL PLAN FOR THE CRC COMPARED TO FINANCIAL PLAN FOR THE SRC Thanks to NO 3rd Bridge supporter John Prohodsky for sharing the detailed financial plans from several recent Environmental Impact Statements that were developed for Federal Highway Administration approval. They make an interesting contrast to the financial plan developed by the Salem River Crossing Oversight Team on Thursday that might has well have been written on a cocktail napkin, given its lack of detail and lack of credibility. For example the financial plan for the ill-fated Columbia River Crossing project below is 36 pages of detailed cost projections and revenue options -- even a plan to fund maintenance. The plan crashed and burned earlier this year, but it was still a good faith effort to finance the project. On Thursday the Oversight Team did not even take a vote to approve their cocktail-napkin plan. As usual the meeting was run by their high paid consultant from CH2M HILL and he never called for a vote, thus allowing all the politicians on the Oversight Team to deny that they were ever in favor of raising your gas taxes and vehicle registration fees, and they were certainly not in favor of tolling the Marion and Center Street bridges. Apparently there will be no 36 page financial plan for the SRC because the Federal Highway Administration is allowing the Oversight Team to just submit a memo with their funding ideas. The Salem City Council needs to end these shenanigans. They need to insist on a full-blown financial plan for the SRC as a condition of their continued support. The plan needs to be based on scientific polling that proves the communitys willingness to fund the project to the extent needed. We should expect no less.
Posted on: Sun, 14 Dec 2014 04:13:01 +0000