As we see more and more Washington citizens and businesses joining in opposing the Columbia River Crossing light rail project, the desperation seen from Oregon in wanting to tap into our tax dollars to bail out their folly of light rail increases.
Kitzhaber’s call showed that the calls of “decrease congestion,” “unsafe bridge” and “improve freight mobility” have been nothing more than lies and reaffirmed what this blog and several others have been saying for several years, light rail is the only factor driving this project.
See CRCFacts.info and Clark County Conservative Archive for more information on why opposition is growing and the Columbia River Crossing Project, as currently designed, must be stopped.
As speaker Ty Baxter, owner of Baxter Auto Parts coined, “it’s the economic equivalent of the Berlin Wall.”
Next to a politician, a car salesman ranks as one of the shiftiest occupations someone can take. They will lure, lie, mislead, con and deceive people into buying a car. This is especially true when it comes to used cars.
It also appears true when elected officials desire to sell taxpayers on an unneeded and unwanted project like the Columbia River Crossing light rail project from Portland, Oregon into Vancouver, Washington that voters have repeatedly expressed their opposition to, once directly and three times by proxy.
49th Legislative District Representative Jim Moeller seems to be the head salesman for this lemon as he tries to mislead voters with his campaign of disinformation exposed at Rep Jim Moeller’s Latest Act of Desperation, Lie.
Acting much like Car Fax, revealing the history of that cherry the salesman is trying to push off on you as really a lemon, concerned citizens began seeing the claims and numbers cited simply were not adding up and formed groups like StopCRC.com and CRCFacts.info adding to the revelations seen from Couv.com, opening citizens eyes and growing opposition.
Access between the States of Washington and Oregon, separated by the Columbia River has long been a problem for commuters. For many decades there was only one bridge for several miles in each direction, down the I-5 corridor.
After much fighting between the states, Oregon trying to drag their feet, a second bridge was opened a few miles east of I-5 in 1983, the Glen Jackson or if you prefer, the I-205 Bridge.
That lessened a little congestion down I-5, but as we saw this week with the collision of a Semi-Truck driving the wrong way over the I-205 Bridge, essentially shutting it down, people were once again stuck in traffic on both arterials and access roads as many tried to avoid the mess on the I-205 Bridge and others sat for hours, unable to escape the back-up.
Just about everywhere citizens in Clark County Washington turn, we see our efforts being thwarted by governmental agencies, staff, appointed commissions and what have you. Most notably this seems to come in regards to the Columbia River Crossing project, designed to force us to accept Portland, Oregon’s financially failing light rail, even though it was voted down directly in 1995.
The latest push against citizens by local government comes from City Attorney Ted Gathe, married to 49th Legislative District Representative, Democrat Sharon Wylie, a strong supporter of the CRC, in a legal opinion presented to the Vancouver City Council pertaining to a petition initiative put forth by citizens to prevent any city funds of efforts be extended to promote or accept light rail.
Gathe issued a 7-page analysis along with his legal opinion recommending council “decline placing the ordinance on the ballot because it falls outside the scope of the city’s initiative powers and would not be legally defensible,” according to the Columbian, the local newspaper of record that is also a strong supporter of the project.
Once was the time corrupt officials at least tried to hide the corruption, graft, cronyism and conflicts of interests. Not any more, though. It is almost worn as a badge of conquering, blatantly engaging in it at all levels as if in open defiance of taxpayers.
Nowhere is this seen clearer than when looking at WSDOT, C-TRAN and the CRC. From efforts to bypass voters to impose tax and fee increases on us after we defeat them at the ballot box to silencing or ignoring citizens input they ask for, the air of corruption is so thick you could cut it with a knife.
Elected officials show nothing but total disregard for taxpayers still struggling to recover from 4 straight years of double digit unemployment with Clark County poised to easily reenter double digit numbers.
As public sentiment grows against the Columbia River Crossing Project and citizens raise their voices louder and louder over being shut out of the process for the light rail carrier from Portland, Oregon into Clark County Washington, it comes as no surprise to see a very professional marketing strategy masquerading as a “grassroots” movement pop up.
In an email forwarded to me from Betsy Henning, Founder & CEO of AHA! (Alling Henning Associates Inc. 415 West Sixth Street, Suite 605 Vancouver, WA 98660), “a communications firm with expertise in writing that applies equal parts strategy and creativity to engage, educate and empower the people most important to turning a company’s business goals into business results,” came the announcement of a group calling themselves “Washington for CRC.”
I can’t help but note that the AHA! firm is located on the 6th Floor of the Vancouver City Hall Building downtown either.
It has long been shown that the Columbian, the so-called newspaper of record for Southwest Washington, is solidly in the tank for the effort to force Clark County to accept Portland, Oregon’s financially ailing light rail system by supporting the Columbia River Crossing project, falsely being sold as a “bridge replacement project.”
Replacing the aging spans is secondary to forcing light rail across state lines a short distance into our community, as was revealed early in 2012 by an Oregon State Supreme Court ruling in an unrelated case. To date, the Columbian has not acknowledged that revelation first made known in the Willamette Week article, The $2.5 Billion Bribe.
Far from being just an “ugly baby” we are somehow beholden to, as described in editor Lou Brancaccio’s Saturday Press Talk column, It’s an ugly baby, but it’s ours, it is in reality the epitome of the war on the middle class as expenses of this boondoggle fall directly on the backs of a still struggling middle class in Clark County trying to recover from 4 straight years of double digit unemployment.
None of us get through life without making mistakes, messing up on something that we end up going back and redoing or fixing. Mistake happen to all of us and let’s face it that is why pencils all have erasers on them, so we can erase a mistake and rewrite it.
But we seem to learn from our mistakes and do our best not to repeat them, especially ones that end up costing us more money than we were prepared to spend.
We don’t seem to see that “learn from our mistakes” attitude in many public/private ventures like the Columbia River Crossing, though. Even though it is crammed with mistakes, the CRC attitude is more of ignore them and forge ahead, regardless of what it will end up costing taxpayers.
To date the CRC has cost over $160 Million and been spread out over a decade and still doesn’t have a design adequate to gain a Coast Guard permit to build the bridge for light rail due to insufficient clearance for river traffic. Somehow, planners ignored that at least 3 current businesses upriver require much more clearance to fit their products under the current bridge between Clark County Washington and Portland, Oregon, even though they were aware of it years go.
Jim Moeller, Democrat 49th Legislative District Representative is as liberal and arrogant as they can get. He has long shown that what voters think is irrelevant to what he thinks, between dreaming up ways to stick constituents with more taxes during a deep recession to joining in to sue to invalidate their votes, Moeller marches to his tune, not that of his constituents.
Nothing gives a better example than his continued support of forcing them to accept Portland, Oregon’s ill fated light rail, even with them repeatedly saying they do not want it.
Apparently, C-Tran ‘doesn’t get it’ either as we have been telling them since 1995 that we taxpayers do not want to Portland’s light rail and do not want to pay for it.
As regular readers know, the lawsuit filed by Larry Patella, Debbie Peterson and several others was heard in Cowlitz County Superior Court today before Judge Stephen Warning and after hearing arguments from both sides, delayed the trial, rescheduling it for a ruling on March 27, 2013.
“I’m going to look hard at this. But the standard of proof in this case is ‘beyond a shadow of a doubt.’ And before I can state beyond a shadow of a doubt that something is unconstitutional — even if both parties say I should — I need to make sure I have the factual predicate,” said Judge Warning as he requested attorneys for both parties to submit briefs in the meantime.
The parties are in agreement that the current law mandating Clark County Auditor, Greg Kimsey to invalidate double signatures, including the original signature on a petition calling on the Vancouver, City Council to place on the ballot whether voters want the city contributing any funds to Portland’s light rail as unconstitutional, the basis of the lawsuit.
For some years now, the Columbia River Crossing Project, an overly ambitious desire to replace the aging Interstate 5 bridges between Clark County Washington and Portland Oregon and force Clark County citizens to accept Portland’s financially embattled light rail against our will, has elected to ignore the voters and taxpayers on both sides of the river. Common sense was thrown out the window from the beginning as schemes, plots and at times, outright lies have been used in an effort to portray the project as being favorable to citizens.
On the contrary, more people are expressing opposition after each effort.
But when it comes to the empire building effort of those involved with the CRC, taxpayers mean little even though we will be forced to foot the bill for this boondoggle for many generations and jobs will be destroyed upriver and in downtown Vancouver, Washington. Jobs that the very people they expect to foot the bill for this nightmare rely on to survive and pay the tolls, fees and taxes that will be needed to pay the monstrosity off.
In the halls of our state legislature, I cannot imagine a more arrogant person elected than 49th Legislative District Representative, Jim Moeller. Where he is lacking in facts to support his positions, he more than makes up for it with his massive arrogance, ignoring real facts as he does whatever he can to raise taxes and confiscate money from the very people he claims he is working to help.
From his positions supporting public unions over private sector workers to backing private sector unions over non-union employees, Jim never lets facts or reality get in the way of his drive to create a socialist union over a free state of Washington.
Case in point is his blind support of the Columbia River Crossing and forcing Clark County residents to accept the light rail from Portland, Oregon we have repeatedly declined and said we do not want, even if the federal government paid for it.
The Columbia River Crossing Project, a bloated effort to replace the aging spans of the Interstate Bridge connecting Southwest Washington and Portland, Oregon and force Clark County Washington to accept extending Portland financially ailing light rail was considered a “done deal,” just accept it, it’s happening, regardless of how the taxpayers that will be forced to foot the bill for decades thinks of it.
For a long time we have heard from the likes of Mayor Tim Leavitt, former Mayor Royce Pollard, Representative Jim Moeller, County Commissioner Steve Stuart, Portland’s former Mayor Sam Adams, current Portland Mayor Charlie Hale end many more ego-inflated elected officials that our resistance to “modernization” was futile, “it’s coming, deal with it.”
While most of us agree replacing the bridges is a good idea, we in Clark County have long resisted the notion of we must accept Portland’s deep in debt light rail. And the tide just may be turning as more and more, we see former supporters switching to opponents as efforts to peel back the shroud of secrecy that has long enveloped the CRC is back and light is shined on some very questionable procedures.
Citizens of Clark County Washington, primarily within the City of Vancouver are not going to just lie down any longer as efforts to force the promised vote on light rail from Portland, Oregon are thwarted at every turn by elected officials. They are fighting back.
As we all know by now, several elected officials have been making promises of a citizen vote on the CRC (Columbia River Crossing), more precisely the light rail prospect of the project. To date no vote has been held or scheduled and efforts by citizens to get a vote fall by the wayside in some fairly unseemly ways.
The latest being the petition effort that was first rejected with the claim that many signatures were from voters outside the city limits.
From 3rd Congressional District Representative Jaime Herrera Beutler, to 17th Legislative District Senator Don Benton and to 14th Legislative District Senator Curtis King, chair of the Senate Transportation Committee, critical questions are beginning to be asked and recommendations made to clear up the many discrepancies surrounding the Columbia River Crossing project.
Senator Benton has long been a critic, having seen early on in the project that it could not live up to promises or expectations and would be a massive waste of tax dollars as planned. His calls and cries for reining the project and the steady flow of tax dollars in, over $160 Million to date, have been largely ignored and cast aside as what now appears to be the biggest swindle ever to hit Southwest Washington forged ahead amidst growing public opposition.
Not even a month into his term as our newest County Commissioner and already David Madore is acting on his campaign promises, standing up for Clark County citizens and bucking the light rail swindle from Portland into our community, just as we asked him to do when we elected him.
As can be expected, that is not setting well with the ruling class elites pushing light rail in order to gain access to our revenues to bail out their deeply indebted transit folly, now sitting at about $1.6 Billion and growing every day.
We elected David Madore over keeping Marc Boldt and together with fellow conservative Tom Mielke, have a fighting chance to see some accountability where the CRC swindle is concerned.
Knowing now that our County Commissioners will stand on the side of citizens over the special interests of the CRC swindle, we can expect volleys of attacks aimed at the County Commission and they have already started.
It is no secret that much of Clark County, Washington holds a very negative view of the Columbia River Crossing project (CRC). The more the layers of this scam are pulled back, the more we appear justified in our disdain for what more and more comes across as a massive swindle to suck revenue out of our own cash-strapped community and give it to Portland, Oregon to help with the massive debt, some $1.6 Billion and growing daily, associated with their bloated light rail line.
Even though Clark County citizens rejected extending their folly into our community in 1995, the push has continued to force Clark County to accept it, even to the point of gerrymandering a sub-district in 2005 in an effort to ‘fix’ the vote to approve a C-TRAN sales tax increase perceived to be a back door funding of light rail that was rejected county-wide in the November 2004 election.
That the Columbian Newspaper has long been in the bag for the Columbia River Crossing, to include Portland, Oregon’s financially failing light rail is a given well known in our community. Regardless of what shortcoming, irregularity, questionable practice or failing of design is revealed, you can bank on them spinning it to continue support and trying to build citizen support.
We have seen this over the several years since Clark County first rejected extending Portland’s folly across the Columbia River into Clark County in 1995 by a wide 2 to 1 margin.
They have editorialized against just about every single candidate for public office who doesn’t support CRC with light rail as well as endorsed some very marginal, inexperienced ones who do support it, as we saw last year in the campaign between incumbent now former County Commissioner Marc Boldt and successful businessman, David Madore.
Madore won in a landslide, Clark County citizens knowing his staunch opposition to light rail and desire to see the CRC brought under control.
Once again we witness efforts by the few in Southwest Washington to circumvent voters, ignore our votes and lobby funds the state does not have to forcibly ram Portland’s financially beleaguered light rail on us and into our community.
It is Kelly Parker, President/CEO Greater Vancouver Chamber of Commerce who has sent out an email soliciting signatures from selected business owners with the Greater Vancouver area to show support for the Columbia River Crossing Project and light rail, even though voters have clearly said we do not want it in proxy votes, such as the recent defeat of C-TRAN’s Proposition 1 to fund operations & maintenance by a sales tax increase.
Parker’s email bypassed numerous businesses, such as Acuity Group PLLC, a Forensic Accounting Firm in Vancouver hired to independently audit CRC’s books and that was met with foot dragging, a huge document dump, usually designed to confuse and overwhelm, lack of cooperation and even a lawsuit from a contractor to inhibit access to some documents that might show where some $160 Million of our tax dollars has gone, seemingly targeted to those few who may profit from the project or who would merely pass along any expense to taxpayers, already bearing the brunt of the multi-Billion expense.
As we see more and more Washington citizens and businesses joining in opposing the Columbia River Crossing light rail project, the desperation seen from Oregon in wanting to tap into our tax dollars to bail out their folly of light rail increases.
