(WSB photo: Councilmember Dan Strauss with Council President Joy Hollingsworth at this morning’s Q&A)
Also in attendance at today’s informal periodic city councilmember Q&A session with reporters (earlier coverage here) was Councilmember Dan Strauss, who is the lone Seattle councilmember also on the Sound Transit Board. After the board vote a week and a half ago to approve a revised ST3 plan that does not include funding to get light rail to Ballard – which was part of what voters passed a decade ago – there were suggestions that Seattle voters who wanted more than the new plan might want to consider raising the needed money themselves. We asked Strauss his thoughts on the idea. “Inappropriate at best,” he replied, considering Seattle residents have bee paying for a “Sound Transit project already promised.” He said he continues to believe that the second downtown tunnel could be dropped from the plan to clear enough funding to build all the way to Ballard. “We need to have a deeper conversation about that,” he said, adding that he considers the tunnel a regional amenity for ST, not a feature necessary to complete light rail in Seattle.
SIDE NOTE: Strauss and Council President Joy Hollingsworth also were asked about another transit-funding issue, Mayor Katie Wilson‘s proposed doubling of the sales tax that buys more Metro service for Seattle. Both said they have “concerns” about how the revenue would be apportioned.