Broback's Blog

Not that the “What Me Worry” politicians will notice, but the march toward the inevitable, responsible, inexpensive rebuild-in-place scenario advocated by many (the one idea perpetually ignored by the politicians) seems to continue its progress. Washington Policy Blog: Gas Tax Revenues “clearly overestimated” Over the last few years, these forecasts had shown revenue was far […]

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Wondering how we’re doing financially compared to other states? According to the Wall Street Journal, not very well. The image below speaks volumes. Not only about Washington, but the country as a whole. Those “Blue” coastal progressive states look to me (and many others) like they’re progressing — into bankruptcy. Full data here. We’re 2.1 […]

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It appears to be true, even after factoring in inflation. Before a single pontoon has been floated, we’ve apparently spent more on meetings and consultants as of 2010 than we did on concrete, steel, labor, (and meetings and consultants) upon ribbon-cutting in 1963. Run the numbers yourself. Inflation adjusted, the current bridge cost $172 million […]

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This just in.  FEBRUARY 10, 2009 REVENUE COLLECTION REPORT General Fund-State (GFS) tax payments in the January 11, 2008 – February 10, 2009 collection period fell short of the November forecast. Receipts for the month were $62.6 million (5.3 percent) lower than expected. Revenue Act receipts were $53.0 million (4.7 percent) below the forecast, and […]

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Jeez, who would have thought that cost estimates from 2006 would be way off from today’s numbers? I did. Maybe I should be hired as a consultant for the DOT. Here’s Ron Paananen of the WSDOT today, regurgitating my comments from July: Paananen says the governor and legislature still have to finalize a plan to pay for the […]

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A politician would be crazy to ignore numbers like these (if you assume they reflect the electorate.) This is from a KIRO online poll that launched on Oct 22. The “Yes” numbers haven’t changed in several weeks, so it will be interesting to see if a flurry of clicks come in now. (I’ve seen results […]

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Regarding the massive new 520 planned north of the existing bridge (massive, yet provides no additional general purpose capacity…) I’ve been agog over how Governor Gregoire and the WSDOT are somehow able get by with using 2006 cost estimates for the project, so here’s another astonishing revelation they’ll no doubt ignore as well. The Wall […]

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An extremely entertaining news bit appeared on KING 5 last week. Both Rossi and Gregoire mess up royally as they debate what to do about the crumbling 520 bridge. First, pay close attention to what slips out from Rossi at the 1:33 mark: “It’s just going to get worse and worse and worse…we have businesses […]

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