Mike Pechner,

You may want to read the draft strategic plan carefully. I know you
and Mike Arnold have disagreed in the past, but in this case his op-ed is based
on SMART's own report. He's not saying they can't build anything. He's saying
they can't build the system all the way to Cloverdale and the full bike
path as they had promised.

This happens to be exactly what SMART's Citizens Oversight Committee said.

Phasing the project is an option. But they'll still need lots of federal
funding to complete it. Lynn Woolsey has $50 million in the transportation
bill for SMART, but that only covers some of the shortfall. And they have to get
through the FTA process before obtaining the funding.

Also, as I think you know, the longer they defer issuing the bonds, the greater
the payments because they are constrained by the maturity of Measure Q. This also
means they'll have less bonding capacity the longer they delay.

You can sugar coat their problem if you want. Either way they are going
to be struggling financially for years to come to construct the system approved
by the voters.

I guess it's nothing new. It'll eventually get finished, but eventually could
mean many years later than promised.

Meanwhile, they'll keep collecting the 1/4 cent sales tax...