Thursday, November 29, 2012

Bridgasaurus liars budget leaps up another $130 million, a hike too small to merit explanation at council work session

One of the most amazing features of the sprawl lobby rodeo last night was not the successful efforts of the CMH2-Hill and SEDCOR/Chamber cowboys to herd the little council doggies into the chute to be led to slaughter -- that was never in doubt, as this process has been wired from the day it began -- no, the astounding thing was that the council was apparently instructed to make sure that the number $800 million got repeated as often as possible when referring to the liars budget for the deal.  (The liars budget is the pretend cost figure that contractors and ODOT will admit to for a boondoggle, before the inevitable massive overruns.)

So, presto, another $130 million on the barbie with nary a peep of explanation.  Remember the old ad campaign by the ranchers about "Beef, it's what's for dinner?"   ODOT and the sprawl lobby have a version of that ad running in their dreams every night: "Salem, it's what's for lunch."