The P-I’s Prop 1 endorsement focuses on the job creation aspect of the bill, though they note they “support the expansion of Sound Transit for many reasons”. According to the P-I, Sound Transit expansion “is a critical public works project” and “would create at least 66,000 direct and indirect jobs,” noting the figure could be conservative.

I think that’s a good reason to vote for the bill, and so does Paul Krugman, this year’s winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics*, who says:

And this is also a good time to engage in some serious infrastructure spending, which the country badly needs in any case. The usual argument against public works as economic stimulus is that they take too long: by the time you get around to repairing that bridge and upgrading that rail line, the slump is over and the stimulus isn’t needed. Well, that argument has no force now, since the chances that this slump will be over anytime soon are virtually nil. So let’s get those projects rolling.

Vote yes, it’s good for the economy.

*Okay, okay, I realize it’s technically “The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel” but nobody says that.

2 Replies to “Prop 1 Endorsement”

  1. Don’t know if anyone saw this but its the list of funding needed per state for transportation projects in the future:

    http://www.streetsblog.org/2008/10/17/report-american-cities-raring-to-build-248b-in-transit-projects/

    I’m pretty sure that we are second on dollars per resident needed. Massachusetts is the only one above us. Hopefully the Federal government will be throwing some bones to us in the next couple years and ST2 can get finished faster.

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