Comments on: Portland-Milwaukie light rail hits shortfall

By: Contaminated soil cleared from Zidell site « Daily Journal of Commerce – Building and Construction News in Portland, Oregon and the Pacific Northwest

Fri, 05 Nov 2010 22:57:11 +0000

[…] Bergstein said, because the cleanup will take place at the same time as the construction of the new light-rail bridge that will go across the Willamette River near the project […]

By: Portland-Milwaukie light rail finds additional funds « Daily Journal of Commerce – Building and Construction News in Portland, Oregon and the Pacific Northwest

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 23:49:50 +0000

[…] TriMet received word that the project would receive only a 50 percent match in funds instead of the 60 percent it had originally sought, the agency was forced to look for […]

By: Old Town

Old Town — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 19:30:12 +0000

Excellent. Thanks for the info.

A Perspective

By: Aaron Spencer

Aaron Spencer — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 19:25:39 +0000

Old Town,

TriMet was under the impression the project’s strength would persuade the FTA to provide the 60 percent share. Turns out the FTA didn’t budge.

As for the rest of the funding breakdown, it’s this:

State Lottery Bonds – $250M
Metro/MTIP funds – $72.5M
In-Kind Contributions – $46.5M
City of Milwaukie – $5M
City of Portland – $3M
Clackamas County – $25M
TriMet – $39.2M
Metro Grant – $0.3M

And from TriMet: Under FTA policy, the financing costs paid during the project development period on bonds issued to provide local match for a project, net of any interest earnings on the bond proceeds, constitute project costs. The local revenues used to pay such net finance costs constitute project revenues. We estimated $149.6 million for the full $1.5 billion project. Since the project will be recalibrated, that figure will be lower.

Aaron Spencer
Web editor

By: Old Town

Old Town — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 17:57:30 +0000

A 50% sharing policy. Is this a new policy or has this been a TriMet hide the costs venture? While 10% doesn’t sound alarming – $147 mil does. And it must be remembered that these are today’s (false) estimates. It is another project that will never pay for itself. None of the transit portions of TriMet is self sufficient nor will that ever be the case.

What is missing from this article is the obvious – what is the breakdown of the other 50%? Just what will it cost the taxpayers of Portland and Multnomah County? What will be the gains? Short and long term?

A Perspective