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McGinn Switches Lanes

Mayoral Candidate Mike McGinn Says He Won't Stop the Tunnel—Is He Flip-Flopping or Just Being Reasonable?

by Dominic Holden and Garrett McCulloch

Rootology

In a surprising departure from his campaign platform thus far, mayoral candidate Mike McGinn announced on October 19 that, if elected, he will not use his power as mayor to fight a tunnel replacement for the Alaskan Way Viaduct. His announcement came shortly after the Seattle City Council voted unanimously to approve an agreement with the state committing to the tunnel project. McGinn told reporters: "If I'm elected mayor, although I disagree with this decision, it will be my job to uphold and execute this agreement. It is not the mayor's job to withhold the cooperation of city government in executing this agreement. I will, however, continue to ask tough questions." He pointed out, as he has over and over again, that "we don't know how much it's actually going to cost" and that "there is serious disagreement between Seattle and the state over who will pay the cost overruns."

So McGinn won't be lying down in front of the tunnel-boring machine when construction starts. But he will push the legislature to undo the vague language that forces "property owners in the Seattle area who benefit from replacement of the existing viaduct with the deep-bore tunnel" to pay cost overruns, he says. "I'm going to keep raising the issue of how are we going to pay for cost overruns and how are we going to pay for this in a way that fits our budget," he said. "If we don't have a good answer to those, we may find that the council and the legislature are going to have to revisit that decision."

The tunnel plan the state legislature passed last year funds $2.4 billion of the tunnel cost. Another $400 million would come from tolls, but McGinn has said the tolling required to reach that number would require $6 one-way tolls, which very few people would pay. "Their tolling plan right now is going to cause the surface streets to be flooded with cars, except we won't have invested in transit and we won't have invested in I-5," he said.

Right away, mayoral candidate Joe Mallahan was doing everything he could to brand his rival as a flip-flopper for reversing his outright opposition to the highway tunnel under downtown. "Even his own supporters are going to lose trust in whether Mike McGinn even believes the words that are coming out of his mouth—who knows what he even stands for?" Mallahan spokesperson Charla Neuman said. "He made this the biggest issue in his campaign, and now he's changed his mind whether it's worth fighting for or not. What else is he going to change his mind on?"

Neuman added, "I don't think anyone is going to let him off the hook for going from a one-issue candidate to a zero-issue candidate with no management experience."

But this move could save McGinn. Lots of people want to like him—lots of people who think a tunnel would be fine—and this allows him to show that he's not an obstructionist (as Mallahan has accused him of being), that his promise to hear out people who disagree with him isn't an empty one, and that he's capable of compromise. Neuman's line about McGinn being a "one-issue candidate" isn't supported by the facts. As we have been writing in this paper, McGinn has a diverse platform that includes getting light rail to Ballard and West Seattle decades earlier than the current timetable, getting a new police chief as soon as possible so the city doesn't fall back on public safety, improving the city's relationships with neighborhoods, taking a greater interest in the public schools, lobbying the liquor board for more progressive nightlife laws, and many other issues. On the other hand, Mallahan has hardly proven to be knowledgeable on city matters.

This isn't the first time a Seattle politician has opposed an expensive project. "You know, Mayor Greg Nickels didn't agree with the parks levy, but he's building parks," McGinn said. "I don't agree with the tunnel decision, there are still a lot of unanswered questions before we actually fully proceed with the project, but if there's a 9–0 vote from the council, as mayor I would be bound by that policy decision of the council."