Your Opinions Needed; Who Should Pay For ART?

OK, people, this might be premature, but let's have some fun.

Who should pay for The Guy Who Used to be Mayor's $134 million Albuquerque Rapid Transit project?

(Photo: Should this guy be made to pay for the ART project? Should we garnish his wages? Shake him upside down to get the change out of his pockets?)

As I've reported on in the past, and as Mayor Tim Keller confirmed on Wednesday, the Federal Transit Administration still hasn't approved the $75 million in funding the city is hoping to get for the nine-mile-long bus route along Central Avenue.

The administration of The Guy Who Used to be Mayor told us all last year that the federal funding was there. Then it never materialized. Then Trump was elected as president. Then the people in the former administration said we'd get the money sometime this year. Then the Sept. 30 deadline passed for the project to get the green light from the FTA. Without funding in FY2017, the project, according to Trump's proposed FY2018 budget, would be dead.

Then the people who used to be in the mayor's office said the funding would come through in September. That didn't happen, and then they said November. When that didn't happen, they said December or January. Doesn't look like it'll happen in December, as Keller said he'll be trying to talk to the FTA people in January.

Oh well.

There is a chance that the feds will eventually give the city a check for ART. But, some would say that the longer things go on, the less likely it is that the federal money will ever come through.

So what do we do if the feds don't send the check? After all, the bus line is nearly complete and the city has spent more than $90 million on it so far. The city had $57 million in previous federal grants and some local revenue bond tax money to help pay for it. But that money has been used up.

So who should pay for ART if the feds don't come through with the money?

Should we take The Guy Who Used to be Mayor, turn him upside down and shake the change out of his pockets? Should we at least make him surrender the idiotic and insulting public safety award that the Chamber of Commerce gave him earlier this year in the midst of an epic crime wave?

How about all those NAIOP people who came up with bogus “studies” on all the redevelopment ART would lead to? They plan to make money off this thing. Should they pay?

And how about those city councilors who voted for ART? Should we garnish their wages?

Be creative and mean, and have fun. Post your comments on Facebook.

Thanks,

Dennis Domrzalski