John Ley Exposes the $2 Billion Taxpayer Ripoff of the Interstate Bridge Replacement on The Lars Larson Show

In an interview on The Lars Larson Show, John Ley, candidate for the Washington House of Representatives (District 18), exposed the financial irresponsibility behind the proposed Interstate Bridge Replacement (IBR) project. Ley pointed out that the plan includes a $2 billion extension for just 1.9 miles of light rail, making it the most expensive rail project per mile anywhere in the world.

He shared his concerns over the lack of transparency and funding from both Oregon and Washington. With only partial financial commitments and significant opposition to tolling from residents, the project is already facing major hurdles. Ley also highlighted a critical issue: the absence of Coast Guard approval, which is essential for the project to move forward. The proposed new bridge would replace the current three-lane bridge with another three-lane bridge, resulting in immediate congestion from day one.

John Ley has long been an advocate for sensible transit solutions that benefit taxpayers, and he continues to fight against wasteful projects like the IBR. He warns that the bridge project could become the largest taxpayer ripoff in Pacific Northwest history. As your representative, John Ley will push for fiscally responsible solutions and hold government agencies accountable for their spending.

Stay tuned for more updates as John continues to advocate for the people of District 18 and ensure that taxpayer dollars are used wisely.

Transcript

Lars Larson
Radio Northwest Network. I want to tell you something. There is a there is of an idea in movie making. I’m not a movie maker, but I appreciate this because I like great movies and it’s called Willing Suspension of Disbelief. And what it means is you walk in to watch a movie and you want to enjoy it, so you kind of throw yourself all the way into it and you don’t use your logical mind to find problems with the movie. You just enjoy the story because you enjoy that story so much that you don’t want to pick nits about this doesn’t make sense, and that doesn’t make sense. That’s called Willing Suspension of Disbelief.

I think there are a bunch of reporters in the Pacific Northwest who, as they watch what is, I think, the single largest proposed, but not yet approved public works project in the entire Pacific Northwest, now collectively, Sound Transit is bigger, but as a single project, the Interstate Bridge Replacement, which is really a light rail plan for two miles of light rail with a bridge attached that is literally the same size as the bridge that they’re replacing, that there are a lot of reporters engaging in Willing Suspension of Disbelief, you say, but has the Coast Guard approved it? And don’t they have to? Well, yeah, but we’re ignoring that. Is the money available to build it? No, no, but they’ll figure that one out. They’re going to do tolling. And you say don’t the vast majority of people in both Oregon and Washington oppose tolling and they aren’t going to accept it?

Yeah, yeah, but that’s a detail. We’ll work that out and there’s probably a longer list than that. But the guy who knows that is John Ley who’s not only a retired airline pilot and reporter, candidate for the State House of Representatives, District 18, Position 2. But he has been on his own time in his own dime, been an advocate for sensible transit and an advocate against the colossal boondoggle known as the IBR, the Interstate Bridge Replacement.

John, welcome back.

John Ley
Hey, Lars thanks for the chance to chat. And you’re exactly right. We’re talking about the biggest taxpayer ripoff in the history of the Pacific Northwest. TriMet is demanding a 1.9 mile light rail extension as part of the Interstate Bridge Replacement program, at a cost of $2 billion. As you noted, that’s $1 billion per mile. It is the most expensive rail project in the world on a per mile basis. And that’s comparing high-speed rail, heavy rail and light rail. It’s an absolute outrage, and the people need to rebel and say, heck no.

Lars Larson
And in the reporting you’ve done, you’ve also pointed out, I mean by comparison, the most recent light rail line, I think it was Lynnwood open up in the Puget Sound area is a comparative. It’s not actually a bargain, but it’s a comparative bargain at the low, low price of only $350 million a mile, a third of $1 billion a mile. If it makes Lynnwood Extension look like a bargain by comparison to $1 billion a mile, literally the most expensive light rail line on Earth or rail line of any kind on Earth. And yet they’re still forging ahead with it. And apparently they’re still planning to start construction when 2026, and they don’t have any of it sewn up yet.

John Ley
Well, you’re so right on so many facets of this. There are a million promises in this. The federal government has allocated $2.1 billion towards this that you and I hope President Trump will put some common sense leadership in and say, what a waste of the people’s money. But the state of Oregon is supposed to come up with $1 billion, and they’ve only written a check for $250 million. And ODOT is going around the street right now begging for taxpayer money. They are saying they are short $1.7 billion a year for as far as the eye can see. So they don’t have the money and that’s for…

Lars Larson
Hold on, just so people understand this, John, this is your friend who’s already flat broken in the hole in the case of ODOT $1.7 billion every single year for as many years in the future as you can count. And they’re saying, but count on us for $1 billion contribution with absolutely no idea where it’s going to come from. Right?

John Ley
Exactly right. Other than, of course, you and I know it’s the people’s pockets they’re going to pick every single time. And so whether it’s tolling, whether it’s additional car tab fees, whether it’s rating the general fund it’s supposed to pay for other things, they’re going to go after the money unless the people say, heck no, this is a ridiculous waste of money, because at the end of the day, the people want value for their money. And this is ridiculous. Replacing a three lane bridge with another three lane bridge that you and I know we’ve talked about many times, it’s over congested today and it’s going to be over congested on day one when it opens, supposedly in 2035. It’s ludicrous.

Lars Larson
It just blows me away, though. The reporters who usually are willing, I mean, if they think that something’s on fire or blowing up, you know, literally or metaphorically, they’re willing to go do a story on it. I mean, they like nothing more than, say, watching the, you know, giant company go down in flames or some other effort go down in flames. And yet this thing is sort of going down in flames without anybody saying anything about it. You know, the bridge project is metaphorically on fire, and nobody out there except you and perhaps me, is willing to say this thing is is a nonstarter, or they don’t have the money, they don’t know where the money’s going to come from, they don’t have Coast Guard approval. And that is a hard and fast veto of the project right there. And then there’s the light rail piece of it. And by the way, I made a mistake the other day because I had said that C-Tran which proposed, you know, which TriMet wants to run light rail to Vancouver, saying there’s all this demand in Clark County to be able to ride the train … 1.9 miles down to the existing light rail line in Delta Park. And you pointed out to me, Lars, you got it wrong. I said there were seven express busses. That C-Tran is running. What is actually the case today?

John Ley
So prior to the pandemic lockdowns by Kate Brown and Jay Inslee, C-Tran had seven separate express bus lines over the river. With the lockdowns, they have cut it back to just three separate lines a day, and on an average day, they carry 525 people a day on the I-5 route. There is zero need for high capacity transit on anything across the river, especially I-5.

Number one and number two, the IBR is lying about the projected ridership. They’re saying they’re going to be 26,000 to 33,000 people writing transit a day by 2045. Nobody believes that. You and I know everybody likes riding in their cars, and especially after the pandemic, and especially after all the crime that is using Portland’s MAX light rail system, everybody is avoiding riding the light rail in and out of Portland to this day, and it’s absolutely horrible that they want to buy the most expense form of mass transit and waste money on it when it’s not going to help anybody at all. And the total price tag of that is over a quarter of the project’s cost.

Lars Larson
And by the way, you’ve pointed out that while light light rail trains are bought by for about 5 million bucks a copy in Portland, TriMet is trying to balance its budget on this thing by saying, but they’re going to cost $10 million a copy when you buy them for Clark County. That’s yet another reason to say there’s something wrong with this project, and nobody else seems to be able to be willing to pointed out, even though it’s dollars and cents and facts.

That’s John Ley, who’s a retired airline pilot, transit advocate, and he’s running for the Washington House of Representatives District 18 position 2 back in a moment…