Mayor Nickels has finally told us how he intends to pay for his pie-in-the-sky Alaskan Way Viaduct tunnel proposal.

Just as many of us predicted, Mayor Nickels proposes to impose tolls. In a less forthright way for increasing costs to Seattle citizens, the mayor also intends to have the city's public utilities pick up $400 million in costs, increasing sewer and other assessments to Seattle rate payers for his tunnel.

The Mayor also has a dream that the federal government will come up with additional money and he hopes that the voters will again approve additional resources for the Regional Transportation Investment District to support this tunnel. All of these additional expenses assume that the mayor's gauzy numbers for the cost of his tunnel proposal (see the Boston Big Dig) are even remotely accurate.

People and goods need to move on State Route 99 with a minimum amount of difficulty or disruption. The mayor's tunnel proposal, homage to development interests who covet the waterfront, is expensive and disruptive, unnecessary, and should be rejected by Seattle's voters.

Oh, by the way, West Seattleites who recently experienced the complete breakdown of transportation when there was a major accident on the high level West Seattle Bridge do not welcome another alternative to rebuilding the Viaduct - the "boulevard" option. Some deep thinkers have assumed that 100,000 vehicle trips per day could be accommodated by a surface street. Just imagine thousands upon thousands of vehicles jamming onto Interstate 5 ramps, or trying to use surface streets, like that new "boulevard" along Alaskan Way. If people liked the total breakdown seen last week, they will really love the "no viaduct" option.

A clear test of political will, common sense, and Seattle politics is whether the Viaduct gets rebuilt as fast as possible with the resources we now have. The challenge to elected officials, and to all of us as citizens, is to not let fantasy dominate the political dialogue. The Viaduct may not be beautiful, but rebuilding it is the fastest, least expensive alternative for moving vehicles, people, and products north and south in Seattle.

Philip A. Talmadge

West Seattle