It is comforting to know we have at least one Seattle City Council member who considers sticker shock and listens to the people of our city. Council President Nick Licata writes on this page a cogent discussion about his lone vote against Seattle's own Big Dig. We need to bury this outrageous tunnel boondoggle or it will bury us taxpayers in the muck and slime of the edge of the bay.

He cites the irrational behavior of the City Council now and the nearly identical council of 2005. Then, using massive financing costs to balloon the bottom line of the Seattle Monorail Project, the council said, "Oh, the public must vote on this." Council members knew the $11 billion price tag would doom the project they hated.

Today, even without astronomical finance costs included (maybe another $11 billion?), we suddenly have a council that says the issue is too complicated for the poor, dumb citizens and after all, "we were elected to make the tough decisions."

We suppose that means get the tunnel that the mayor, the downtown business contingent and the high rise condo developers want. Taxpayers would like a tunnel, sure, but we simply cannot afford to pay for one, especially when we have no idea of what the finance costs will be and what sort of massive cost overruns will occur - and there are always cost overruns on such projects. Doubt us? Check Boston's experience.

Licata says he "intended to propose an amendment to the tunnel vs. elevated measure adding language noting the tunnel cost at least $1 billion more than an elevated option. This seemed reasonable given that the difference in the "likely" cost estimates for the core options is now $1.8 billion.

He notes there was "little support for a ballot measure, so I didn't make a motion for a vote."

We are beginning to think that our council is not hearing our demands and perhaps the only solution is cleaning house at the next election. Stay tuned, this battle is just beginning.