Standard-Examiner: UTA Consultant Stands By Her Ogden Transit Study

Among other things, Mr. Schwebke has allowed Wikstrom and UTA to lead him astray with all this discussion about sales tax

By Dan Schroeader

Here's Schwebke's lousy article on how UTA still hasn't released the details of the Wikstrom economic impacts study:

• Consultant stands by her Ogden transit study

And for the archival record, here's the comment that I posted under Schwebke's article:

What a confusing article. Anyone who wants to understand this had better read the article in the Trib:

• Where’s data for Ogden streetcar analysis? asks green critic

And here’s a link to my original letter, sent on September 20:

• Dan Schroeder 9/20/10 Letter

Mr. Schwebke has allowed Wikstrom and UTA to lead him astray with all this discussion about sales tax. I carefully explained to him on the phone that I never requested that part of the data--I’m asking only to see the details of the property value calculations. The sales tax data is indeed confidential but guess what? Wikstrom’s study showed no significant difference (only 15%) in increased sales tax revenue along the different alignments. That’s well within the margin of uncertainty. And even that, as far as I can tell, is really a projection of what will happen without a new transit project rather than with one.

I also explained to Mr. Schwebke that UTA has been promising to get me Wikstrom’s raw data since August 17, and that they didn’t even offer the “sales tax data is confidential” excuse until September 28. It still isn’t clear whether they will allow the public to see any of the details of Wikstrom’s calculations. At the very least, they’ve stalled so long that it’s now impossible for the public to scrutinize the calculations before the Alternatives Analysis report is written.

Finally, Mr. Schwebke fails to mention that on September 30, Wikstrom ordered me to remove my 9/20 letter from Weber County Forum or I would be hearing from her attorney. This incident seems indicative of her attitude toward public involvement in deciding how to spend taxpayer dollars. [link added - Ed.].

Ed. note: Special thanks to Dan Schroeder for offering his own commentary regarding this morning's Scott Schwebke story.