Jack, what do you think are the possibilities of a Chapter 9 bankruptcy for Trimet?

I don't know if Tri-Met has the authority under state law to enter into a Chapter 9.

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2010/12/trojan-horse-in-tax-compromise-gop-plan-to-bankrupt-states-break-union.html

This should be a must read for all of those engineering this Tri-Met deal.

Bah! Not a problem. The water bill will just get hiked 500% or whatever it takes to take up the slack. Or maybe since we already pay for a 'rainwater disposal' fee, how about an 'air usage' charge?

Moloch demands sacrifices.

Looks like TriMet just wrote the prescription for Nembutol.

The municipal bond market has turned sour and this (if it continues) will be a problem for every government borrower. Today, Tri-Met's Sept. 2031 bonds sold for $913 for a yield of 4.92%. Three months ago (9/8) the same bonds went for $1,165 for a 3.65% yield. That drop is not unique to Tri Met. Everybody in the muni market is getting hurt.

Explanation of municipal Chapter 9 bankruptcy is here.
TriMet acts like it don't need a Tax Prof to know which way a wind-down goes.

$700 million on the credit card. Jeeeezus. For a train to Milwaukie. Wow wow wow.

The sheer magnitude of irresponsibility is almost breathtaking.

Any "Psychedelic Mystery Train" (avoiding to say in succession the 3 words 'Magical' "Mystery" 'Touristcoach' since that might be unlicensed infringement of copyrighted intellectual property), traveling south of the City probably trafficks in 'take home message' thinking from (Dec 10-12 Catalysts) -- Psychedelics in Culture, Consciousness, and Creativity mini-conference which "... the largest scope and highest number of attendees" are sure "... will feature presentations and panel discussions on psychedelic science, the current state of psychedelic research, and clinical applications for their therapeutic use." ... if it stays on track and doesn't go off the rails.

Turn on your browser and stay tuned in this blog for on-the-scene reports by an intrepid hitchhiker in the L.A. galaxy who has taken an investigative trip there.

If the conductor tells you "one more nickel" and then you can't get off the train at the L.A. station, you may end up in Mexico, where all drugs are legal now. Which could inform today's missive from one correspondent there, which reads like Hemingway's prose in Spain -- America: Y ur peeps b so dum?, By Joe Bageant, Online Journal Contributing Writer, Dec 8, 2010

Including some of these intellectual property head-slappers:

AJIJIC, JALISCO, Mexico -- If you hang out much with thinking people, conversation eventually turns to the serious political and cultural questions of our times. Such as: How can the Americans remain so consistently brain-f*cked? Much of the world, including plenty of Americans, asks that question as they watch U.S. culture go down like a thrashing mastodon giving itself up to some Pleistocene tar pit.

One explanation might be the effect of 40 years of deep fried industrial chicken pulp, and 44-ounce Big Gulp soft drinks. Another might be pop culture, which is not culture at all of course, but marketing. ...

But a more reasonable explanation is that, (A) we don’t even know we are doing it, and (B) we cling to institutions dedicated to making sure we never find out. ...

Cultural stupidity might not be so bad, were it not self-reproducing and viral, and prone to place stupid people in charge. All of us have, at some point, looked at a boss and asked ourselves how such a numb-nuts could end up in charge of the joint.

In my own field, the book biz, the top hucksters in sales and marketing, car salesman with degrees, are put in charge of publishing the national literature. ...

Speaking of fringe intellectual properties and stupid people, LIARS Larson today be programming the thought that SEVEN HUNDRED MILLION DOLlars may be bonded for Milwaukie's Psychedelic Train -- let alone that LIARS falls short of the truth by at least a factor of 3 and, even at that, nevermind because he has no mind of three billion dollars per week from American taxpayers looking for bin Laden (although he is deceased) in Afghanistan and securing the poppy fields there that go into the manufacture of opiates for international trade with Mexico in exchange for more kids to conscript as troops on the US-fodder side in the terrible 'war.' ... what's a piddly 3 billion bucks a week while LIARS is talking SEVEN HUNDRED MILLION DOLlars for long-lasting infrastructure construction ... there's just no comparison and everyone would 'get' that if only not peeps b so dum.

Who wants to start a betting pool as to which bus services get cut next?

Let's see...no new buses for the next 10-15 years...probably start removing bus shelters to save on the cleaning cost...make all buses 30 minutes or less...end all but rush hour service...maybe tell drivers not to turn on the A/C during the summer so that the buses get an extra .00000000282048 mile per gallon fuel economy...

Ah to be at TriMet HQ and just to smell the palapable air of total panic. No plans beyond today, just get this thing shoved thru and find a honey-pot in Earl's office or PDC.

How profound Tensk.

You suppport TriMet because "war costs more" and Milwaukie Light Rail is "long lasting infrastructure".

Is that supposed to be enlightening?

Or is it your smart pal Randy Leonard's take?

Calling Lars stupid and wrong on the $700 million bonded for Milwaukie Light Rail is showing some real laziness on your part. Everyting has to go to Lars?

He isn't "short of the truth by at least a factor of 3". He was talking about the story today.
Whatever concocted mistruth you spun from it is yor own dihonesty.

As for TriMet today and the MLR.

It will go down in infamy as the largest single day misappropriation to the most ill conceived project in Oregon history.

Ben, is that a challenge?!

It will go down in infamy as the largest single day misappropriation to the most ill conceived project in Oregon history.

I don't know. Give them some time. I'm sure there's another project just like this one somewhere in the pipeline.

I wonder if this "mystery train" will make a pit stop at the Acropolis?
The Stripper Express.
Would that be a 3 zone ticket?

Ben, is that a challenge?!

Posted by TriMet | December 8, 2010 5:41 PM

????

What is that supposed to mean?

Haha, challenge was exceeded, $900MM was appropriated today!