Skip to main contentUp north of here, Washington legislators in Olympia are debating whether or not they should authorize tolls to finance the Columbia River Crossing, the proposed $3.5 billion Interstate 5 freeway and transit project.
Along with the many suggested benefits of the bridge, Washington legislators are being told that the CRC, as it's known will create jobs, jobs jobs.
"It will bring 16,000 jobs over the next seven years in direct stimulus and more than 27,000 jobs in economic impact," said Rep. Jim Moeller, a Vancouver Democrat, according to OregonLive.
It appears that Washington lawmakers are being fed the same phony line about as their counterparts in Oregon.
As WW has reported, the Columbia River Crossing would (by the project's own reckoning, and according to its own documents) create about 1,907 direct jobs—not 16,000, as Moeller claims.
Backers insist on multiplying the number of jobs by the estimated number of years it's supposed to take to finish the bridge.
Economists say that's nonsense: You count the highest number of jobs at any one time, not double- or triple-count them—or worse—year after year after year.
For the full explanation of why Moeller's argument has been discredited, see "Not True Times Ten."
WWeek 2015