Sound Transit: Let the debate begin

Do we want Sound Transit to launch $17.8 billion in new light-rail construction and bus service? That's a very good conversation for the voters to have this year.

Sound Transit board members are expected to decide Thursday to send a compromise measure to the November ballot. The board members who want a vote say they have responded to criticisms about cost and timeline that helped bring down a ballot measure last year. This is also a true transit proposal, untied from the highway construction elements in the 2007 vote.

The board vote will likely be split. We cannot think why such a big measure shouldn't provoke thoughtful dissent.

Economic jitters -- or middle-of-the-night terrors -- may hurt the plan's prospects. But that should force transit supporters to spell out the benefits as clearly as possible. There is probably a political case to be made for waiting for another vote until at least next year, when the first light rail service in King County is supposed to start.

Coming off the last public vote, though, Sound Transit had ideas for service expansions. Mixed with people's good environmental intentions, soaring gas prices have spurred popular interest in commuting alternatives. Having the Sound Transit proposal on the ballot gives people an option for serious action, if they choose.

Voters should consider concerns, including from King County Executive Ron Sims' office, about the size of the proposal and whether the priority should be a faster expansion of bus service on routes where commuters are already forced to stand. Even as the board votes to put the measure on the ballot, the debating ought to begin, full out.