Last week we looked back at how the Port of Seattle's tree cutting, originally known as the Flight Corridor Safety Program, led to a short-lived public interest about the SAMP, and the development of all the Port's current community grant programs.

Feedback: We hit another 'record' of podcast downloads. We address complaints about the "Bullshit Meter". We don't do it for shock value.

Phrases like 'myth buster!', or 'misleading' have lost impact. One reason that myths like Second Airport refuse to die is because no one says clearly and firmly, "this is a 10/10 on the bullshit meter."

The reason it is a 'meter' is that many of these issues are not 'true' or 'false'. More often than not, the answer is somewhere in the middle. The Port has often been particularly challenging in this regard.

For every concern, the Port has a blizzard of very logical-sounding explanations as to not only why nothing can be done, but also, how hard they are working on our behalf.

Among the current ongoing distractions, one we rate as 8/10 on the Bullshit Meter are what the Port can legally offer in terms of relief, and also, whether or not they can afford to do so.

Episode: In this episode we provide an overview of how the airport pays for itself, including the property tax levy, and an intro to community grant funding.

To do that, we begin by mentioning Rube Goldberg - a name you may not remember. Goldberg's cartoons began appearing in print about the same time the Port of Seattle was created in 1911. The cartoons poked fun at modern life, depicting overly-complicated machines, with lengthy and ridiculous explanations (the longer and more ridiculous, the better.) The punchline was that it was all unnecessary nonsense. The problem the machine was 'designed' to solve could actually be addressed very simply..

Around 2010, after decades of complaints about under-performance and corruption, the Port began developing a stable record of growth, performance, and better PR. These improvements have been so amazingthat even old-timers don't seem to notice how well they have handled 'catastrophes' like COVID or scandals like the International Arrivals Facility. Most importantly, the Port has already financed the SAMP with the full support of the airlines.

But the one area where the Port still dramatically under-performs has been airport communities. Graded objectively as a grant provider, the Port performs terribly. They will insist that any shortcomings are due to limits in the State constitution.

The reason we called this the Rube Goldberg Debt Experiment is that almost none of this has anything to do with what they actually can do to provide community relief. The 'trick' is getting your city to stop paying attention to all the complexity and hand waving and focus on what has been right in front of all of us for years.

But even that unnecessary complexity works to the Port's advantage. The Port always obtains 100% PR value regardless of community benefit.

In our STNI 2026 Legislative Agenda we talk about simple, voluntary reforms they can make to address all that, and easy changes to RCW 53 if they don't.

2016 Flight Corridor Safety Program
2017 Airport Community Ecology Fund
2020-2025 South King County Fund
2025 Washington Law Review - The Gift of Public Funds Bogeyman

STNI: Legislation 2026

To learn the rest of the story on each of these programs: stni.info/subscribe