MATT DRISCOLL: OR WHEN ROB MCNAIR-HUFF CALLS, YOU ANSWER >>>

For the first time in what seems like ages, I got the call today. No, I didn’t get the call from Pappi Swarner letting me know Weekly Volcano World Headquarters was running desperately low on scotch, or a call from an upset band letting me know I’m full of shit (though calls like that do happen all the time); no, I got a call from Rob McNair-Huff with the City of Tacoma, letting me know city manager Eric Anderson would be holding a press conference this afternoon.

Hot shit, I thought. It’s been a while since I sat in a room with the Tacoma Weekly’s John Larson and Jason Hagey from the Trib â€" pretending like I'm a professional. This will be good.

And it was… if you’re into discussing how nobody has any money and everybody is scared of what the future holds.

With that, here’s what happened.

The economy as it relates to Tacoma transportation

By now you’ve probably heard that Chris Gregoire’s proposed budget screws Tacoma and Pierce County when it comes to funding promised transportation projects. Of course, many things got “screwed” in that proposed budget, mainly because there’s no fucking money. Tough choices were made, and we lost (at least round one). You’d think in Tacoma we’d be accustomed to such things.

Maybe that’s it. Maybe we’re too accustomed. Plenty of local decision makers are fuming.

Gregoire’s proposed budget “puts off” projects like extending State Route 167 and creating high occupancy vehicle lanes on Interstate 5 - which, for all intents and purposes (at least in the foreseeable future) means down right axing them. If nothing changes, maybe we’ll see some of those projects in ten years. Maybe.

The good news might be that, at least outwardly, Tacoma officials seem to believe there’s some chance of persuading the governor and the state legislature to reconsider. Anderson and a team of at least five city council members will travel to Olympia tomorrow (presumably not all riding in Baarsma’s Prius) to meet with, among others, Rep. Dennis Flannigan and representatives for the governor. Their hope is to get the delayed projects “restored.”

“I think everyone appreciates the difficulty of the problem,” said Anderson of the decisions the governor and legislature are forced to make about funding. “It’s important for the council to be talking, and presenting Tacoma’s situation.”

Anderson also said he expects to “just kind of watch,” tomorrow’s talking, negotiating, begging, pleading and screaming.

“It’s an uphill climb,” Anderson said of the chances that leaders from Tacoma will be able to convince the governor to fund the transportation projects she put on hold, noting much depends on The Stimulus. “I don’t know if you can tell what’s going to happen.

Quick quotes

On whether The Stimulus will help the inevitable cuts in social services Tacoma will experience â€" both on a state and county level:

“You can pump up the stimulus bill, and I support it. (But) Long term you need stability.”

On whether Tacoma is at the whim of the federal government at an economic time like this:

“We are at the whim of the economy.”

Anderson went on to say later in the briefing that sales tax revenue is down 9 or 10 percent from the city’s projections, and that Tacoma’s plan is to “assume the worst” at this point when it comes to projecting revenue. He did note that the excise tax was “up a little.”

On the cutbacks Tacoma is making:

“We’re going to end up saving money. (We are) finding things we don’t need to spend money on either way.”