No one should be surprised by these bid numbers. In fact, I speculated once the illegal tariffs were put in place by whoever did that, that this project would likely cost in the mid-40 millions. IMO, that ain’t happening. And as I also indicated a while back, this is coming at a time when state budgets around the country are in meltdown because of the federal cutbacks (with the worst consequences to hit AFTER the midterm elections, just as the writers of the Big Beautiful Bill intended) and record-setting federal budget deficits engineered by the political party in control of the House, Senate, and Presidency, so we could ensure massive tax cuts to billionaires and thereby make the economy great again…or something like that. I believe the federal government is not going to bail out this project, and the state is not going to prioritize diverting resources to it at a time when everything around us is melting down (with the worst yet to come).
So what are the prospects for a new aerial tram at Cannon? Pretty darn low, if you ask me. At a minimum, this project is dead in the water until a different political party takes control of federal government, and then subsequently removes the illegal tariffs. Getting rid of the tariffs alone will produce enormous cost savings, and that may be as close as two years away. But simply eliminating the tariffs will not be sufficient condition for the tram replacement project to go forward, and regardless, “someone” is going to have to come up with some $$$$ beyond what the state has budgeted (but note, has not funded - and that “budgeted” amount can easily disappear, as I suspect it will when the worst of the state budget deficits starts hitting in 2027 and beyond thanks to the enormous pending cutbacks in Medicaid to help “pay” for the aforementioned tax cuts to billionaires).
Bottom line: I don’t see a Cannon mountain tram replacement any sooner than a decade away. I hope I’m wrong. (But so far, I’ve called it right at every step along the way over these last few years.)
