Don't believe it until you see it.
In fact, when it comes to transportation, the divisions--ideological, regional, and local--remain intense. Crafting a gas-tax plan that can win bipartisan support in Olympia may still be a long shot. And the local Regional Transportation Investment District effort, which in February tentatively approved a $14.4 billion plan of tri-county transportation projects, has all but collapsed in a similar ideological split.
The Gas Tax: On Tuesday, March 25, house Democrats led by transportation chair Ed Murray proposed a three-cent gas-tax increase that would raise $2 billion for road projects (including $100 million in starter money for the viaduct) over 10 years; the Democrats' plan would also hike truck and vehicle-sale taxes to raise an additional $600 million for non-roads projects. Governor Gary Locke then proposed his own plan, saying the gas-tax hike should be set at four cents, since more money was needed for the state's roads. On Friday, March 28, senate Republicans led by Highways and Transportation Committee chair Jim Horn (R-Mercer Island) weighed in with a five-cent increase that would raise $4.1 billion, but earmarked almost exclusively for roads (though with far less for the viaduct) and without the non-roads bells and whistles advocated by Democrats.
Murray holds out hope for a compromise, but says he foresees a tough battle with Horn over the non-roads portion of the house plan, which Democrats, Seattle transit advocates, and enviros see as crucial. He describes his senate counterpart as "pretty ideological" in his opposition to transit funding, and says he is "not sure" they can work out a deal.
Horn says he's hopeful legislators can pass a gas tax this session, but firmly defends the Senate's roads-first priorities. He argues that public transit expenditures are already slated to triple in the next decade, while money for roads would be cut in half. With that in mind he considers many of the Democrats' non-roads proposals as "non-problems."
Regional Transportation Package: It now looks like there will be no regional package on the ballot this November covering projects (including the Alaskan Way Viaduct) in King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties. Much of the reason is that a fierce battle has developed between local politicians, including Metropolitan King County Council Member Dwight Pelz, King County Executive Ron Sims, and Mayor Greg Nickels, who insist any regional package must include funding for light rail (though this would require a legislative change in Olympia), and the anti-light-rail suburban legislators who form a majority of the 25-member planning committee.
Snohomish County Council Member and regional board chair Gary Nelson (R-Edmonds) expresses frustration with the light rail advocates, saying their efforts to "commingle" light rail funding with the regional package are "absolutely absurd, and will kill the whole process."
King County Council Member Rob McKenna, also in the anti-light-rail camp, says he too is done negotiating, after recently offering light rail supporters a compromise: The regional money would be spent only on roads, but Sound Transit would be allowed to access untapped taxing authority for light rail by holding a vote only in tax-friendly Seattle--thus avoiding the tax-averse suburbs.
Seattle Deputy Mayor Tim Ceis and Pelz's people counter that the McKenna compromise was a non-starter in that it would set voting precedents that might ultimately kill light rail--"We considered it for about five minutes," Ceis says--and any rail-less regional package is doomed to fail for lack of urban support. "Been there, done that," Ceis says in reference to Seattle's narrow margin of approval of last November's failed statewide R-51 gas-tax initiative, a situation he ascribes to the initiative's emphasis on road projects. He adds that it is better to wait until next year to bring forward a regional package balanced between roads and transit.
But Nelson is unmoved. "Light rail is the kiss of death outside of Seattle, if we ever put it on the ballot," he argues. Nelson and McKenna both say that they are confident there will be a rail-less regional package put before voters, probably next year. And as for Seattle politicians' threats to not support a rail-less package, he is unimpressed. "It's no skin off my nose if Seattle doesn't want to fix the viaduct, or deal with the Mercer mess," Nelson says in reference to two of Mayor Nickels' other priority projects.
