Three years ago, the state legislature proposed a $10 billion regional tax, known as the Regional Transportation Investment District (RTID), as a companion to Referendum 51, a statewide transportation tax. When R-51 was defeated, due largely to the efforts of environmentalists who felt it did not include enough money for transit, the RTID went on the back burner, where it has remained through the past three election cycles. Now that the monorail is dead (freeing up the motor vehicle excise tax for other purposes) and the largest gas-tax increase in state history has been upheld at the polls, RTID supporters say their tax is ready for a comeback.
Some, like state Senator Ken Jacobsen (D-46), say the RTID can be ready to go on the ballot next Novemberâpossibly alongside a Sound Transit funding measure that would make the roads-heavy package more palatable to Seattle voters. Others, like state Representative Ed Murray (D-43), want to see the entire RTID structure scrapped and replaced by a new regional transportation agency that would oversee transit, road financing, and constructionâa sort of beefed-up Puget Sound Regional Council that would put together a new tax package for 2007 or later.
"Right now, the RTID is all roads," Murray says. "This package will be opposed in its current configuration by the entire environmental community." Murray, citing "voter fatigue and [campaign] donor fatigue," says he isn't bothered by the thought of waiting another year or two before putting the RTID on the ballot.
Rob Johnson, policy director for the pro-transit Transportation Choices Coalition, which opposed R-51, agrees that the RTID has little to offer transit proponents. "I think they need to slim down the package, make it less dependent on [regressive] sales tax," and change the authorizing legislation to allow the district to pay for transit, Johnson saysâchanges that would likely set the package back a year or more.
If RTID backers want the package to pass, they may have to accept such a setback. Recent polls show a roads-heavy RTID tanking in Seattle, where it will have to make a strong showing to counteract an antitax disposition in the rest of the region.
