Today, Governor Christine Gregoire is signing a transportation stimulus package that not only includes no money for Seattle, but features a big, fat handout to suburban highway expansion. The $341 million state stimulus package includes $40 million to expand an exurban stretch of I-405 between NE 195th St. and SR 527 innorth of Bothell by one lane. That lane, which represents more than 10 percent of the state's total stimulus spending, will be general-purpose, not HOV, and is not a new project, meaning it doesn't meet the Obama administration's transportation stimulus criteria. (It also includes no pedestrian, bike, or transit accessibility components, and is an expansion, not a maintenance, project). The expansion was originally supposed to be paid for with state gas-tax revenues—which have decreased, ironically, because people are driving less.

(Thanks to the Transportation Choices Coalition for alerting us to the 405 $$!)