A slowly sinking viaduct over the Seattle waterfront and a floating bridge that connects the heart of Washington's tech-sector with its largest city -- two projects crucial to the state's economic vitality are the focus of legislative transportation budget proposals rolled out in Olympia in the past few days.
The Evergreen State thrives on exports, from airplanes to apples to software applications. State businesses can't export without the infrastructure in place to get the goods to market -- and that includes a working transportation system.
Transportation concerns have intermittently loomed large over the Washington Legislature for decades. But it wasn't until investments made in 2003 -- the year lawmakers were enticing Boeing to build the 7E7 passenger jet in Washington -- that much was accomplished. Prior to that year, the last major transportation funding package came just after the fall of the Berlin Wall and just before Desert Storm. Politically speaking, it was in ancient history, so it's no wonder that Seattle is among the most gridlocked cities in the nation, the time for Washington apples to go from tree to transport vessel has ballooned by 33% and Boeing moved its headquarters to Chicago as major transportation funding fizzled in the Legislature and on the ballot.
Why has this happened? Well, because the roads of Puget Sound aren't the only thing that has been gridlocked.
Washington Republicans jammed Governor Gary Locke in 1998 with Referendum 49 and Tim Eyman jammed all of Washington in 1999 with Initiative 695, which actually undid Referendum 49 but still was endorsed by the state Republican Party (figure that one out!). You may not remember that, in those years, gasoline prices and unemployment were simultaneously at record lows. A gallon of fuel was under a buck, but Washington Republicans weren’t going to guarantee that you could easily get to work in the central Puget Sound area unless they could offer jobs to more of their friends in Olympia and from 1998 to 2003 traffic congestion in Washington only worsened.
Now, help could be on the way for the “mega projects” that are part of Washington’s economic lifeline with the recently proposed transportation plans. Both plans include gas-tax step increases that will generate the billions needed for the projects. Nothing is final yet, but the House and Senate are talking and the next two weeks will determine the look of the final package. Some of the initial responses to the plans has been positive, including this editorial from The Olympian on the Senate package and this Seattle P-I editorial on the need to "close the deal" and actually pass a workable package.
The preliminary outlays from Democrats in the Senate and the House are online, but the final transportation funding package will be determined in conference committees between now and April 24. Look for more updates from Northwest Progressive Institute in the coming weeks.
