The Port of Seat­tle’s gov­ern­ing leg­isla­tive body today joined with the city coun­cils of Red­mond, Kirk­land, and Ren­ton in urg­ing a no vote on Tim Eyman’s Ini­tia­tive 1125, which would jeop­ar­dize cru­cial trans­porta­tion projects around the state by impos­ing sense­less restric­tions on tolling.

In a unan­i­mous vote, the five port com­mis­sion­ers respon­si­ble for gov­ern­ing the Port (Gael Tar­leton, Bill Bryant, Tom Albro, Rob Hol­land, John Creighton) adopt­ed a motion urg­ing Wash­ing­to­ni­ans to reject I‑1125 and empha­siz­ing the impor­tance of tolling to the future of the state’s high­way system.

(Full dis­clo­sure: Port Com­mis­sion­er Gael Tar­leton also serves as Pres­i­dent of NPI).

The motion adopt­ed by the Port read as follows:

SEATTLE PORT COMMISSION MOTION
TO OPPOSE PASSAGE OF INITIATIVE 1125
OCTOBER 11, 2011

1. The Port Com­mis­sion express­es its posi­tion that toll rev­enues have been iden­ti­fied as an impor­tant com­po­nent of fund­ing of trans­porta­tion infra­struc­ture nec­es­sary to cre­at­ing jobs, main­tain­ing healthy ports and ensur­ing the state’s com­pet­i­tive posi­tion in the glob­al economy.
2. The exist­ing author­i­ty of the Wash­ing­ton State Trans­porta­tion Com­mis­sion ensures a sta­ble and pre­dictable process to pro­vide rev­enues suf­fi­cient for trans­porta­tion project needs, set tolls to max­i­mize effi­cien­cy and reduce con­ges­tion; and fur­ther pro­vides appro­pri­ate secu­ri­ty for bond­hold­ers, thus keep­ing costs low.
3. The Com­mis­sion urges the state’s vot­ers to reject Ini­tia­tive 1125 on Novem­ber 8, 2011.
4. The Port Com­mis­sion directs the Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer to dis­sem­i­nate this motion to appro­pri­ate Wash­ing­ton State offi­cials and inter­est­ed par­ties, includ­ing but not lim­it­ed to, the Gov­er­nor of Wash­ing­ton State, the Speak­er of the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives and the House Minor­i­ty Leader, the Sen­ate Major­i­ty Leader and the Sen­ate Repub­li­can Leader, the Wash­ing­ton State Trans­porta­tion Com­mis­sion, the Puget Sound Region­al Coun­cil, the King Coun­ty Exec­u­tive, the King Coun­ty Coun­cil, the City of Seat­tle May­or, the Seat­tle City Coun­cil, the Asso­ci­a­tion of Sub­ur­ban Cities, the var­i­ous Cham­bers of Com­merce in King Coun­ty and oth­er busi­ness, com­mu­ni­ty, labor and envi­ron­men­tal organizations.

As the motion indi­cates, Keep Wash­ing­ton Rolling, the coali­tion work­ing to defeat Tim Eyman’s Ini­tia­tive 1125, is one of the broad­est and deep­est bal­lot coali­tions in state his­to­ry, encom­pass­ing busi­ness, labor unions, envi­ron­men­tal orga­ni­za­tions, civic groups, and the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty (NPI is a proud coali­tion member).

The rea­son so many dif­fer­ent peo­ple and insti­tu­tions have come togeth­er to stop I‑1125 is sim­ple: it threat­ens our future. Our future pros­per­i­ty. Our future mobil­i­ty. Our future free­dom. It is vital that we move for­ward with projects to repair and replace crum­bling roads and bridges. I‑1125 threat­ens our abil­i­ty to do that by crip­pling an impor­tant fund­ing mech­a­nism: tolling.

We urge all Wash­ing­to­ni­ans to join us in vot­ing NO on I‑1125 this autumn.