State leaders seek freight project financing

OLYMPIA – State transportation leaders are searching for a way to pay for $350 million worth of freight rail and road improvements across the state.

Gov. Chris Gregoire has rejected the initial plan that surfaced in the Legislature – a tax on shipping containers at the ports. Senate Transportation Chairwoman Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island, wants the shippers and trade-related industries to finance eight big projects that have been tentatively approved.

But the plan for a container fee is dead in the Legislature, after strong opposition from the governor, ports, railroads, trading companies and others.

The governor’s legislative director, Marty Brown, told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer that Gregoire made it clear to lawmakers “she didn’t think it had a prayer and that she didn’t think that was the way to go.”

He said Gregoire isn’t committed to dealing with the shortfall in the upcoming legislative session but does acknowledge the need for the freight mobility projects. The idea is to improve the movement of freight rail and trucks while easing the impact on regular road transportation, Brown said.

“We’ve not been able to do adequate separation (of roads and rail),” he said. “We haven’t been able to fund all the ideas that make sure that rail wasn’t sharing the roads with trucks and cars. There’s been a long-standing acknowledgment that we have to do something, but we haven’t paid for it.”

If not a container tax, Haugen said, lawmakers should consider a tax or fee paid by the industry. She called it a tough sell, but not impossible, for the 2008 session.

“If we can get the industry, the community that’s going to benefit, to say, ‘Yes, this is a great idea,’ we won’t have a problem,” she said.

House Minority Leader Richard DeBolt, R-Chehalis, said he opposes new taxes.

“My idea for this thing would be that we go back and find another solution,” he said. “Prioritize the projects, take a look at how we are doing the bonding on those rails, and we can take the sales tax off current projects and probably have enough to pay for these.”