Gregoire OKs gang bill, span tolls

OLYMPIA – Gov. Chris Gregoire, responding to chronic gang problems across Washington, on Monday approved state assistance for local enforcement agencies in preventing and combatting street crime.

The governor also approved use of tolls to help finance a new $4 billion floating bridge across Lake Washington.

She also signed into law a variety of government fees, totaling about $6 million, with little impact on the average person. The state budget, which Gregoire will sign today, includes another $68 million worth of fees, involving both state agencies and higher education.

Gregoire legally has until Saturday to complete work on the hundreds of bills sent to her by lawmakers, but her staff said she expects to complete her work today. Two of the final measures deal with banning toxic toys and providing future tax relief to people who qualify for the Federal Earned Income Tax Credit.

The gang bill is an outgrowth of a work group that conducted community meetings across the state last year to pull together a broad plan for dealing with the problem. The panel included legislators, law enforcement, defense attorneys, prosecutors, gang experts and juvenile justice experts.

The legislation authorizes the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs to provide grants to local law enforcement for combatting street gang activity and dealing with “tagging” and other graffiti.

Gregoire and Don Pierce, association director, said the grants will require community involvement and an emphasis on prevention.

Gregoire said prevention wasn’t expressly mentioned in the bill, but is an essential part of effective anti-gang efforts.

“We share Governor Gregoire’s concerns and we’re eager to work with her to ensure that prevention programming is a part of our state’s approach to combatting the gang issue,” Pierce said.

He said the work group specifically said “we can’t arrest our way out of the gang issue facing some of our communities.” He added, “Law enforcement officers know firsthand that we must prevent our youth from entering gangs in the first place.”

The legislation also creates a gang database to help track gang activity statewide. It makes it a crime for adults who involve juveniles in a felony offense and adds extra jail time for gang-related crime.

It makes gang tagging and graffiti a crime and allows property owners to recover civil penalties and costs.

It allows the Office of Crime Victims Advocates to set up a program to help witnesses in gang trials.

It also directs the Department of Corrections to study and recommend “best practices” for dealing with gangs and recruitment behind bars.

The budget has $2.4 million in startup money.

The governor also approved use of tolls to pay about half the cost of a new $4 billion State Highway 520 bridge linking Seattle and Bellevue. Federal and state highway dollars would cover the remainder.

The tolls have not been set, nor has the state decided whether to charge tolls for the nearby Interstate 90 crossing of the lake. Tolls on the existing 520 floating bridge could start next year, although the new bridge isn’t expected to open before 2014.

The state is replacing the aging bridge, which engineers view as at risk of collapse in a severe windstorm or earthquake. The bridge carries 115,000 vehicles and 150,000 people daily.

The state has to decide by fall 2009 whether to accept a $139 million grant from the federal government’s Congestion Initiative. That grant includes a requirement of a toll on the bridge – more expensive during peak hours so as to draw some motorists to mass transit or to off-peak auto use.

The new legislation creates a three-member panel to propose the actual tolls to the Legislature by January.

A recent study suggested between $5 and $10 roundtrip during rush hour, in 2007 dollars, once the new bridge opens. If applied next year, the toll could be $6 or $7 roundtrip during peak-hour commutes. Tolls would be cheaper during off-peak hours.

The fee bill, required since voters approved an initiative last fall requiring legislators to vote on all state government fees, includes ones to cover the cost of discipline and background checks of health care professionals, pesticide and animal inspection programs, licensing of explosives-handlers and so forth.

Gregoire also signed a bill giving newspapers a tax break, worth about $2.7 million per biennium, for their online advertising.