House Oks Street Repair Bill

A bill that would allow Spokane Transit Authority to help pay for city street repairs cleared another hurdle Tuesday.

The bill passed the House by a 66-32 margin and now heads to the Senate, where a similar bill died in the Transportation Committee earlier this month.

Only a few weeks ago, HB 2105, sponsored by Spokane Valley Republican Mark Sterk, appeared dead before clearing a deadline to pass out of committee by only a few hours.

The STA governing board has rejected a resolution to support the bill. Under the proposal, any money from STA’s $33 million reserve account used for street maintenance would have to be approved by the board.

STA currently uses the account to pay for self-insurance, alternative fuels conversion, and capital purchases.

“The comments I got were, ‘If they can build the Taj Mahal of a center downtown, they can certainly help us with streets,”’ Sterk said, referring to STA’s $20.6 million bus station that opened in 1995.