Republicans Confident Of Road Plan’s Passage

Democratic Gov. Gary Locke on Wednesday offered his own tax-free transportation plan, but Senate Republicans expressed new optimism that they’ve rounded up enough votes to pass their own $2.4 billion plan.

Locke suggested an interim plan of $700 million, based largely on shifting car-tax money into the highway construction fund.

But Senate Majority Leader Dan McDonald, R-Bellevue, and other GOP leaders called the plan too little, too late. McDonald said he was optimistic the backers of the Republican plan have rounded up the necessary 25 Senate votes to adopt their own plan.

Sens. Shirley Winsley, R-Fircrest, and Jim Horn of Mercer Island, two of the three moderate Republican holdouts who have blocked passage, confirmed Wednesday night that negotiators have produced a tentative plan that they expect to support.

Few details were available Wednesday night, but McDonald and Winsley said it was largely the original proposal with a few twists.

The new version relies on less bond spending, about $1.9 billion of the total, using more of a pay-as-you-go approach that will be cheaper over the long run, Horn said.

McDonald and other backers of the House-passed proposal have been searching for days for the final two votes needed to put the issue over the top. Senate Transportation Chairman Eugene Prince, R-Thornton, was the third holdout.

The plan, devised as a tax-free alternative to Locke’s original call for a gas-tax increase, would finance about $2.4 billion in highway projects and new ferries by allowing greater transportation use of car tax dollars that now flow into the state treasury.