Transportation Help A Step Toward Real Fix

Squeezing hard on the state’s budget, Gov. Gary Locke and the Legislature are finding ways to restore some of the transportation cuts made necessary when Initiative 695 killed a third of the transportation system’s revenue.

But even their best effort, which has yet to emerge from the ongoing negotiations, won’t come close to the kind of solution our state needs in order to support our economy and quality of life.

Voters must keep that big picture in mind. So should legislators.

Sure, the signs of progress are welcome. On Tuesday, Gov. Locke announced he had found another $525 million for transportation, bringing his total proposal to $1.1 billion over three years. On Friday, House Republicans unveiled a proposal to boost transportation spending by $1.9 billion over five years.

For those keeping score at home, there’s a better number to keep in mind: $50 billion.

That is the cost of unfunded transportation projects that have passed muster and won a place in city, county and state transportation improvement plans all around Washington.

And there are a couple of other crucial facts to keep in mind:

1. Most of the dollars in the proposals now taking shape are only a one-time contribution. This is not a sound way to fund transportation, which involves continuing operational costs for ferries and buses as well as the unending nature of highway maintenance and expansion.

2. Mass transit is essential for congestion relief and a balanced urban system. It is neither affordable nor wise to keep widening freeways, lane after lane, year after year. With the Motor Vehicle Excise Tax gone, transit has lost its major revenue source. The main surviving transportation tax is on gasoline. But, the state Constitution says the gas tax can only go to highways and car ferries, and cannot go to buses, rail or passenger-only ferries.

So, via the gasoline tax Washington continues to subsidize the private automobile as a transportation mode. But much of the subsidy for transit has disappeared. And that must be remedied.

And yet, all that will emerge from this legislative session is a one-time, cobbled-together bailout package.

What we won’t get is a dependable revenue source for transit.

Nor will we get a revenue source adequate for that $50 billion need, so crucial to the state’s ability to carry the freight and commuters associated with a booming economy and population.

Nor will we get systemic reforms to the state’s convoluted transportation funding apparatus, which features 50 pots of money and 468 decision making agencies. Proposals to allow private contractors to bid on public services such as the operation of passenger-only ferries are only a start down the road to efficiency.

Yes, the public should be grateful if legislators save some of the urgently needed road construction projects that otherwise will be canceled, including several big ones around Spokane.

But this time next year, after the state’s blue-ribbon transportation committee has finished its search for a more complete set of reforms, lawmakers must step to the plate again, with their eyes on the future.