Mass transit solutions have been under serious consideration in Spokane County for nearly 15 years. About 10 years ago, light rail emerged as the leading option. The question that has always hovered over its prospects has been: How can we pay for it?

The popular option, of course, is to tap federal funds. Transit officials spent four years and $4.6 million but couldn’t persuade the Federal Transit Administration, which decided in 2003 that the need wasn’t great enough to build a light-rail system that would stretch from Spokane to Liberty Lake.

Just like that, the region lost what it hoped would be 60 percent of its funding.

But mass transit backers scaled back plans and pressed on. Three years later, the Spokane Transit Authority is ready to take a deep breath and ask voters whether they would be willing to finance a light-rail system that would cost $263 million in today’s dollars. They’ve exhausted all other funding options.

The board is wise to put the issue to a vote this fall, because all of the planning, designing and surveying won’t matter if light rail doesn’t have the backing of the people who will have to pay the bills.

So, two advisory votes are headed for the ballot. One asks whether voters want the STA board to devise a concrete financing plan. The other asks whether STA should spend $5 million on preliminary engineering work.

The board has indicated that it would follow the dictates of the voters.

This decision, however, isn’t the only one facing voters now or in the near future. It’s one thing to head to a mall and weigh whether you want to buy one particular item. But it gets complicated when you know other big-ticket purchases loom large and your budget is tight.

Along with light rail the other spending decisions facing the region include:

“A new wastewater facility in Spokane Valley that could cost $100 million.

“A new jail/courts complex that could cost anywhere from $80 million to $450 million.

“What to do when the 0.3 percent sales tax that financed STA’s bus system upgrades expires in 2008.

“What to do when the city of Spokane’s 10-year, $117 million streets-improvement bond expires. Remember, the maintenance backlog when that passed was an estimated $200 million.

“What to do when the two-year lifting of the property tax lid in the city of Spokane expires. That money is being used to forestall layoffs at the Fire and Police departments and keep libraries open more often.

That’s not an all-inclusive list and certainly other needs will arise before light rail would be up and running in 2014.

It’s against this backdrop that voters will consider whether to extend hope or force officials to turn to other transit options.

A survey taken in February indicated that 39 percent of residents would be willing to pay for light rail. It’s possible that attitudes have changed since then, but there’s no sense in pressing forward before finding out.