Contact: Carl Gipson, Deputy Communications Director
(360) 956-3482

Transportation relief: Will it work this time?

Governor Locke’s ink is drying on the state’s new transportation spending plan, but the questions remain: Will this one live up to expectations and promises? Will the state see congestion relief at last?

That depends. Legislators and transportation officials call the plan a new approach -- one that really, really will work this time. Locke’s promise as he signed the bills today is that the package will "improve road safety, speed up commutes, improve freight mobility across the state, replace four auto ferries, and improve public transportation and passenger rail."

Senate Transportation Chair Jim Horn, also present at the signing, promised that: "With the ‘Nickel Fund,’ people can be assured that when they go to the gas pump, a full nickel will go toward identified projects all across the state. When the bonds on these projects are paid off, that nickel goes away."

These promises bear close watching. A careful review shows the plan suffers the same weaknesses that prompted voters to soundly reject Referendum 51 last year. If it works, it’ll be a first.

Lawmakers did not include their list of transportation projects in the actual legislation they approved, meaning the projects are not legally binding and can be changed. Amid contentious debate and denial of this particular, there is no ignoring the fact that as late as last week -- after the package was approved by legislators -- DOT officials were scrambling to finalize the project list, assign dollar amounts to each item, and reconcile numbers that didn’t jive.

And that’s not all: Our children and grandchildren will be stuck paying the bills over the next 35 years; good intentions were not enough to ensure meaningful accountability measures; and lawmakers have been silent about how they will address new projects that arise over the next decade.

These are serious problems.

But of course, there’s a first for everything. Now is the time for taxpayers to rise to Governor Locke’s challenge to "hold us accountable." With close citizen involvement, legislators and transportation officials may just buck the status quo and successfully implement this plan. And they may be persuaded to adopt a better approach in all future spending and planning.

We’ll accept Governor Locke’s challenge to hold state officials accountable. Excuses have run out and it’s time to get people and goods moving again.

Evergreen Freedom Foundation P.O. Box 552, Olympia, WA 98507 Phone: (360) 956-3482, Fax: (360) 352-1874 Email: effwa@effwa.org