Transportation Solutions

Before raising taxes to create more revenue for a state transportation project wish list, legislators need to take a hard look at how tax dollars are already spent. Programs that are unnecessary or have outlived their usefulness should be eliminated; needless policies that drive up the cost of services should be repealed; laws to create government efficiency should be created and strictly followed. Below are a few specific examples of cost-saving measures.

1. Review WSDOT's core mission and functions.
Sometimes a transportation agency is created for a purpose which is already being performed (or should be performed) by an existing agency. Other times, transportation agencies perform a function because it sounds good, but closer review shows the function falls outside the purpose for which the agency was created.

Lawmakers and agency officials should analyze every function performed by each transportation agency to see whether it is essential to the agency's mission. If the service falls outside the scope of the mission and functions the agency was created to perform, it is best left entirely to the private sector. If lawmakers find that the service is legitimately within the scope of the agency mission, they should then analyze whether the service is already being provided, or could be better provided by another existing agency.

2. Refine competitive bidding.
After reviewing transportation missions and eliminating functions that fall outside the scope of these missions, the state should encourage competitive bidding to provide services. Competition in the marketplace improves performance and keeps costs down.

EFF suggests lawmakers specifically look for competitive bidding opportunities in the development and upgrades of airports, roads and high-speed rail, rest-area maintenance (in return for letting businesses locate in rest areas, they could maintain the entire rest-area and pay a user fee to the state), public transit, motor vehicle registration, and fleet operations and maintenance.

3. Review the laws (RCWs) imposed on the WSDOT and the governance system.
WSDOT may be doing a good job of complying with legislative intent; however, the legislative direction may be causing highly inefficient practices (i.e., the bureaucratic, time-consuming and ineffective highway planning process).

This review should include a look at the jurisdiction overlap between WSDOT, counties, the Transportation Improvement Board, CRAB (County Road Administration Board), etc. There is an urgent need for a coordinated prioritization method for local projects.

4. Streamline the permitting process.
The current permitting process requires DOT to jump through numerous federal environmental regulatory hoops in order to obtain permits for transportation construction projects involving wetlands or other waters. The process results in wasted time and, as the old maxim goes, "time is money." The Blue Ribbon Commission on Transportation has recommended that this process be streamlined so WSDOT can establish a one-stop environmental permitting process and quickly get down to the real business of building and maintaining our transportation systems. EFF agrees with this recommendation.

5. Federal gas-tax relief.
Washington citizens are paying 18.4 cents per gallon in federal gas taxes (on top of the current 23 cent state gas-tax per gallon). The Federal Highway Administration and the General Accounting Office, however, have concluded that only three cents of the federal gas tax are required to fund the core functions of federal highway programs. This means Washington citizens are being taxed 15.4 cents per gallon too much. Senator Patty Murray is the Chair of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, and Washington's elected officials should pressure her to work on returning the additional 15.4 cents to the state, yielding an additional $462 million a year for state transportation needs.

Other options:

• Avoid labor agreements that drive up costs and provide little or no taxpayer benefit. Repeal state prevailing wage laws and project labor agreements. Ask for waivers for federal prevailing wage laws.

• End taxi deadheading—estimated at 10 million miles of driver-only trips.

• Clear traffic incidents quicker—the state patrol should be in charge of these efforts.

• Solve known congestion problems that are caused by poor engineering (inadequate lane space on on-ramps to merge with oncoming traffic) cloverleaf exits, etc.

• Switch HOV lanes to HOT lanes (high occupancy toll lanes).

• Conduct a review of DOT assets and sell unnecessary or obsolete assets.

These are just a few of the many options that must be exhausted before increasing taxes on a state mired in recession. Tax increases are not the only game in town and should not be used as a first resort because they are the easiest. The other options presented will require political courage but must be acted upon prior to adding more funding to a system that has already created the current congestion nightmare. For more information please visit our R-51 resources page.

Prepared by Bob Williams, Senior Research Analyst, (360) 956-3482 or effwa@effwa.org

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