State transportation budgets still favor King, some lawmakers complain.
State House and Senate negotiators this week will resume negotiations on what ultimately will be the largest transportation construction budget ever passed by the Legislature, one that will spend nearly $5 billion and will create an estimated 49,000 jobs.
Each chamber has passed a two-year spending plan for the state, and leaders now have two weeks until the Legislature’s scheduled April 26 adjournment to work out the differences.
The House voted 65-30 Friday night in favor of a 2009-11 transportation budget; the Senate approved its version April 1.
Though the House made a few changes last week to improve funding for Pierce County projects, Senate Bill 5352 still falls short, some lawmakers said.
House Transportation Committee Chairwoman Rep. Judy Clibborn, D-Mercer Island, agreed to shift $18 million from other projects to improve the timetable for construction of car-pool lanes on Interstate 5 between the Tacoma Mall and Fife.
That was part of a deal worked out by Reps. Tom Campbell, R-Roy, and Dennis Flannigan, D-Tacoma. The deal also added $1.5 million for preliminary work on the cross-base highway (Highway 704) and allocated $3.3 million for a project on Highway 302.
Campbell said the budget gives a lot of money to King County for projects, but is good for Pierce County too.
The $1.5 million for the cross-base highway will enable state and county officials to try to leverage more money out of the federal government, he said.
“I’m proud of this budget,” Campbell said.
Rep. Dan Roach, R-Bonney Lake, top Republican on the Transportation Committee, tried to drive home how much he thinks the budget is skewed in favor of King County, but his amendments were defeated.
One of them would have subtracted $500 million from the $2.4 billion earmarked for Seattle’s Alaskan Way Viaduct and would have spent $200 million more in Pierce County plus $300 million on the Highway 520 bridge project. It failed on a 41-57 vote.
Another would have shifted $500 million from the viaduct to Columbia River, Pierce County and Spokane projects. It failed too, 44-53.
The Senate version of the budget had elevated the I-5 car-pool lane project in Tacoma, an overall $1.2 billion project, to the same level as the mega-projects in the Seattle area – the Alaskan Way Viaduct on Seattle’s waterfront ($4.24 billion), and the replacement of the Highway 520 bridge ($4.6 billion to $6.6 billion.)
All the projects would be assured of funding to completion, even though much of the work would extend well beyond six years.
Roach’s other big proposal was to make Seattle sell the city-owned property under the Alaskan Way Viaduct, form a special taxing district to raise $1 billion and use that money – instead of state funds – to help pay for the tunnel that would replace the elevated roadway.
That would have freed $1 billion in state money to spend on other projects across the state. That, too, was voted down, 46-51.
Rep. Marko Liias, D-Mukilteo, vice chairman of the Transportation Committee, said lawmakers should keep the promise that was made in 2005 to replace the viaduct. That’s when the Legislature approved a 9.5-cent increase in the gas tax.
But the state now finds itself about $5 billion short of money for the 432 projects it said would be built with those funds and money from the 5-cent gas tax hike from 2003.
“We’re gonna keep some promises, but not others,” said Rep. Doug Ericksen, R-Ferndale, who was arguing for lawmakers to come up with money for projects in other parts of the state.
House members also approved a last-minute change that shifted enough money to start construction on a 144-car ferry so that it can be done by 2013 instead of 2016.
Joseph Turner: 253-597-8436
blogs.thenewstribune.com/politics
