The next issue of Washington Business, coming next week to a mailbox near you, has a brief overview of the biggest transportation and tax issue on the November ballot. The $18 billion roads and transit package (it's a contested number, it seems) will shape regional - inevitably, statewide - transportation plans for years, if not decades. Sunday, the Seattle Times ran an excellent overview by Andrew Garber.
Garber quotes a number of key legislators urging support for a compromise package that excites few, if any. Sen. Ed Murray's comment is typical and apt.
State Sen. Ed Murray, D-Seattle, a vice chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee, said he doesn't want to be "one of these people who makes perfect the enemy of the good."
It's been a long time coming.
The roots of the proposal go back at least seven years. ...
The thinking was there would never be enough support for a massive statewide tax increase to pay for Seattle-area mega projects such as replacing the Alaskan Way Viaduct and the Highway 520 bridge.
So, in 2002, the Legislature created the Regional Transportation Investment District, which set about developing a three-county roads package.
At the same time, Sound Transit was pursuing a separate effort to expand its light-rail system.
State lawmakers began to worry about taking two big tax proposals to voters in separate ballot measures. Last year they decided to tie the two together, arguing that would increase the odds of passage for both.
There's more than a little polarization. The Eastside Transportation Association, the Sierra Club, and others are, well, skeptical, though hardly of like mind. But as David Postman pointed out last month, there's a lot of money on the pro side.
A report by Wendell Cox released today by the Heritage Foundation echoes some of the themes the Eastsiders have been sounding for years. But to say transit's not the solution is not to say that transit's not part of the solution. So, we get to the unexciting compromise, which just might be the only answer.
Rich Roesler's Spokesman-Review blog points to new pro roads-and-transit ads today.
UPDATE Bad link to Cox's report fixed.
