Olympia Business Watch

Good News, Bad News for Columbia River Crossing

It was a mixed bag this week for citizens in southwest Washington following the Columbia River Crossing project. First, the good news.

On Tuesday, President Bush issued an order elevating the I-5 improvements to "high priority" status, a rating that has been extended to just 20 other projects in the last five years. The priority was requested jointly by the Oregon and Washington Departments of Transportation and is supposed to help expedite decisions by officials reviewing federal and state environmental review requirements related to the project.

The bad news? The Federal Highway Trust Fund, which provides a third of the funding states use for projects like the Columbia River Crossing, faces bankruptcy next year unless Congress acts this year to resolve the crisis. According to Kathie Durbin's piece in the Columbian, the fund was supposed to finance about $40 billion in transportation projects next year, but gas prices have put a huge dent in federal gas tax revenue. The fund is facing a $3.2 billion deficit in 2009.

U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, who chairs the Senate Appropriations Transportation Subcommittee, shared the news at a state labor convention in Vancouver earlier this week but did not, apparently, offer specifics on how this might affect the Crossing. According to the Columbian, Gov. Gregoire expects the federal government must provide more than the $400 to $600 million estimated for the project's bridge and highway improvements. And Washington and Oregon are expected to contribute between $401.5 million and $715 million each for a project that could total upwards of $3.5 billion. But with declining gas tax revenue in our state (and Oregon), this could generate a perfect storm for lawmakers come January with many of those same dollars already committed to other projects.

As AWB's Don Brunell noted in a column this past spring, "while the cost of the project is high, the cost of doing nothing is even higher." Leadership is needed now to ensure the future economic vitality of both states and the communities along the Columbia River.

Brunell on Bridging the Columbia

Today's Columbian carries AWB president Don Brunell's column, a timely reminder of the importance of the I-5 bridge connecting Washington with Oregon.

Currently, we have two sets of bridges spanning the Columbia River on I-5 and I-205 — that’s it. ... they will eventually have to be upgraded, rebuilt and replaced.

...Capacity is an issue as more people and cargo cross the I-5 Bridge. The side-by-side spans, with three lanes in each direction, are the only remaining drawbridges on I-5. Periodically, they have to close when tugs, barges and large pleasure craft need to pass. So, the I-5 bridge complex itself causes traffic delays. Fortunately, that is not the case on I-205.

As Brunell points out, the Portland-Vancouver metro areas has experienced tremendous population growth, with more expected. Failing to provide for increased capacity has clear competitiveness consequences.

Columbia River Crossing (CRC) ... estimates that five major sectors of the Northwest economy are impacted by the I-5 Bridge: Wood products; transportation equipment and steel; agriculture and food products; high tech; and distribution and wholesale. These industries make up 30 percent of the region’s economy but account for 70 percent of the freight tonnage.

AWB has been working with its Oregon counterpart to advocate for the CRC project.

2008 AWB Session Review and Voting Record

We've just posted the 2008 Legislative Review and Voting Record to our website. AWB members will soon receive them with the May/June issue of Washington Business, which is in the mail now. Take a minute to review how your legislators voted on business issues in 2007 and 2008.

In the Senate, Republican Senators Jim Honeyford and Linda Parlette scored 100 percent in 2008.

Top ranking House members with 2008 scores of 96 percent were Republican Representatives Larry Crouse, Joel Kretz and Lynn Schindler.

Gov. Chris Gregoire received a 2008 score of 29 percent.

Economic Stimulus Through Public Works Spending

Carter Wood at the National Association of Manufacturer's ShopFloor blog looks at Governor Gregoire's Seattle Rotary Club speech yesterday calling for increased spending on public works as a form of economic stimulus.   

His verdict?  Deja vu.

Olympia Business Review - Episode One: 2008 Legislative Preview

Since it is the first day of session we thought it would be great to launch our new podcast, Olympia Business Review. With this podcast, we will be talking to AWB staff, members and public officials about anything and everything that affects our states economic climate. The world of business and politics is our oyster.

In this first episode, Dan sits down with Gary Chandler (AWB Vice President of Governmental Affairs) and Richard Davis (AWB Vice President of Communication) to discuss some of the issues facing business in the 2008 legislative session.

Issues covered: Budget, Property Taxes, Family Leave, Climate Change, Transportation, Health Care, and the so-called "worker privacy act."

To open in a new page, click here.

Secretary of State Has Eyman's Number (for the transportation initiative)

Tim Eyman just emailed me (and thousands of others).

ReduceCongestion.org, the Reduce Traffic Congestion Initiative, was assigned initiative number 984 today (so much for the conspiracy theory that we keep filing initiatives until we get a 'cool' number).

I'm sure someone could make something of I-984 calling to mind '1984,'  and initiative backers of all stripes have resorted to "newspeak,"  but ... I'll pass.

Eyman has improved the initiative - the newspeak temptation is hard to resist. Here's how he describes it.

we've made three excellent improvements:

1)  Better accountability:  ReduceCongestion.org now empowers the State Auditor to identify and establish performance benchmarks using best practices to optimize traffic light synchronization and emergency roadside assistance that state and local governments will be measured on.  The State Auditor's office will track and monitor and regularly report to the public on the progress on these and other relevant issues.  Sonntag is also tasked with tracking and monitoring the revenues into and expenditures out of the "Reduce Traffic Congestion Account" and reporting to the public regularly to ensure greater transparency, accountability, and compliance.

2)  Better funding:  the extremely positive feedback from supporters and elected officials to our measure's increase in revenue for transportation has inspired us to bump the percentage of dedicated vehicle sales tax revenues from 10% to 15% to further reduce traffic congestion.

3)  Better taxpayer protection:  there's been talk of simply charging people extra just to drive on existing highways, freeways, roads, and streets, including adding Global Positioning System (GPS) devices or transponders to vehicles or other methods.  If citizens are double-taxed, then any tolls or charges will be dedicated and deposited in the "Reduce Traffic Congestion Account."

I reckon we'll hear more later.

MORE  The Spokesman-Review doesn't think much of it.

New Year, New Initiative

And that's the last "new x, new y" theme I'll use.

Chris Mulick reports on Tim Eyman's latest transportation initiative.

Tim Eyman plans to push an initiative this year that once again will focus on spending more of the state's transportation dollars on congestion relief....

Eyman said the measure:

"* Opens carpool lanes to everyone during non-peak hours (midday and evenings on weekdays and all day and all night on weekends -- peak hours defined as Mon-Fri 6-9 am, 3-6 pm) -- which reduces traffic congestion and increases traffic flow;

* Requires cities and counties to synchronize traffic lights on heavily-traveled arterials -- which reduces traffic congestion and increases traffic flow; and

* Increases funding for emergency roadside assistance (to clear out accidents faster) -- which reduces traffic congestion and increases traffic flow."

I'm on Eyman's email list as well (not that I'm suggesting it's a small and exclusive club). Here's more from his morning missive.

ReduceCongestion.org, the official campaign name (C1PC will be filed with the Public Disclosure Commission this week) for the Reduce Traffic Congestion Initiative, will be filed with the Secretary of State's office in the Capitol Dome in Olympia at 10 am, January 14th, the first day of the 2008 legislative session and the first day initiatives to the people can be filed.  Petitions for ReduceCongestion.org will be sent out to everyone in mid-February.  We'll then have until early July to raise the funds and gather the 224,880 voter signatures to qualify ReduceCongestion.org for the November 10th, 2008 ballot.

And they're off.

UPDATE No need to wait for the 14th. This just in from Eyman.

It turns out that unlike previous years, the first day to file initiatives to the people is DIFFERENT than the first day of the legislative session.  So day after tomorrow -- Friday, January 4th -- at 11 am (NOT 10 am as indicated below), Jack, Mike, and I will be filing our 2008 initiative described below.  It'll be at the Secretary of State's office in the Capitol Dome in Olympia.

And Joe Turner at The News Tribune has this on the initiative.

Here's the poison pill that will align almost all of officialdom against Eyman: He wants to divert existing state sales tax into a special anti-congestion account.

That, of course, means money that now goes to public schools and welfare moms and prison operations would be used to pay for traffic stuff. Most legislators and governors don't like that.

Establishment opposition hasn't hurt Eyman much in the past, though.

Roads & Transit

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.

100th Anniversary of UPS Celebrated in Brunell Column

Don's column in the Columbian celebrates another of Washington's entrepreneurial pioneers, Jim Casey, a founder of United Parcel Service.

Here's Don:

Most people don't realize Jim Casey started what is now the Microsoft of package shipping, United Parcel Service, a 100-y ear-old company employing 427,000 workers in more than 200 countries worldwide.

Casey was just 19 years old in 1907 when he partnered with Claude Ryan and borrowed $100 to start a delivery company headquartered in Seattle's Pioneer Square.

Over the next century, UPS transformed the way the world does business,

he company that made "Brown" a household word is now a $42.6-­billion business with its iconic brown delivery trucks and drivers clad in brown uniforms.

By going head-to-head with postal services around the world, UPS forced those government monopolies to be competitive. Many were heavily subsidized by taxpayers, and the United States was no different. Our Congress had committees in both houses that oversaw postal operations and often propped up the postal service with government subsidies. The mail delivery system was inefficient, and many were convinced there was no profit in delivering packages and letters.

UPS proved that when there is competition, innovation flourishes and money could be made.

It's a good column and a timely reminder of the power of entrepreneurial vision realized in a free market system.

Tolls for 520 Bridge - And a Whole Lot More

The U.S. Department of Transportation wants the state to put tolls on the SR-520 bridge. Here's USDOT's short press release naming Seattle and four other cities as grant recipients. Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters makes her thinking clear.

“Many politicians treat tolls and congestion pricing as taboo, but leaders in these communities understand that commuters want solutions that work,” Secretary Peters said.

Tolls, never popular, are nonetheless inevitable. That's the focus of my column today.

The Seattle PI has a good roundup of state-regional responses to USDOT's announcement. Everyone seems delighted. Of course, we may see more of this.