It is time to start moving ahead on transportation issues so I would like to kick out a couple of ideas.
This is a great time to reset the Columbia River matter, by splitting off light rail that has federal funding and make it a tunneling project from the current Portland Expo terminus to as far north on the Interstate 5 corridor as we can get, yet land at an existing transit center. We cut down on I-5 traffic, dodge a lot of issues, plus save mitigation expenses by doing this. Only build the access points between the Expo and the northern terminus that people want when they want them. The design would allow for those to be added later rather than it being a forced issue now that upsets neighborhoods. Construction business and jobs now.
Let’s drop the state gas tax. This is archaic and erratic as a transportation-funding mechanism. We electric vehicle owners pay a $100-a-year fee every year in lieu of the gas tax. Why not expand that general idea to all vehicle registrations? A flat fee would benefit high-mileage Eastern Washington drivers as well as work to fund the higher-cost transportation projects in Western Washington. It would also create more business for our Washington service stations as folks traveling through would fill up here.
Let’s have your ideas.
Pat Campbell
Vancouver
