Allow us to start from this premise: The Washington Legislature must pass a transportation package next year. By allowing the past two years to come and go without providing major transportation funding, lawmakers have watched the state’s roads and bridges slip into further disrepair, further decay, further obsolescence. According to Gov. Jay Inslee, if a transportation package is not passed next year, the state will face a 52 percent drop in its maintenance budget, and 71 bridges will become structurally deficient.
So, we start with a premise we believe most Washington residents can agree upon — the need for attention to infrastructure. And that likely is the last portion of the transportation issue upon which consensus can be found.
Inslee has proposed a $12 billion package that would be funded with bonds, fees, and a carbon tax on the state’s industrial polluters. “Transportation pollution paying for transportation solutions,” he said. “It’s not our children’s lungs that should be burned. It should be polluters. It’s a pretty elegant solution for the state of Washington.” And an innovative one, as well. Inslee has proposed eschewing the traditional gas tax in favor of a charge on polluters — particularly the oil and gas industry. The alternative to the carbon tax, conventional wisdom says, would be a gas tax increase of 15 cents per gallon.
Inslee acknowledges that polluting companies likely would forward the increased costs along to their customers. Consumers might not be paying the tax at the gas pump, but they would feel the pinch elsewhere in the supply chain. A carbon tax, however, would create incentives for companies to reduce their emissions.
That being said, the source of the funding might be of secondary importance to Southwest Washington. Of greater concern is just where that money would go. Inslee’s $12 billion proposal includes no projects in Clark County, despite the fact that the area contains more than 6 percent of the state’s population and is home to the most integral transportation corridor on the West Coast — Interstate 5. The governor’s plan does, however, include $650 million for projects not yet identified.
That places pressure directly upon state Sen. Don Benton, R-Vancouver, and Sen. Ann Rivers, R-La Center — both of whom were instrumental in killing the Columbia River Crossing proposal in the 2013 Legislature. Inslee said: “I’m the guy who tried to spend $1 billion in your community, and you wouldn’t take it.” While there were some good reasons for opposing the CRC, the opposition drove jobs, money, and infrastructure away from Clark County. If local residents end up paying their share of a statewide transportation package, it is incumbent upon Benton and Rivers to ensure that some of those funds are returned to the region in the form of much-needed projects. As former Texas Congressman Sam Rayburn once said: “A jackass can kick a barn down, but it takes a carpenter to build one.”
Any transportation package should be accompanied by reforms and by increased accountability for the Washington State Department of Transportation. As demonstrated by delays and cost overruns with two Seattle megaprojects — the state Highway 520 bridge and the Alaskan Way Viaduct tunnel — WSDOT has not been an effective or efficient steward of the public’s money. Provided that such accountability is improved, it is important for the future welfare of the state that lawmakers provide funding for transportation projects. That much, we hope, they all can agree on.