Everett, Wash.
Published: Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Roads and rails a 'no' go

Supporters of tax plan say they'll regroup

By Jerry Cornfield, Herald Writer

 SEATTLE -- The Puget Sound's largest-ever road and light rail tax package was headed to a crashing defeat Tuesday, dealing a major blow to political leaders' efforts to ease traffic problems in the region.

Early returns showed Proposition 1 losing by wide margins in Snohomish, King and Pierce counties, The two-part measure proposed $17.8 billion worth of bridge, light rail and transit projects in the three counties to be paid for with increases in the sales tax and vehicle tab fees.

Sound Transit and the Regional Transportation Investment District developed the joint package of road and transit improvements.

Its rejection left legislators unsure of their next step.

"What now? You're going to get up and be stuck in traffic," Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg told more than 150 supporters gathered for an election night party at the Westin Hotel in Seattle.

"Perhaps it was too big. Perhaps people didn't see the vision," he said. "We cannot accept this. We have to regroup."

Kevin Weed of Snohomish, president of Perteet Engineering, was one of its leading supporters in Snohomish County. He couldn't hide his disappointment inside the Westin. "The problem of congestion doesn't go away," he said. "Collectively, we have to come up with a solution."

Leaders of the two major opposition campaigns claimed their separate messages carried the day.

"It's a huge defeat," said Mark Baerwaldt, who formed and helped finance NoToProp1.org. "Our message resonated with the voters that it cost too much, it did too little and took too long."

Sierra Club leader Mike O'Brien said the results are a ringing endorsement of the harm the package would have caused the environment.

"For the first time in this country we saw a local ballot measure was decided by a concern for the issue of global warming," he said. "Obviously not everybody on the 'No' side was voting on the issue but a large number did."

For Proposition 1 to pass, a majority of voters in Sound Transit and the Regional Transportation Investment District had to approve the measure. It was succeeding in neither.

By 10:30 p.m. Tuesday, the Sound Transit measure trailed 56.1 percent to 43.9 percent in the three counties. In Snohomish County, it was failing by a margin of 55.1 percent to 44.9 percent.

Within the transportation district borders, voters were turning down Proposition 1 by 56.5 percent to 43.5 percent. In Snohomish County, the margin was slightly greater at 57.1 percent to 42.8 percent.

One of the causes of the defeat may have been the decision by state legislators to compel the transit and road improvements be put into a single ballot measure.

Historically, proponents of roads fought measures pushing light rail and vise versa.

State legislators hoped their action would neutralize those forces.

"The Legislature married the RTID and Sound Transit together in hopes it would give everybody something to love," said state Rep. Geoff Simpson, D-Covington. "Instead it appears it gave everybody something to hate."

These results seem to show roads and transit should be handled separately, he said.

The roads portion of Proposition 1 is the product of five years of work by the Regional Transportation Investment District, a board comprised of elected leaders of all three counties.

The proposal called for $7 billion in spending with $1.5 billion earmarked for projects in Snohomish County including work on I-5, U.S. 2 and Highways 9, 522, 524 and 531. Design and construction would have occurred over a 20-year period.

Sound Transit's piece amounted to $10.8 billion, the bulk for extending light rail train service into Snohomish and Pierce counties and east King County.

It would have included $1.45 billion for light rail service along the I-5 corridor to stations in Mountlake Terrace, near the Alderwood mall, in Lynnwood and finally, by 2027, to 164th Street SW and Ash Way in south Everett.

Proponents spent $4 million in a campaign blending television commercials with mailings to homeowners that cited specific projects planned for the community in which they lived.

Opponents spent close to $800,000 in their attack on the measure.
© 2009The Daily Herald Co., Everett, WA