Snohomish County’s leaders have a twisting path ahead as they try to navigate the county’s long-term road-building needs — and how to pay for the necessary work.

It’s an issue County Councilman Dave Gossett wants to start discussing now, so he and others can weigh some politically unpopular

choices.

Not all county leaders agree about the extent of the problem. But to Gossett, there are three obvious choices: impose an extra $20 fee on car tabs, further limit development in rural areas or let county arterials grow more congested. He’s trying to get the conversation going at a public meeting this week.

“We need to figure out what we’re going to do,” Gossett said. “I think the citizens of this county deserve to have a better idea of how we’re going to address these problems. To say, ‘We’ll tell you in four years,’ is not adequate.”

The number that has him worried: $263 million.

That’s the amount of new money the county would need to have for all of the roads that planners have said need to be built through 2025. It’s about two-thirds of the estimated $400 million for all road projects on the list.

Without changes, quite a few projects could fall by the wayside. That’s especially true for projects such as widening roads and improving intersections in fast-growing areas bordering Snohomish, Lynnwood and Bothell.

“Unless something drastically changes, at least two-thirds of these won’t be done,” Gossett said. “This is not something that’s been caused by the economy. We had these deficiencies long before the economy tanked.”

The County Council considered the issue serious enough to attach a formal note to the 2011 budget this past fall, asking County Executive Aaron Readon’s office to recommend solutions.

Viewed from another angle, however, things aren’t quite so dire.

All county-maintained arterials are able to handle current traffic volumes. Moreover, traffic planners don’t foresee any problems arising on these roads for at least another six years.

“By using low-cost bonds, operational improvements and other fast-tracking efforts, we have no roadways operating below adopted levels of service despite tight funding for transportation,” Deputy Executive Gary Haakenson said.

The executive’s office plans to look carefully at what roads are needed and how to pay for them.

“We all recognize the benefit of regional and local transportation projects, but ultimately it comes down to how much taxpayers are willing to support,” Haakenson said.

In its written response to the County Council, the executive’s office noted that development has fallen off steeply since the most recent 20-year roads update in 2005: “We have experienced a significant downturn in the economy and our assumptions for growth appear to be aggressive.”

In other words, the county might not need all of the roads on the list.

Reardon’s staff said they expected to take a close look at what the county’s roads need over the next three to four years, during the course of legally required planning updates.

That response left Gossett unsatisfied. He believes it dodges pressing issues, and merely pushes politically difficult decisions into the future.

The economic slowdown, he said, only shaved off about 7 percent, at most, from the more than 200,000 new residents the county is projected to add by 2025.

Of the possible funding solutions, one of the most talked about has been imposing an additional $20 car-tab fee in unincorporated areas. The cities of Edmonds and Lynnwood already have such a fee.

To do that, the county would need to form a transportation benefit district — a special taxing area governed by the County Council. A public discussion about that option has been ongoing since November. A County Council hearing for a possible vote is scheduled July 13.

A car-tab fee wouldn’t come close to solving the funding shortfall, Gossett cautioned. It would allow the county to finish about 10 percent of its projects a few years earlier.

Another suggestion is to have people use a variety of transportation, including buses. There’s a wrinkle though; mass-transit agencies are having their own funding problems because of a loss of sales tax revenue. Community Transit has lopped off Sunday bus service and expects to cut more routes next year to balance its budget.

Tuesday morning, Gossett has planned the first of three transportation discussions during the council’s regular public works committee meeting. To the first, he’s invited representatives from CT, Everett Transit and Sound Transit. Meetings in the coming months likely will include businesses, unions and others.

Noah Haglund: 425-339-3465; nhaglund@heraldnet.com.

Transportation meeting

Snohomish County Councilman Dave Gossett has invited Sound Transit, Community Transit and Everett Transit representatives to the county Tuesday discuss the region’s long-term transportation needs.

It’s part of a regular public works meeting scheduled at 9 a.m. in the County Council chambers on the eighth floor of the Robert Drewel building, 3000 Rockefeller Ave., Everett.