Let voters drive decision

It is widely accepted by state lawmakers that Washington's transportation system is in serious financial trouble. Yet a majority of them apparently remain unwilling to do anything meaningful about it.

A 10-year, $3.6 billion proposal by Gov. Chris Gregoire has been stripped in the Senate of its main funding source: a $1.50 fee on each barrel of petroleum refined in Washington. The governor's plan was only a down payment on the $21 billion a task force of public- and private-sector leaders says is needed over the next decade to support the economy, protect jobs and create new ones.

Asked what she plans to do about it, a clearly frustrated Gregoire said Friday, "It's not about what am I going to do. It's about what are (lawmakers) going to do."

Here's an option: With the governor's plan to ask voters for a three-year, half-penny increase in the sales tax this spring all but dead, put a transportation-funding package before voters in November -- one that not only addresses highway projects, operations and maintenance, but the severe underfunding of local transit and the ferry system.

Conventional wisdom in Olympia has been that such a proposal wasn't possible this year, because it would be impossible to get voters to approve two tax measures. Since they probably won't be asked to raise the sales tax to buy back a portion of pending budget cuts, that barrier doesn't apply.

To lawmakers who fear rejection of a transportation package: Voters might surprise you. They did in 2005, when they soundly rejected an initiative to repeal a 9.5-cent increase in the gas tax that paid for a variety of major projects.

A strong advertising campaign would have to back a ballot measure, requiring strong support from business, labor, environmental groups and others. It would likely need to be heavily weighted toward a gas tax, which buys less than it used to because it doesn't increase with inflation and because people are driving more fuel-efficient vehicles.

But it's not a certain loser. Historically, voters have been supportive of funding transit, which has taken severe hits in recent years because of its dependence on dwindling sales tax revenue. Community Transit will have cut service by a devastating 37 percent in the past 20 months when another round of cuts goes into effect next week.

Ferries, which have been subsidized out of highway funds for years, stand to undergo severe service cuts, too, including the elimination of some routes.

Inaction on transportation is too great a risk to the state's long-term prosperity. Lawmakers should put a fall transportation vote on the table.