EVERETT — Ten months ago, Gov. Jay Inslee asked community leaders at a meeting in Arlington for help persuading lawmakers to pass a multibillion-dollar road package.
On Wednesday, Inslee stood in front of many of the same civic leaders at the Everett Station to celebrate the fruits of their efforts: a plan to spend $16.1 billion on the state’s transportation system in the next 16 years, including $664 million on projects in Snohomish County.
“We have delivered big time for Snohomish County I hope you will enjoy your success,” he proclaimed before helping unveil foam-core replicas of signs that will go up at projects in Everett, Arlington and Lake Stevens and at future Community Transit bus stops.
“What we’re doing here in Snohomish County is really a microcosm for what we’re doing for the state,” he said.
The package approved in July will expend billions to maintain existing highways, construct state and local road projects, build a new state ferry and expand the availability of buses, bike paths and sidewalks.
To pay for it, the state’s gas tax rose 7 cents in August and will climb another 4.9 cents in July. Vehicle owners will also face higher registration fees.
In Snohomish County, there’s money earmarked for a new bridge on Highway 9 over the Snohomish River, safety projects on U.S. 2 between Snohomish and Skykomish, and a new freeway interchange on I-5 at the south end of Marysville.
Those signs Inslee brought with him are for projects to redo the intersection of Highway 9 and Highway 204 in Lake Stevens, to add a second bus rapid transit line, to improve a stretch of Rucker Avenue for truck traffic and to widen Highway 531 near the Arlington Airport.
Inslee on Wednesday didn’t mention that most of the projects that made the final cut didn’t make it into the road package he proposed last December. That plan spent $12 billion in 12 years with a scant $82.8 million for Snohomish County.
Many of the civic leaders applauding the governor Wednesday weren’t so happy then though they weren’t about to remind him.
Only Sen. Steve Hobbs, D-Lake Stevens, indirectly referenced that history in comments to the crowd. Hobbs serves on the Senate Transportation Committee and took part in the final negotiations along with Sen. Marko Liias, D-Lynnwood.
King County and Pierce County routinely get their transportation dollars but Snohomish County is overlooked, Hobbs said. Without pressure from civic leaders, business owners and workers, the outcome would have been much different, he told them.
“It was a struggle throughout. Projects were not in there, they were in there, then not in there,” he said.
The project on Highway 531 is such an example. It almost got cut when it became clear the three state lawmakers representing the city opposed the package. The mayors of Arlington and Marysville — who showed up Wednesday — helped prevent that with their lobbying.
“Everything that happens in the Legislature ends up being a negotiation, especially a package this huge,” Arlington Mayor Barb Tolbert said. “This was a priority for safety, a priority for congestion relief and a priority for economic development.”
Funding for the project, however, won’t become available until 2019 at the earliest.
“Like every other project in there, I have great expectations of trying to move it up in the queue,” she said.
Jerry Cornfield: 360-352-8623; jcornfield@heraldnet.com
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