EVERETT — City, county and state leaders on Thursday provided Congressman Rick Larsen with a few transportation challenges they’d like the federal government’s help in overcoming.
In a 75-minute gathering, they solicited the Everett Democrat’s help in steering additional federal aid into the county for such items as new rail crossings, a new or reconstructed westbound trestle on U.S. 2, and expansion of bus and light rail service.
They also cited a need for clearer guidance on how the federal government will approach regulating self-driving vehicles and use of financing alternatives to the gas tax, such as a road usage charge getting studied in this state.
Most of all, participants wanted Larsen to know how much they wanted the federal government to once again be a major provider of funds for the basic responsibility of building, maintaining and preserving the county’s and the state’s transportation system.
Steve Thomsen, the Snohomish County public works director, provided the congressman a map of major bus and rail projects planned in the county and noted the region’s taxpayers are shouldering much of the costs.
“We’re building our local streets and we’re helping build out the regional system,” he said. “We really need federal dollars.”
Sen. Steve Hobbs, D-Lake Stevens, who is chairman of the state Senate Transportation Committee, said lawmakers passed a $16 billion transportation package in 2015 to tackle some of Washington’s biggest needs, including fixes on federal highways.
It still didn’t include money for the trestle which could be a $1 billion undertaking, he said.
“Rest assured, the state understands it will have to carry the burden” of funding, he said. “Any help we can get would be great.”
Thursday’s roundtable was the third of four Larsen is holding this week in the 2nd Congressional District.
It drew two dozen officials including the mayors of Marysville, Mukilteo, Arlington, and Stanwood, along with representatives of Community Transit, Everett Transit, Snohomish County and the cities of Everett, Mountlake Terrace, Edmonds and Lynnwood. Economic Alliance Snohomish County hosted the confab.
Larsen, a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, opened the conversation with a recap of substantive transportation-related components of the $1.3 trillion spending bill passed by Congress last month.
One key provision preserves a grant program Sound Transit is counting on to cover nearly 40 percent of the cost of extending light rail service to Mountlake Terrace and Lynnwood by 2024.
It provides funding for the Federal Transit Administration’s Capital Investment Grant program from which Sound Transit wants to obtain $1.17 billion for the Lynnwood Link Extension. The total cost of the extension project is now estimated at $2.7 billion.
The regional transit authority was allotted $100 million in 2017 but cannot access those dollars until securing an agreement with the transit administration for the entire amount. Sound Transit Chief Executive Officer Peter Rogoff has said he hopes to get a signed deal by this summer.
Larsen, who planned to tour the light rail station under construction at Northgate on Thursday afternoon, said members of the state’s congressional delegation are “really pressing the administration to complete the agreement.”
On the chief concern of increasing federal transportation spending, Larsen said Congress is looking at the federal gas tax, which has gone unchanged since 1993. While Larsen is on record supporting a bill to phase-in a 15-cent increase in the tax, the Republican-led Congress is not expected to consider the subject until next year at the earliest.
Another issue raised Thursday is the need in Marysville and Edmonds for new rail crossings either under or over the train tracks that traverse key travel corridors in each community.
Larsen said he introduced legislation a few years back specifically to fund grade separation projects. He said Thursday he will reintroduce it in 2019 because “it makes sense to identify strategic chokepoints” that can be unclogged.
After Thursday’s roundtable, Larsen lauded the civic leaders’ unity on the region’s most pressing needs.
“That’s good news for taxpayers,” he said. “It means the competition for those scarce dollars is over because everybody’s agreed on the priorities. And that makes it a lot easier for me to make the case in Washington.”
Jerry Cornfield: 360-352-8623; jcornfield @herald net.com. Twitter: @dospueblos.
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