Area scores on transportation projects

Published 11:52 am Friday, February 22, 2008

EDMONDS – While the outcome for education and other aspects of the state budget remains to be seen, South Snohomish County can’t complain about the money it will get from transportation projects.

“We have most of our projects well covered,” said state Sen. Paull Shin, D-Mukilteo, of the local bounty from the 5-cents-a-gallon increase in the gas tax approved April 27 by the state Legislature.

“I think overall the county did really well on transportation,” said state Rep. Mike Cooper, D-Edmonds.

The package includes money for the proposed Edmonds Crossing multimodal transit terminal, for Everett-Seattle commuter rail and the Interstate 5-196th Street SW interchange project in Lynnwood (see related story) among other projects.

The plan was forged in a compromise between the Republican-led Senate and Democrat-controlled House of Representatives. The Senate had wanted a higher percentage to be spent on road projects as opposed to transit. The House had wanted a lower tax increase, of 4 cents per gallon, and more spent on transit, according to Cooper. The Senate agreed to double its transit appropriation, to $600 million, and the House agreed to the extra cent tax increase, Cooper said.

The measure also includes a significant amount for rural roads, he said.

Cooper said he wouldn’t have minded a little higher tax increase – the 9-cents-per-gallon increase proposed in last year’s failed Referendum 51 had been called only the beginning of an address to the state’s transportation needs. But “I think it’s a very well balanced, very good package,” said Cooper, a member of the House Transportation Committee.

Funds from the gas tax increase – the first hike in 12 years – will be collected starting July 1. The funds will raise $4.2 billion over 10 years, of which $3.4 billion will go to Snohomish, King and Pierce counties. The tax will cost the average driver about $30 extra at the pump per year.

Mukilteo-based anti-tax activist Tim Eyman has said he will try to challenge the Legislature’s tax increase with a new initiative, although it’s unclear whether he will be able to collect the 200,000 signatures needed by the July 3 deadline.

Cooper hopes voters are willing to support the Legislature’s bid to tackle transportation problems.

“My hope is that people will recognize the need and won’t sign the petition, or, if it does get on the ballot, they won’t vote for it,” he said.

“We don’t have the money to do it any other way. If he does get it on the ballot, and (voters) approve it, I guess that says people don’t want road improvements.”

Cooper said he believes Snohomish County voters will support the measure because it will relieve traffic congestion where the county needs it most.

“We’ve got these large projects that are going to make an immediate change as far as traffic flow,” he said. “The projects that we are getting are really going to help the overall congestion problems that we’re dealing with.”

Herald writer Lukas Velush contributed to this story.