Getting around can’t be made any harder

I rarely write about political issues in this column, but Initiative 912 is different.

The initiative, which will appear on the November ballot, would eliminate the 9.5-cent gas tax increase imposed by the Legislature earlier this year.

Transportation is a huge business issue. More importantly, it’s a significant personal pocketbook issue and, at least for me, a mental health issue.

Let’s look at the pocketbook first.

According to the state Department of Transportation, the average cost of a vehicle is $8,088 a year. Payments total $4,795, insurance averages $1,195, and maintenance costs $780.

Gasoline, in 2004 before the taxes were applied and before gasoline prices went through the roof, was $1,009. People paid about $169 in gas taxes, with $126 going to the state for roadwork.

Those costs have risen dramatically as hurricanesravage some of the U.S. production facilities. And the state gas tax will also continue to rise if I-912 fails. The tax, which rose 3 cents to 31 cents a gallon in July, will rise incrementally until the full 9.5-cent hike is imposed in 2008.

State officials say that because of the increase, people who drive 12,000 miles a year in a car that gets 20 miles per gallon will pay $18 in additional gas taxes this year, $36 next year, $48 in 2007 and $57 and 2008.

So there’s the pocketbook issue.

Now for some of the politics.

In a Friday forum on the initiative, Steve Neighbors, an Everett business owner who is active in the Everett Area Chamber of Commerce and also serves as chairman of the Snohomish County Republican Party, argued for its approval.

He said the tax bill approved by the Legislature didn’t list the specific projects that would get money, so things like the Alaska Way Viaduct replacement in Seattle could use up huge amounts of the gas tax proceeds.

He also said fixing choke points is fine, but he wanted to see more projects that simply add general use lanes to our highway system.

In listening to Neighbors talk at the forum, sponsored by the Greater Marysville Tulalip Chamber of Commerce, it was pretty clear that he didn’t trust state government to pick the right projects and to spend the money wisely.

“We don’t believe they will spend responsibly,” he said. “We’ve seen things like sound walls being built. There’s a growing sense that the money raised will not be spent in the most effective way.”

Reid Shockey, also an Everett business owner active in the local chamber and chairman of the Snohomish County Committee for Improved Transportation, said the projects may not be listed in the bill, but they’re spelled out by the Department of Transportation.

He handed out a pamphlet listing $133 million for Highway 9 from Woodinville to Arlington, $121.5 million for I-5 in the Lynnwood, Everett, Marysville and Smokey Point areas, $45 million for I-405, $51.3 million for Highway 532 to Camano Island, $46 million to replace bridges in Stanwood and Marysville, and a lot of smaller projects on roads throughout the county.

Shockey, who noted that noise walls are required by the federal government for the state to receive federal highway funds, said the work will improve traffic significantly.

“If you travel through Everett as business people or try to shift goods through the I-5 corridor, you simply have to be frustrated,” he said. “Every day we send 100,000 people across the King and Snohomish County line to get to work. They’re sitting in traffic a long time.”

We need to get to work now to ease those bottlenecks, he said.

“Let’s get some pavement on the road now using the gas tax,” he added. “It will never get cheaper.”

The ability to move people and goods through the area is an important business issue.

As mentioned above, it will hit all of our pockets. I won’t try to tell people how to vote. It’s up to you to determine if you can afford the new tax and believe that you’ll get something back that will make your life better.

I will say how I’m going to vote, which is no.

I get so angry in traffic sometimes that I’m afraid I’ll lose it at some point and do something really stupid. So I’m willing to pay extra taxes to try to improve things on the roadways, or at least keep them from getting worse.

Mike Benbow: 425-339-3459; benbow@heraldnet.com.