Gas tax up to swing counties

Associated Press

OLYMPIA — Backers of transportation taxes on the November ballot say a handful of Puget Sound counties will decide the outcome.

At stake is a $7.7 billion package of road and transit improvements that would be paid for, in part, with a 9-cent increase in the state’s 23-cent-a-gallon gasoline tax. The package also includes a 1 percent sales-tax surcharge on motor vehicles and weight-fee increases of 30 percent for heavy trucks.

On the ballot, they’ll be Referendum 51.

The gas-tax increase, which can be spent only on road and vehicle ferry projects, would be phased in over three years. The sales-tax surcharge and weight-fee increases could be used for mass transit projects.

Polls indicate narrow support for the gas-tax package in Seattle, but voters statewide are split.

"Fifty-two percent to 48 percent is a landslide if this thing passes," Don Brunell, president of the 3,700-member Association of Washington Business, told The Olympian for a story in Friday’s paper.

Several business, labor and other groups are trying to raise money to push the measure, which they think is critical to keeping Boeing factories in the state and otherwise maintaining Washington’s economic health.

But the gas-tax increase would cost the average household $68 a year, according to the Washington Alliance for a Competitive Economy. And that makes people ambivalent, even in counties that would benefit from the package.

Detra Alex, a Rochester mother of three who travels several times a day to visit a dying relative in Tumwater, said gas is already too expensive.

"We’re having trouble living as it is," Alex said.

Others, like Bob Gore, deputy director of a state agency, believe voters need to bite the bullet for the sake of the state’s overall economy.

"We’re almost in a death spiral if we don’t do something about it," Gore said.

A recent survey of Association of Washington Business members showed the most support for a tax increase is in the Seattle area, where traffic problems are the worst.

Opinions were more evenly divided for surrounding areas, including such congested spots as Snohomish, Pierce and Kitsap counties, and border areas, such as Thurston County. Those swing areas will be key to winning the campaign, Brunell said.

In Eastern Washington, where people drive longer distances and suffer fewer traffic problems, Brunell hopes to win support from growers who use Puget Sound highways to get crops to market.

The campaign will also focus on $100 million worth of statewide highway safety improvements the new taxes would pay for.

"The first thing you do is get people not to vote against it," Brunell said.

The Association of Washington Business’ split on the issue reflects recent voter polling.

Pollster Stuart Elway found 52 percent of 405 registered voters surveyed in mid-March supported the tax package. The poll, which had a sampling error of plus or minus 5 percentage points, found a 67 percent level of support in King, Snohomish and Pierce counties, but 55 percent opposition elsewhere in the state.

Persuading people to raise taxes costs money, and Brunell worries supporters won’t be able to raise the $6 million that could be needed for a big television ad campaign.

That could force supporters to rely on a grass-roots campaign including business leaders in every community.

Campaign co-chairmen Gov. Gary Locke and Republican Slade Gorton, a former U.S. senator, are already stumping for the plan across the state.

Tracy Newman, the Referendum 51 fund-raiser, said the campaign has received preliminary contributions from business and labor groups, but she said she expects far more significant contributions later this month.

Copyright ©2002 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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