Gorton stumping for new road taxes

By David Ammons

Associated Press

RICHLAND — Former U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton, who was known for an aversion to new taxes while in office, is out asking state residents to swallow hard and vote this fall for higher taxes — in this case, for transportation.

Gorton, a former three-term senator, state attorney general and legislative leader, has joined Democratic Gov. Gary Locke in an unusual alliance to press for voter approval of Referendum 51 in November, just one year after losing his Senate seat to Democrat Maria Cantwell by less than 2,500 votes.

R-51 would provide $7.7 billion for state and local highways, mass transit and ferries. It includes a gas-tax hike of 9 cents a gallon, higher trucking fees and a 1 percent surtax on car sales.

On Saturday, Gorton brought the $4 million state roads campaign to Eastern Washington, where he rolled up his most impressive numbers in his eight statewide campaigns. Earlier in the week, he was in Bellingham, Everett and Tacoma.

Gorton said fiscal conservatives should distinguish between taxes to make government bigger and user fees that directly fix an infrastructure problem.

"This is roads, not government," he said in an interview.

Gorton said he came out of political retirement because he considers the transportation vote critical.

"The future of the state, in terms of its economic vitality, the safety of its highways and the lifestyle we live, depends on our willingness to make the investments we’ve ignored over the years," he told an Eastern Washington group.

He said he hopes the state GOP, which has previously embraced anti-tax measures, will at least stay neutral on Referendum 51, and that the party’s moderate wing will endorse it and make it a project for this year.

Gorton said he isn’t trying to roll up a border-to-border victory, but rather to hold down the opposition so supporters in central Puget Sound can carry the day.

"If it has 15 percent support over here, and I can raise it to 30 percent, metropolitan Puget Sound can put it over the top," he said.

Gorton said he’ll appeal to "narrow self-interest," as well as a more noble impulse to help a region strangling in traffic congestion.

Historically, counties outside central Puget Sound have gotten more back in road projects than they have sent to Olympia in gas taxes, he said.

The new plan has something for all parts of the state, but concentrates on the worst congestion — and most of that is in central Puget Sound.

"We are one single state community, and we do need help now in Puget Sound," Gorton said.

Independent pollster Stuart Elway said his latest statewide survey of 400 registered voters, taken by telephone last month, shows the measure is supported by 52 percent and opposed by 46 percent. The margin of error is 5 percentage points, which means a dead heat.

The poll shows the measure passing in King County, but nowhere else. Seventy percent of all yes votes were from King, Pierce and Snohomish counties, Elway said.

Former state Transportation Secretary Sid Morrison, who represented Eastern Washington in Congress for 12 years, conceded the gas tax is a tough sell. But he said Gorton has credibility in that part of the state, where voters might not listen to a tax-and-spend Democrat.

Farmers, business people and the tourism and wine industries will be key to the success in the region, Morrison said. "A trade-dependent state has to get its products to market," he said in an interview.

However, retired Boy Scout executive Phil Robins of Richland told Gorton, "People over here in Eastern Washington are generally madder than hell and think, ‘Hell no, I won’t vote for this thing.’ A 9-cent gas tax doesn’t have a prayer in Eastern Washington."